Roommates Box Set #4-6

31. Alyssa

31

ALYSSA

“This is all my fault,” I said glumly. We were out on the deck after the twins were asleep, but this time, it wasn’t to enjoy drinks and each other’s company.

“Stop it,” Spencer said. “That line of thinking didn’t help Flynn, and it’s not going to help you.”

“What he said,” Flynn muttered, and then he stood up. “Let me go talk to her.”

Raphael put a hand on Flynn’s arm. “First off, she’s not there.” We’d seen Lauren drive away about an hour after she caught us in Nana’s hallway. “Secondly, as you’ve said, you turned her down the last few times she wanted a booty call, so why would she listen to you?”

“Maybe she’ll listen to you,” Spencer told him, not for the first time.

“No,” Raphael said. “I thought we were alike when we were in high school, but we never were—not really. She’s always been a snake.”

I could barely focus on the things the guys were saying. “I’ll move out.”

“No,” three voices said.

“I have to at some point,” I insisted. “I’m still paying rent on that apartment. I bet I can get up the stairs if I really try. Or maybe by now something on the first floor has opened up.”

Raphael crouched down at my side. “It won’t help, cher. That one is mean as a shark. Even if we do what she says, there’s no guarantee she won’t talk.”

Flynn nodded. “And it’s not like we’re going to pimp out Spence.”

I groaned and put my head in my hands. When Lauren had interrupted our X-rated scene, she’d threatened to tell the school board that Spencer was a degenerate who engaged in gangbangs. Her demands were simple but incredibly evil.

First, I had to agree not to see the three of them ever again. Second, Spencer had to spend a week with her in New Orleans during Mardi Gras and also escort her to her coworker’s wedding in April.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get the appalling memory out of my mind. Lauren hadn’t been subtle. She’d made it very clear that she expected Spencer to be at her beck and call—and in her bed—during his stints with her.

There was no way out of this that allowed the four of us to stay together. And leaving my men meant leaving the twins, too. It broke my heart.

“How could Nana be related to such a hell beast?” Spencer said to no one in particular. Even now, late at night with only us around, he didn’t call Lauren a bitch or worse. He was such a good man. He didn’t deserve this problem after all he’d been through.

I squeezed Raphael’s hand for strength. “I’ll move out. Maybe, once she sees I’m no longer in the picture, she’ll back down about the other demands.”

“Let’s all move out,” Raphael said.

“What?”

“Let’s move across the country. We could all go together.”

“But this is your house,” Spencer said.

Raphael shook his head. “It hasn’t been my house in over a decade. It’s our house.”

“And she’s not going to chase us out of it,” Flynn said, his voice low and dangerous.

Spencer put his hand on his brother’s arm. “It’s late. Nana’s coming home tomorrow, and we promised a celebration. Let’s go to bed and work on this in the morning.”

“There’s nothing to work on,” I said, my heart aching. “All the cards are in her hands.”

“Let it go, Lyss, just for tonight. We’re not doing any good spinning our wheels,” he said. “Let’s get some sleep.”

“Can we share your bed? Just to sleep, I mean. I’d really like us all to be together.” A tear fell down my cheek at the thought of how it might be one of our last opportunities.

“Sure,” Spencer said. His tone was reassuring, but his eyes—his eyes were full of despair.

In retrospect, it seemed like really bad timing, but we’d promised Nana lunch at our place first, before we took her next door to unveil all the changes. It was the weekend, so the kids were off school. They, at least, were properly excited when we wheeled Nana inside. The rest of us were still walking around like mourners at a funeral.

Lauren wasn’t invited, of course, but she was next door, and we’d have to see her when we took Nana over. Then she’d ask us about the horrible deal she’d proposed, and what would we say?

It all made me completely sick to my stomach.

I did my best to be cheerful for Nana, but it was so hard. Mostly, I let the kids talk her ear off.

Then it was time for lunch, and I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t sit and eat with them when everything that was important to me was about to come crashing down around me.

“I’m sorry, but my head really hurts,” I said to Nana when I told her why I wouldn’t be joining them for lunch. She believed me, but the men knew why I was so upset.

