“King of rudeness, king of selfishness, temporary king of Chicago, I’m one hell of a guy, aren’t I?”
“At least you know who you are.” I muttered, cleaning his shoulder. I was also pretty insane, too. “If I was like everyone else in this family, I should be plotting revenge on you for what you did.”
“Do you hate me that much?” he asked, his brown-green eyes staring directly in mine. “What I did to you was wrong on its face, yes. Did I cheat you out of a choice? Yes. But if you could so easily think to kill me because I killed your biological father, shouldn’t you be able to understand me? If you can understand the need to get revenge for the people you love. If you could understand Ethan. Why can’t you understand me? Back then I remembered seeing you cry until you were red in the face about how you didn’t want to leave. I remember talking to you on the phone and listening to you pretend you were doing fine, when you weren’t. I didn’t do it because I wanted to. I didn’t do it just because I missed you, though I did very much. I did it because you weren’t happy. If you had been happy to leave, if you hadn’t sounded so sad, if you hadn’t cried as hard, maybe I would have accepted it and simply been happy my best friend was so happy. He tried to take you away from me, Helen. From all of us. In my mind, he was kidnapping you! So, I can’t apologize. I’d do it again! Sorry if that makes me a selfish bastard!”
I want to kiss him. He was so close. So, damn close, and he was saying this as if it was what I’d always wanted to hear from him.
And just like that, he got up and moved to my wine cooler. Taking a quick deep breath and saying a silent prayer that he didn’t notice my love-sick puppy dog eyes, I tried to keep my focus. “You really shouldn’t be drinking.”
“Which one of us has the medical degree? That’s right, me. And this doctor prescribes drinking with burgers!” Taking out two bottles, he glanced over my kitchen and then to me, grinning. “So who died here?”
“Shut up. You can barely cook yourself!”
He just laughed as he came back over. “Let’s eat, and you can save your anger for tomorrow.”
“It’s 11:49 pm.”
“Eleven minutes should be enough, don’t you think. Anger isn’t good for the heart, Helen.”
No, you aren’t good for the heart, Wyatt! I ignored him as I walked back to the kitchen, dumping the cleaning water and washing my hands again before grabbing wine and drinking straight from the bottle.
Damn him.
WYATT
She sat back across from me, quietly eating her fries. The silence between us bothered me. I’d hope the wine would help both of us speak honestly and get past this rough patch, but she seemed dead set on not speaking to me.
“I still can’t believe I got shot by the Governor,” I said softly, trying to fill the silence. “With the way the man was acting, you’d think he really loved his wife. He’s cheated on her so many times, I’ve lost track.”
“They were in an open relationship. It wasn’t public knowledge, but a lot of people knew.” She stuffed a few fries in her mouth.
“How can anyone think that’s fine?”
She gave me a look.
“What?”
“Wyatt, you screw women up and down all the time—”
“I’ve never cheated on any of the women I’ve dated, thank you very much. Loyalty is important, and if she’s mine and I’m hers, the only person she or I would be with is each other. If I’m not in a relationship, then I have every right to screw anyone who is willing to screw me. That’s pretty straightforward and reasonable to me.”
“People are complex, Wyatt. We don’t make sense. The law judges by a ‘reasonable human being’ standard, forgetting that our emotions make even the simplest things unreasonable. What we love, what we hate, what we think we should love or hate, determines everything around us. Sometimes people love who they love, and it competes with other things. It doesn’t mean they don’t love them.”
I eyed her carefully, the wine bottle paused at my lips. “So, if a man cheated on you—”
“I’d shred him alive. Then call my dad and watch him beat the shit out of his shredded body,” she shot back with no hesitation. I couldn’t help but laugh, and she laughed with me. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could relax. Her laugh always did that. It was always carefree even though I knew she had so much on her mind.
“See, even you don’t believe in that open relationship thing.”
“It might work for some people,” she tried to defend it before drinking straight from her own bottle.
I snorted at that. “Sure, okay. And Ethan’s favorite color is pink glitter.”
“If it’s not, it should be. He could pull it off.” She giggled, obviously drunk…the lightweight. Her eyes began to close, and I could see she was tilting. I put my drink down, reaching over to hold her head steady before she fell over. She nuzzled into my hand as if I were her damn pillow.
“I take it you forgive me now.”
“Don’t care what you do, I’m going to always resent you, Wyatt.” She had the nerve to mumble that as I held her head. “You ruined my chance.”
My eyebrows frowned together, not understanding her. “What do you mean?”
She lifted her head up and tried to glare at me, but her eyes weren’t staying open. “The rule of Occam's razor says that the simplest answer is usually the right answer. Why did I get upset and leave after finding out the truth even though you are right? I was happy to be
