18. Zeke
Zeke
“Ahhhh!” I scream as I drop my phone onto the couch beside me. It bounces up just slightly before settling between the cushions. My chest feels tight as my rage and helplessness mix together at the situation.
Two months.
Two months since she disappeared.
It’s been two fucking months since I found out the woman that rocked my world is my stepsister. Not only that, but my brothers are head over heels for her too. She’s all I can think about. No other woman has even pulled my attention the way she has. Selena is the only person I want.
I’m pretty sure my brothers feel the same fucking way with the short tempers they’ve had. We’ve all held it together, but with each passing day that we can’t talk to her, it gets worse.
Our plan was to pull her to the side when she came back to the reception.
We were gonna explain everything. Tell her what she heard wasn’t how we felt.
But she never did. When we went to check on her the next morning, she had already checked out.
When Jay tried to call her, we found out she blocked his number.
Then Eli and I tried. One message went through, then she blocked us as well.
Dad and Julia had already left for their honeymoon.
They were going to be gone for a month, no phone contact.
That month has passed and all we got was an email that they extended their trip.
No ‘how are you doing?’ We couldn’t tell him Selena blocked us because he would think we’d done something.
So we’ve had to sit and twiddle our thumbs.
“What’s your problem?” Jay asks, dropping down onto the other end of the couch, propping his sock covered feet on the coffee table.
Eli sits in the recliner, laptop perched on his lap as he looks at whatever he has on the screen. And me? I’m one failed text away from losing my damn mind.
“She blocked me again.” I scrub both hands over my face. “Message went through this morning. Now? Blocked.”
“She unblocked you?” I can hear the hopefulness in his words.
“No, I gotaburnerphone.” The last of the sentence slurs together into one huge word, a part of me hoping he doesn’t question it.
“You got a burner phone?” Eli looks up from his computer with a shocked gaze directed right at me.
I just nod.
“Did she answer your message?” Jay asks, his feet now on the floor as he sits upright, his body angled to me.
“No. She didn’t the other times either,” I admit, because, what can I say, I’m a glutton for punishment. “She saw it was from me and blocked me.”
“You know what they say is the definition of insanity?” Eli asks, smiling before he answers. “Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome.”
“I know.” I lean forward, running my fingers through my hair. “I just wish she’d give us a chance to explain.”
“Then what? We tell Dad we want to date our new stepsister? We make her choose between us?” Eli’s question makes me think. Why do we have to make her choose? We’ve shared women before. Granted, they were all one night stands, but we knew how to share. Maybe we can share long-term.
I bite my lip, wondering how to broach the topic with my brothers. Jay’s voice cuts through my thinking.
Jay exhales hard. “Same thing happened to me weeks ago. One message delivered. Then nothing.”
“You too!” Eli practically shouts.
Jay just shrugs his shoulders. “She had my phone blocked. It was my only option.”
If she would only answer.
“We screwed ourselves,” Eli says suddenly, his eyes moving between me and Jay. “We said shit we shouldn’t have, and we waited to confront her instead of following her. If I was her, I’d block us too.”
He’s right. We’re idiots.
“If we could just talk to her,” Jay blurts.
“Fat chance of that. We don’t know how to reach her.” I throw my hands up. “She’s blocked us, and we can’t ask Dad and the step-bitch where she lives because they’re still on their honeymoon with their phones turned off.”
“We can always get a private investigator,” Jay says with a huge smile. “You met her here, Zeke. It would seem like she lives around here. Someone could find her.”
The room goes quiet. My head snaps toward him.
“A PI? Seriously. She’ll think we’re psychotic,” Eli quickly says, disrupting our small moment of excitement.
If they only knew that I went back to that bar where I met her more times than I can count.
Sat in the same damn stool. Ordered the same whiskey and waited.
But she never showed. It’s almost like she had a gut feeling I’d be there.
I even went to all the stores nearby, on the off chance that she lived in the neighborhood.
Anything was better than admitting defeat and that she’s vanished from our lives.
“She already thinks we’re assholes,” Jay mutters. “Why does it matter if she thinks we’re crazy? I’ve heard women dig the insane man.”
Eli just shakes his head. “We need to accept that, at least for now, she’s out of reach.”
The words hit like a punch. Nope. Personally I veto that option. Out of reach implies permanent. And I’m not ready for that.
Eli keeps going. “We’re family now whether any of us likes it or not. It’s not like we won’t run into each other eventually.”
My stomach twists at the word family.
Not just family, step-siblings.
But step means she’s not blood. So there’s nothing wrong with it.
“When we do run into her, we’re not letting her get away,” I start, then clear my throat. “We all want her. We’ve all fallen for her. Why can’t we all date her?”
Eli goes to say something, but stops. When I glance over at Jay, I can see the wheels spinning in his head.
“Share? Not make her choose?” Jay asks.
“Exactly,” comes boldly from my mouth.
“That’s if she wants us,” Eli, the Debbie Downer, has to add.
“She will,” Jay says happily as he stands from the couch. “Going to get a shower before I have to head to the firehouse,” he announces before jogging out of the room. I can’t help but notice the huge smile on his face before he disappears.
“I need to get ready too,” Eli adds. “Remind me why I agreed to swap nights at the firehouse?”
“Because Miller wanted his anniversary off,” I tell him.
“What are your plans tonight?” he asks me.
“I might finish painting the kitchen.”
“You?” he asks slowly. “Painting?”
I glare at him. “People evolve.”
“You painted one wall in your bedroom and started complaining about it.”
I flip him off as he stands. He stops by the couch and puts me in a headlock as he rubs his knuckles on the top of my head before dashing away.
“Have fun with the painting!” he shouts as he darts away.
I do plan on painting; that’s not a complete lie. But just the cabinets. But he doesn’t need to know that. That should take a couple of hours, then I’m going to do what I always do when the two of them are working.
I’ll shower. Throw on decent clothes. And go back to that bar.
Again.
Because maybe tonight is the night that she’ll walk inside.