I just couldn’t stand this. Something had to be done.

I waited until Raphael and the twins took all the food outside and everyone was seated on the deck. Then I grabbed my crutches and slipped out the front door.

The first problem came when I tried to get up to Nana’s. I’d never done it on my own without help. The crutches were no match for the rocky hillside between the two houses. I ended up having to go the long way, all the way down the driveway and then up Nana’s. Both were steep, and it was as hard going down Rafe’s as it was going up Nana's.

I waited on Nana’s porch until I caught my breath. To calm myself, I examined the ramp we’d installed. Several experts had said it wouldn’t work, but we’d made it work. If it weren’t for Lauren’s ultimatum, I would’ve been so eager to show Nana around her house.

Finally, I knocked on the door. Lauren didn’t seem particularly surprised to see me. “Oh look. It’s the little engine that could.” She stepped back to let me in. “Have you come to deliver Spencer on a platter, or will he be by later?”

“Neither,” I said. “He’ll be by never.”

Lauren didn’t seem particularly concerned. “I hope he enjoys all that free time after he’s fired.”

“He won’t, because he’s not going to get fired. He’ll quit instead.”

“Same difference,” she said.

“Then we’ll move away—all of us, together. You’ll never get your claws on any of them again.”

Lauren hung her head mockingly. “Gosh, I never thought of that. With the internet, however will I find you in another town? Guess there’s no way I’ll be able to make a phone call to Spencer’s next school.”

I shrugged, though that was a big concern. “We’ll go to someplace progressive, where they’re more open-minded than a small town like this one.”

“A school board is never going to be open-minded about an elementary school principal with no morals.”

Under other circumstances, I might have laughed. Spencer was one of the most moral people I’d ever met. “He’s an educator. There are other jobs he can get. But let’s talk about you. Either way, we’ll leave. Where does that leave you?”

For the first time, she looked mildly concerned. “What do you mean?”

“There will be no one next door who loves and cares for your grandmother. Are you going to drive out from New Orleans every time she needs something? She’ll be lonely, she’ll be miserable, and she’s not going to be able to rely on three strong, thoughtful men for help.”

“So? She’ll get over it,” Lauren said, but I pressed on.

“Really? Maybe before her fall, possibly, but now? She’s going to need more help than ever. Trust me, after a major injury like that, you need constant help.”

Lauren walked into Nana’s floral-themed living room and brushed some dust off a lamp. “We’ll manage. And if not, she can go back to the assisted living center.”

I followed her. “She hates it there, and you know it.”

“She’ll deal.”

“You’d do that to her? Put her in a place she hates just to spite us?”

Lauren rolled her eyes. “Stop being so dramatic. Nana will be fine there.”

“She would be if we were still in town. Raphael would be in and out all day. Spencer would come visit after work. The kids would be there twice a week. And on weekends, we’d spring Nana and she could spend the day with us. None of that happens if we’re across the country.”

Lauren didn’t answer.

I tried not to let the contempt I felt for her show on my face. “She loves you, Lauren. Do you really want to make her that miserable just because you want to make us miserable?”

Again, Lauren was silent, and in the distance, we heard a masculine voice calling my name. “They’ve sent the cavalry out looking for you,” she said. “Figures.”

“Because they care about me, and I care about them. Who do you care about, Lauren?”

“Nana, of course.” Her words were soft—not her usual confident tone.

“You have a funny way of showing it. But there’s no doubt she loves you. Do you think she still would if she knew what you did to us? Because she loves us, too.”

Lauren’s face was pale as we heard the voices calling my name getting closer. For a long moment, I didn’t know if anything I’d said had gotten through to her. “Go,” she finally said, her voice brittle. “Go live your pathetic little lives—I don’t care what you do anymore.”

Relief filled me and tears threatened, but I needed to hold onto control for a minute longer. I made my way back to the door. Through a glass pane, I could see Raphael and Flynn jogging up the slope toward me. Spencer and the twins weren’t far behind. I almost opened the door and called to them. But instead, I found myself turning back to Lauren. “I hope someday you meet someone who’ll come looking for you, too.”

Then I left.