Chapter 17
They don’t see me standing here in the dark. Rhyann didn’t even look in my direction when she came down the stairs. She probably wouldn’t care one way or another if I came back tonight. I saw her though, saw her walk out onto the balcony from her room. I watched as she stood there, looking out at the dark bay in the distance. She thinks we hate her, and a part of me doesn’t blame her for it. Over the years the guys and I have put her through a good amount of bullshit. The up and down of emotions we put her through, all because three young boys fell in love with the same girl. All because we agreed that she was off limits to all of us. Apparently, though, none of us kept to that agreement.
“You’re lying,” Rhyann cries.
“I’m not,” Tate”s voice cracks as though he is crying as well. “Half my heart belongs to you, Rhyann. It always has and it always will.”
Half his heart? Well, thats a fucked up thing to say when confessing your love to someone. I smile a dark, vicious smile, wondering just how sorry Tate is for ending things with his bitch of a fiance.
“And who owns the other half?” She asks. Smart girl, she never misses a thing.
“No one,” Tate says, “It doesn’t matter.”
“You’re right, tate. It doesn’t matter, and neither do I.” Rhyann backs away from Tate”s kneeling form and runs back up to her room.
Once I hear the click of the door above us, I step out of the shadows. “Well, you fucked that one up, didn’t you?” I laugh darkly.
“Dev?” Tate says, his head snapping up in my direction. “You heard everything?”
“Every single word.” I hand my best friend a glass of amber liquid and help the man up from his knees. Although I like him there, I like the idea of the unphased, invincible Tate Crawford on his knees before me.
“So, you thought she was your sister, and you still wanted to fuck her?” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.
“It’s complicated, man.” Tate says, taking a sip of the whiskey in his glass.
“It’s really not that complicated. I get it you love her, you have since we were kids.” I sit in the armchair Rhyann had been standing next to moments ago.
“It was supposed to be my sick, dark secret. She was never supposed to know,” Tate confesses. “I would marry Aubree, we’d move to Texas with her family and I’d leave Rhyann here, with you and Liam.” He looks down at me in the dark. “I know you both love her as much as I do.”
He isn’t wrong. Liam and I told Rhyann as much last night. The problem is, she doesn’t believe us. She doesn’t love either of us back. We made sure of that with the years of heartbreak we put her through. “So, why tell her now? Why break things off with Aubree?”
“Because I don’t love Aubree,” Tate begins to pace the floor in front of me. “Because I found out that Rhyann was adopted today, and I let a little bit of hope in, thinking that maybe I had a chance. But I was wrong.”
He doesn’t love Aubree. If she isn’t the other half of his heart, then who is? I rake my fingers through my hair. My heart leaps into my throat, an almost forgotten night drinking in San Diego coming back to my mind. Tate and I were sitting in the sand watching the waves crash into the shore outside the Coronado hotel, tall cans of 805 in our hands. That was the night I told him I was bi, that I was attracted to men and women. Until that night, only Gemma knew my secret. Tate wasn’t phased by it, he didn’t judge me at all or make some sick, fucked up joke about hooking up with my twin brother.
No, Tate looked at me in the dark and asked if I’d ever been with another man, and when I said no, he asked if I wanted to sleep with him. At first, I felt offended, like my best friend was afraid his queer buddy would want to jump his bones, but before I could tell him to go to hell, he leaned over and kissed me. We stumbled our way back to the hotel room after that and fucked as though morning wouldn’t come.
The next day, Tate tried to talk to me about what happened the night before, but I was so mortified about not only my confession but the dark secret between the two of us, I pretended not to remember it, claiming I was too drunk to recall anything that happened after we left the bar. Tate never mentioned that night again.
I swallow the knot in my throat, pushing down the feelings of rejection that resurfaced with the memories. “Who is the other half then?” I ask hoarsely.
“Dev don’t do this,” Tate begs. “Not now.”
“Who?” I demand.
“It doesn’t matter, that ship sailed a long time ago,” Tate turns and walks back to the couch he had been sleeping on and plops down and drops the crystal glass on the coffee table in front of him.
My eyes catch on a small shadow at the top of the stairs and I let out an angry laugh. Looks like I’m not the only one who enjoys watching private moments in the dark.
“He’s all yours princess,” I say looking up at the figure at the top of the stairs. I don’t have anything else to say to Tate, or even Rhyann. The only person here who would give a shit about whether I stay or go is sound asleep in the bedroom next to us. Leaving my glass on the floor by the armchair, I stand up and walk to the door. “You can have the other half of his heart too. I don’t fucking want it if he isn’t going to give it to me.”
With that I walk out the door into the empty— except for the two officers standing guard— hall.
I expect the door to slam shut behind me, but it doesn’t.
“I lied,” a soft female voice calls behind me. “I lied at the hospital, Devon. Please don’t go.”
I can’t turn around and face her. If I do, my heart will shatter, I’ll never leave her side even if it kills me. “What did you lie about, Rhyann?” I ask instead.
“Everything.” Small hands wrap around my wrist. “I lied when I said I hated you, I lied when I called what happened between us sick, I lied when I said I didn’t want you to come back. I love you, Devon.”
I can’t think, I can’t speak the words my heart wants me to say. With her holding tight to my wrist, I walk to the elevator. I can hear her bare feet slapping against the worn carpet as she tries to keep up with me. The elevator opens as soon as I press the green button on the metal panel on the wall, and I step inside.
“What about Liam and Tate?” I growl, finally facing her. I don’t know why I need to know this. “They’re in love with you, Rhyann. Just as much as I am.”
“I don’t know, I’m in love with them too.” Her confession is all it takes to knock down the walls around my heart I’ve spent years building. Without another thought, I pull her into the elevator with me and hit the emergency stop button.
My hands slip under her shoulders and I lift her up and her lips crash into mine. Petite bare legs wrap around my waist and I can feel her feet hook together, locking me between them. Her arms wrap around my neck, and long fingernails scrape against my scalp as she runs her fingers through my hair.
“Rhyann,” I gasp for air between kissing. “Rhyann, stop.” my voice comes out a lot harsher than planned.
“I’m sorry,” she says, letting go of me and sliding down until her bare feet hit the metal floor of the elevator. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
I stop her before she presses the ‘Open’ button. “Don’t go,” I tell her softly.
“It’s doomed anyway, Devon.” her tears fall, silently hitting the floor.
I get down on my knees to look at my five foot nothing queen, she isn’t a princess anymore. She’s a goddamned queen who has fought harder than anyone I know to claim her kingdom. “I know, but I also know that I’ll die loving you, Rhyann, and I’m so sorry for hurting you all these years.”
“Was it Tate?” she asks, sniffling and wiping the tears from her face.
I don’t have to ask her to explain, I already know what she’s referring to. “When I told you there was someone else, someone better?” I look down in shame. “Yes,”
“Do you love him?” soft fingers caress the side of my face, wiping away my sorrow and regret. “Can you love us both?”
“Yes, I love him. God, I love him as much as I love you,” I sigh. “You, Tate and my brother are the only reasons I breathe.”
“Then we’ll find a way,” she says, leaning down and kissing the tears I didn’t even realize are rolling down my cheeks. I don’t know if she hit the button or if someone else did, but the doors slide open and my brother and Tate, both half naked, both looking like they need sleep, stand in front of the open elevator.