Jordan untangled herself from Tag and sat back down at the table. “I have to go with Colin on this one, babe.”
Tag took a seat too, facing his wife when he next spoke. “For someone who had such difficulty showing me her demons and deepest fears, I would have thought you'd have some understanding for Marek.”
“Maybe if it were anyone but Colin,” Jordan answered, “I would. But I met Colin while he was still healing from the assault, so I know the pain and trauma he went through. I can't be on anyone's side but his.”
“I think that's where you're mistaking my viewpoint,” Tag said. “I don't see myself as being on Marek's side.” He shifted in his chair and put his focus back on Colin. “You know I am your friend and I only want you to be happy.”
A small smile forced up the edge of Colin's mouth. “Yeah. You don't even have to say it.”
“Thank you.” Tag dipped his head, but then continued to follow Colin's movements from where he sat. “I wouldn't be pushing you to reexamine this except for the fact that I saw how you were all this week. Jordan told me how strongly you felt about those dreams you experienced, and you even talked to me about it some during this time in Fiji. You were so certain the man and that house were your future. When you met Marek, you had more life in your eyes than I've ever seen in you. What has really changed? Nothing. Except that this Marek might actually need you now more than that man in your dreams ever did.”
Colin's head hurt, his heart ached, and betrayal sat like rancid food in his stomach. “It's not that simple.” His fists clenching at his sides, he whirled on Tag as the events of his time with Marek all caught up to him. “Marek knew. From the day I set foot on his porch, he knew everything. From the first second he saw my face, he knew the part he played in my beating, and he never said a damn thing about it. He fucking touched my scars while we…were intimate. Every time he saw them, or each time we talked about my assault, or when he told me about Payton's murder, he knew I didn't have the answers to my own beating or to how we were connected, beyond being acquaintances as teenagers, yet he never said a word.”
Colin dropped down into a chair at the table, depleted. All week he had been running on adrenaline, the discovery of the house, but mostly on the thrill of being with Marek. Now, everything caught up to him and crash-landed his body straight down to earth with a jarring thud. Holding his forehead in his hand, Colin finally said, “He wasn't straight with me from the start. Worse, he still wasn't upfront with me each day we were together and grew closer. He had to know I was falling in love with him, but until I actually slipped and said it, he kept me in the dark.” Colin shifted his focus back and forth between Tag and Jordan, still searching for answers through the blur of exhaustion. “What if I hadn't said 'I love you' last night? How much longer would we have gone on without him telling me the truth?”
Tag reached across the table and grabbed his cup of coffee. He looked at Colin from over the cobalt blue rim. “You sound more upset Marek withheld his confession than you are with what actually happened all those years ago.”
“Maybe I am.” Colin's eyelids felt weighed down with ball bearings. “I don't know. I don't know what to think or feel or believe anymore.”
“So maybe this is where the rubber hits the road,” Tag said. “Maybe this is a test of how you guys really feel about each other and what you are willing to fight through and for in order to be together. Marek made a terrible mistake, on both occasions, but he also let you into his house and his life, giving you the benefit of the doubt, even though you were pretty much a stranger to him. And I have to tell you, if it had been me, I think I would have said you were nuts and threatened to call the cops if you ever came back. Marek is imperfect, but so are you. Either you love the man, the whole, flawed man, or you don't. The same goes for him.”
The roar of waves crashing in Colin's ears nearly drowned out Tag's words. “I do, but… I can't think anymore.” The noise grew louder, and Colin didn't think it had anything to do with the ocean outside. “I don't know.”
Jordan stood up and clapped her hands in Colin's face, helping to force his eyes open and on her. “Okay, come on.” She lifted him under his arm and guided him to the giant honeymoon bed. She laid him down, took his shoes off, and pulled the cover over his body. “Get some sleep. A couple hours of shut-eye might give you the clarity you need.”
Lead weighed his arm, but Colin managed to grab Jordan before she moved away. “But your honeymoon. Your room.”
“It's okay.” She untangled his fingers from her wrist and tucked him back under the sheet. “We wanted to do a few more things on the island before leaving tomorrow anyway. Rest. I'll leave you my key on the nightstand in case we're gone when you wake up.”
As unconsciousness pulled Colin under, he heard feminine and masculine murmuring, and then Tag's deep voice rumble, “I love you too.”
* * * * *
A boat engine cut across the chirps of the birds and the critters in the air, reaching Marek in the backyard. “Colin?” He threw down his pruning shears and
