"I fucked up."
9
Gabbie
Emma shifted from foot to foot as she looked between me and Aspen. Then, she let out a breath. "I'm gonna go upstairs and get changed. I'm not exactly dressed for riding," she said with a smirk before retreating, leaving me alone with my brother-in-law.
Aspen let out a breath and shook his head. "I swear, you and Nick are going to turn me into an alcoholic. It's not even lunchtime and I already want a drink."
"I know the feeling," I whispered under my breath. I felt bad for Aspen though, knowing he'd been thrust into the middle of this. It wasn't his fault I'd screwed up my marriage with Nick.
"So, you wanna fill me in on what's going on?" Aspen asked. He hadn't moved from where he stood in the entryway, and I doubted I'd be lucky enough for him to turn around and leave if I told him no. Aspen wasn't the guy to let up once he'd gotten his teeth into something. And if he'd been dragged into this, then he would not walk away until he knew what the hell was going on.
But where the Hell did I even begin? How could I admit to him what we'd done last night? I doubted he wanted to hear the details of what Nick and I had done, but I couldn't just skip it.
"Nick and I slept together," I said leaving it at that.
Aspen nodded, smirking. "Well, it's about damn time. I was beginning to think his dick didn't work anymore."
Oh, it worked all right. Even with all the fallout after, I could still keenly remember how well Nick's dick had worked. Just thinking about it was enough to make me shudder. "Yeah, well. I should've just been happy with what I had instead of constantly pushing him for more," I said bitterly.
"Don't be like that. Come on, Gabbie. You know he loves you. He's just a hard-headed asshole sometimes." Aspen would want to defend his brother. I couldn't blame him for that. But I doubted Nick loved me, not after last night. But I couldn't deny that Nick was hard-headed. All four brothers were.
I let out a breath, then shook my head. Standing there arguing with Aspen would change nothing. It would just upset me even more. Today was supposed to be about clearing my head, not constantly going around in circles. "Well, Emma and I are taking Holly out riding. So, you can either come along with us or go home. Because I'm not talking about it right now."
Without another word, I turned and followed in Emma's footsteps. I had brought nothing specifically for riding, but I had clothes that would suffice. And right then, I'd have gone upstairs and changed into my wedding dress if it would've gotten me out having that conversation with Aspen. I loved him, I really did, but I couldn't face him right then.
To my surprise, when the three of us headed back downstairs, Aspen was standing by the backdoor, waiting for us. Apparently, I wasn't going to get out of that conversation easily. Because I wasn't. Like I said, they were all hard-headed bastards. But whatever. I wouldn't let Aspen's presence ruin my day with the girls. He was one of my best friends.
"I take it you told Holly about 'the spot'," Aspen said with a smirk when he figured out where we were heading.
I shrugged and returned his grin. "I figured it was about time to pass it along to the next generation. Lord knows Jack isn't going to take her out there!"
Aspen laughed so hard I thought he would fall off his horse. When I just sat there, eyebrow raised, and stared at him, he tried to get himself back under control. "Sorry, just remembering the last time Jack went out there. God, he would've been what, seventeen? Eighteen maybe? He was so damn sure of himself back then, certain he was better than all of us because he was so much older. Then, when he'd been trying to show off on the rope swing, it'd snapped and he'd gone face first into the mud!"
I tried to fight back the laughter, but I couldn't help it. I remembered that day clearly, but I had forgotten it was the last time Jack had gone out with us. After that, he'd insisted that he was too busy or too old to come hangout at the stream with us. The rest of us had gone out there for a while after he'd stopped, but eventually we'd all fizzled out, moving on with our lives.
Holly's high-pitched giggling brought our attention to her. She was ahead of us, but the look on her face as she watched us over her shoulder told me she'd been listening. Apparently she thought her father landing face first in the mud was hysterical. And I had to agree. It was too bad that was well before the age of smartphones. That would've been an amazing video to have these days, giving us something to look back on sometimes and laugh our asses off.
As we rode, Holly begged us for more stories of her dad, which Aspen and I were more than eager to provide. Holly's father travelled often for work, and these stories would help her feel closer to him. I remembered all the days I'd sat with Mr. and Mrs. Frost, listening to stories about my dad when he was younger and all the mischief he'd gotten into. Like Jack, my dad had mellowed out with age. By the time I'd come along, that rebellious young man was locked in the past, only revealed through those stories.
It helped me understand him so much better, to know there was a real human beneath the
