When I leave Mara’s room, I feel better. My lip is throbbing but I hardly feel it. All I can think of is Mara’s skin, her smell, her smile.
It feels so good to be with her, it can’t possibly be wrong. I start walking back toward my place and then pause before turning around and walking the other direction. Before long, I’m outside my brother Ethan’s house.
He opens the door after a couple of knocks.
“What happened to you?” He asks, eyebrows raised as he looks at my lip.
“Aiden,” I respond. Ethan’s eyebrows stay up, but he just nods in response.
“I see.”
He steps aside and I walk into his house. I collapse onto the sofa and Ethan grabs me a beer. I take it and nod in thanks.
“So why did Aiden do that to your face?” He asks, taking a seat in the chair opposite me. “What did you do?”
I take a sip of beer and glance at my little brother. “It’s my fault, is it?”
Ethan grins. “You must have done something.”
“I took a job from the McCoys.”
Ethan’s mouth drops open and he nods slowly. “Ah,” he says. “I see. The renovations.”
“Aiden walked in on Mara and me discussing one of the pieces. He… wasn’t happy to see her.”
“Is ‘discussing one of the pieces’ a euphemism for something? I remember the way she looked at you when we were at the bar a couple of weeks ago.”
I lift an eyebrow and shake my head. “It is not a euphemism,” I answer. But it might as well be.
Ethan chuckles. “Fair enough.”
“I don’t get why he’s so mad at her. She’s actually a really nice person, you know. Did you know that she paid for her schooling on her own? I always thought she got that degree with the money from Dad’s company, but she worked through college and paid it herself. She started her own consulting business online. She’s incredible.”
Ethan takes a sip of beer and narrows his eyes. I can feel my cheeks start to burn as he studies my face, but I keep my eyes steady on his. He nods slowly.
“No, I didn’t know that,” he finally answers.
I take a big gulp of beer and lean back in the sofa. I sigh, looking up at the ceiling.
“I’m sick of this.”
“Sick of what?”
“Sick of all this drama over nothing!” I exclaim.
Ethan makes a noise. “Dad dying is nothing? The McCoys taking advantage of us when he was in the hospital is nothing?”
I look at my little brother and see the same indignation in his face as I saw in Aiden’s. It’s not as strong, but it’s there. Doubt starts to curl deep inside me. What if they’re right to be mad?
“It’s not nothing,” I say. “It’s just… Wouldn’t it be easier to forgive? Mara didn’t do anything wrong. Why do we hate her?”
“We don’t hate her. We just don’t associate with her family.”
I look at Ethan and try to figure out what he’s thinking. His face is stone still and I sigh, shaking my head.
“So you think I deserve this?” I ask, pointing to my lip.
Ethan’s lips start to curl into a grin. He shrugs. “I wouldn’t say that. I wouldn’t say you don’t deserve it, but I wouldn’t say you do.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I can see both sides.”
I snort and shake my head, bringing the beer bottle to my lips again. Ethan has always been great at speaking in riddles. Finally, I put the beer down and look at my brother. I’m practically pleading with my eyes before I start to speak.
“Am I wrong here, Ethan? Should I not have taken this job?”
“Well,” he says, pausing to take a sip. “That depends. It’s a bit hypocritical of Aiden to say that, considering he worked for them for years.”
“That’s what I said!” I exclaim.
Ethan laughs. “And how did that go over?”
“He punched me in the face,” I answer with a grin. Ethan laughs again and shakes his head.
“Look,” he says. “I don’t know what the right thing to do is. Work is work, and you needed the job. Sounds like it’s a big one, so no one can fault you for taking it. It’s just money, it’s not like you’re banging Mara or anything.”
My throat tightens and I try to swallow. I avert my eyes and nod as he speaks. Ethan pauses, and I can feel his eyes boring into me.
“Dominic,” he says. I drag my eyes up to his and try to keep my face steady.
“Yeah?”
“You’re not banging Mara, are you?”
“Well, I…” My shoulders slump and I shrug at my brother. His jaw drops and he shakes his head. He leans back in his chair and brings his beer bottle to his lips. After he drinks, he looks at me again and shakes his head some more.
“Dom,” he says.
I shrug. “I don’t know how it happened!”
“What, you slipped and accidentally had sex? What do you mean you ‘don’t know how it happened?’”
“I just mean…” My voice trails off and I look at my brother. All I can do is shrug and shake my head. Finally, a grin starts to appear on his face and his shoulders start to shake. I can feel the laughter bubbling up through my stomach and pretty soon the two of us are doubled over with laughter.
Tears are streaming down my cheeks as I laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Ethan slaps his knee. His face scrunches as he laughs and he throws his head back.
Finally, the two of us quiet down and Ethan shakes his head. I take a deep breath.
“Dom,” Ethan says. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not sure,” I respond, staring into my beer bottle.
“You’re playing with fire.”
“I’m good at that, apparently,” I shoot back. Ethan laughs again and nods.
“True.”
I take a deep breath and look at my little brother. It should be me counseling him, not the other way around. I’m almost five years older than him. He stares at me and nods his chin down once before speaking again.
“Do you care about her?”
My throat closes again and my heart thumps in my chest. Ethan’s face is completely serious, and I drop my eyes to my beer bottle again. I peel the label off with my fingernail as I chew on his question.
I know the answer.
Of course I care about her. I’m crazy about her. It’s never felt this good to be with a woman. I’ve never met anyone as funny or driven or clever as she is. But how can I say that to Ethan? How can I admit it out loud, when I know that he blames her for Dad’s death? Finally, I lift my eyes back up to him and nod.
“Yeah,” I croak. “I do.”
Ethan takes a deep breath and shrugs.
“Then you’re fucked,” he says.
I snort and chuckle as I shake my head. “Completely.”