“So anyway,” Brody continued, “he realizes this woman, we’ll call her Tessa because that’s her name, is actually decent at her job, and from what I can tell, our brother fell for her. Oh, and he pretended to be her fiancé. He also told her if she didn’t go along with it, he’d ruin her.”
“I didn’t fall for her.” I glared at my brother’s smiling face.
“Then why did you stay holed up in a castle with her? In the same room. Explain that. I have work to do. Chat later.” Brody’s face disappeared, and everyone stared at me expectantly.
I would kill my brother when I got back to Brooklyn.
“You blackmailed a girl?” My mother removed her hand from her heart and placed it over her mouth.
“It wasn’t like that, Ma. You don’t know the whole story.”
“You’re a dirty dog.” Erin laughed and shut down the laptop.
“My son, a blackmailer,” my mother said in disbelief. “I’ll never get over this. I won’t.”
“When everyone calms down, I’ll tell you what really happened. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Of course it’s our business—” Cassidy jiggled her now fussing baby “—we’re family.”
“I thought you were leaving.” I gripped my beer bottle with two hands.
“Think again, brother dearest. This is much too juicy.”
Erin sat beside me and patted my hand. “This isn’t like you. What’s going on?”
I was too embarrassed to meet her eyes. The hurt I’d caused over the past few days would be nothing compared to telling my sister the truth. The real truth. “Shane contacted me, but what I did isn’t his fault, it’s mine.”
She sucked in a breath, and her eyes turned to stone. “What did he want?”
Everyone erupted at once, bombarding me with questions and accusations.
Our father stood and slammed his hand down on the table. “Enough.” A stunned silence settled around the kitchen, and I didn’t miss the sign of the cross my mother made.
“I’m sorry. I’m ashamed to say he told me something, and I acted on it. I shouldn’t have listened to him. He—”
She closed her eyes and held up her hand. From the expression on her face, I could see her heart breaking all over again. “No more. I don’t want to hear his name again. As far as I’m concerned, he’s dead.”
I slowly nodded. Later, when I got the chance, I’d explain as best I could. Try to make her understand my reasons for doing what I’d done. Maybe she’d forgive me.
I turned toward my family, who had now moved on to their other favorite topic—Brody and would he ever come home.
I was a dirty dog. Betraying my family, especially Erin, by listening to Shane was indefensible. And as for Tessa, I’d made her feel like a criminal for telling the truth. But it was too late. I’d done what I’d done and said what I’d said.
Even if I apologized, most likely, she’d want nothing to do with me. I barely wanted anything to do with myself.
My dad, who sat opposite me, peered from beneath his reading glasses. “What are you going to do to make this right, Son?”
I blew out an unsteady breath. “Nothing I can do.”
“You sure about that?”
“I’m sure.”
Shame mauled my insides. What was my real reason for running? Was it because Tessa had told the truth, or was it because of the possibilities being with her offered me? She’d unearthed feelings I’d buried for three years. Made my body, my mind, my heart feel things I’d wanted to forget. For the longest time, I hadn’t been living. I’d been existing, but Tessa had changed that. I shouldn’t feel like this about someone I barely knew. It might not be love, but if I was honest, it wasn’t far off.
My phone beeped with a message from Barb—a video. I excused myself from the table and went into the living room to watch it.
Chapter Nineteen
Tessa
Why had I insisted on drinking vodka mixed with Red Bull? My palpitating heart raced so fast I feared it would beat right out of my chest and head straight for the ER.
“Ugh!” Slimy fur lined my mouth and throat. I felt around the nightstand for a bottle of water. None. I’d have to stick my head under the faucet and glug a gallon of water to rehydrate my shriveling insides.
Images of the previous evening strobed through my mind. Not particularly flattering images. Karaoke. A pitiful attempt at Irish dancing. Declaring my love for Keegan.
What?
I sat up too fast, and it took a second for my spinning head to catch up with my sluggish body.
Think. Who’d you say it to?
There were too many whirling black holes from the previous evening, and I couldn’t remember. An image of me holding a microphone in one hand and an overfilled glass in the other zapped my brain. Kill me now. I’d told everyone. Then I’d told anyone who’d listen that Keegan was my soul mate. Phone? Where was my phone? I searched the bed and nightstand. It wasn’t there.
I slumped onto my pillows with a frustrated groan, which made my seemingly dislodged brain rattle around my skull. Thank God Keegan hadn’t been there to witness my emotional outpouring. Him seeing me like that would’ve made things way worse.
I rolled out of bed, staggered toward the bathroom, and guzzled cold water from the faucet. Nothing had ever tasted better. Now that I’d rehydrated, the growling creature in my belly was about to gouge its way out Alien-style and go make its own food.
Peace had settled downstairs, and the only evidence of last night’s festivities was the karaoke machine taunting me from a table by the fireplace.
I glanced at the grandfather clock tick-tocking in the foyer.
