Declan
Wyllie was asleep between Brice and me on a pallet on the floor. Apparently my mom still thought I was twelve. She’d made a pile of pillows and blankets and rented us all the Die Hard movies. We had to keep it turned down real low so we didn’t wake up the sleeping Wild Man, who didn’t want to sleep anywhere but next to his daddy.
Did I mention this was one of the best nights of my life?
Brice threw a piece of popcorn at me. “Did you get a chance to talk to Cassie today?”
I ate that piece of popcorn. I’d run out ten minutes ago. “No. We kept missing each other. Think she still hates me?”
“No. I don’t think she is capable of hating you.” He took a pull off his beer.
“Speaking of assholes. I went and checked on Cueva today, both locations.”
“That’s five dollars in your swear jar, bro.” Brice chuckled. “What happened? One of your clients piss you off?”
I nodded. “Yeah actually one did. You.”
“Me? What did I do?”
I reached across Wyllie and frogged Brice in the leg. “Stop nailing my staff.”
“Ouch.” Brice whisper yelled so he didn’t wake up Wyllie. “Why?”
“Why? Because I run a business club, not a brothel.”
Brice winked. “It’s kinda like a brothel.”
I hit him again. “It is not.”
“It is to me.”
I took a deep breath. “Please tell me you aren’t paying my staff to bang you. Because that would be illegal. That would get me shut down.”
He scoffed. “Of course I’m not paying them. Geeze, Dec, give me some credit here. They come willingly, and usually more than once.” He winked and I barely resisted the urge to punch him again.
“Not anymore they don’t.”
He suddenly lost all his swagger. He looked pale and panicked. “Wait. What? Why?”
“New company policy. Sleep with Brice, get the boot.”
Brice cocked his head. “You’re bluffing. Cooper would never enforce that rule. He’s one of my best friends.”
I smirked. “I know. That’s why I gave the job to Holland.”
Brice’s face fell even further. “Holland hates me.”
“Good.”
Eventually Brice fell asleep and it was just me, lying on the floor in my childhood home staring at the ceiling. As much as I’d enjoyed hanging with the wild man, I wished I could have talked to Cassie. Clear the air, smooth things over. Apologize.
How was tomorrow going to go? How were we supposed to stand up there and pull this thing off if we weren’t even friends? I’d hurt her. I’d been hurting her for the last week. And I’d justified it, over and over.
True, she was the one who had lied. She was the one who had gotten us into this mess. She was the one who kept my son from me. But lying here, listening to both Wyllie and Brice snore, I realized something. I was at fault too.
I had left her all alone in Seaside. I took her out, I flirted, I fucked her on every surface I could. I whispered in her ear, and told her how much she’d meant to me.
But then, I’d left.
She had woken up alone. Scared and confused. She’d had to face our friends, our family, Steven…all by herself.
She’d tried to call off her wedding. When she’d found out she was pregnant, she’d been so stressed, she’d ended up in the hospital. Then she’d moved her whole life to Seaside, and lived there all by herself.
At no point did she feel like she could turn to me. Could trust me with her fragile heart. Whether she was wrong or not, as much landed on me as on her.
And just like that night in Seaside, I needed to stop throwing things in her face. I needed to take her by the hand and be her friend.