Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHASE
I’d known this day was coming. I’d been anticipating Addison’s and my secret coming out for years, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I used to be so paranoid about its inevitability, second-guessing every word Levi said to me, wondering if he knew I’d just fucked his sister in the stairwell or her room or down at the beach but wasn’t saying anything.
I realized now, as I met my best friend’s pissed-off glare, how stupid I’d been.
Because there was no way in hell he would’ve kept his mouth shut if he’d known.
With how frequently Addison and I had been together since I’d been home, I was surprised it had taken this long for him to find out.
But based on the murderous look he was shooting my direction, he hadn’t had even an inkling about what I’d been doing with his baby sister.
Which meant he sure as fuck had no idea it’d been going on for years right under his nose.
“Oh shit.” Avery skidded to a stop next to Levi, her gaze pinging between the three of us, her cheeks flushed as if she’d run the entire way over here. “I’m too late, aren’t I?”
Ignoring her completely, Levi scowled at Addison, his mouth set in a hard line. “Did you seriously let him fuck you in a parking lot?” he spat, his voice loud enough to be heard at the other end of the festival. “I thought you were better than that. Jesus, Addison, how dumb can you be?”
“Hey,” she snapped, hands balled into fists at her side. My little fighter, ready to come out swinging.
I tugged her behind me, putting myself between her and her brother, and shoved hard against Levi’s chest. “Don’t fucking talk to her like that. You’re my best friend and I love you, but don’t think for a second I won’t lay you out.”
“You’re gonna lay me out?” he asked incredulously. “Are you kidding me? You just banged my sister in your fucking truck like she’s nothing more than a desperate puck bunny. If anyone’s coming out swinging, it’s me.”
“You’re both wrong. I’m the one who’s gonna throw a punch.” Addison stepped around me and glared at her brother. “My God, Levi, get a grip. I’m twenty-eight! You’re acting like I’m sixteen and you caught a boy in my room.”
“And you’re acting like an idiot. What exactly did you think was going to happen here? That you were somehow different from all the other women who throw themselves at him? Didn’t we just talk about this?”
I snapped my gaze to his because what the fuck?
He and I had already had this conversation at the warehouse, and I thought I’d set him straight.
Thought I’d been clear that the tabloids reported nothing but lies.
But based on what he was saying, that was the furthest thing from the truth.
“What, you tried to scare her away from me? Are you fucking serious?”
“You’re damn right I did. And don’t even try to pretend you wouldn’t have done the same fucking thing if you were in my shoes and this was one of your sisters.
I can’t believe you did this to her. Is the well so goddamn dry in this town that you had to fuck my sister just because she’s the first convenient piece of ass you could find? ”
“What the fuck did you just say?” My voice was deceptively calm, though I was anything but. Not when he’d reduced Addison’s and my relationship down to nothing more than fucking. And sure as hell not when he’d demeaned her like that, belittling her as nothing but a quick lay.
“You heard me.” Levi stepped close until we stood toe-to-toe. Not many men could look me in the eyes, but he could, and his gaze was nothing but fire. The last time I’d seen him this furious had been years ago, that anger directed at his father. But this was all for me.
“First of all,” Addison said, shoving her way between Levi and me and shooting a glare at her brother. “Fuck you. I’m not a convenient piece of ass. I’m the least convenient person in this whole family, and everyone knows it! Second, if that was all Chase wanted, he would’ve stopped years ago.”
Levi froze at her words, then shifted his cold stare to me. “Years?”
I blew out a sigh and scrubbed a hand over my mouth, knowing just how fucked I was. This was not how I envisioned him finding out about his sister and me, but there was nothing I could do about it now.
“Well…I definitely did not mean for that particular piece of information to come out,” Addison said, glancing back at me with a grimace.
“But it doesn’t matter. You’re acting like children.
And your friendship is too important to let whatever is going on between me and Chase ruin it, so get the fuck over yourselves.
” She pointed to an empty bench several yards away.
“Now go over there and discuss this rationally like the grown-ass men you are.”
She didn’t wait for us to respond, just pressed a hand on each of our backs and shoved us in that direction. I glanced at Levi, who met my gaze with an unflinching stare of his own. Then we both did as she’d told us to and headed toward the bench.
“Actually, you know what?” she called from behind us. “Maybe I should just—”
“Nope,” Avery said. “You told them to handle it. They don’t need a referee.” Then, louder to reach Levi and me, she called, “Isn’t that right, boys?”
I glanced over at my best friend, whose anger had melted away in the time it’d taken us to walk over here. With my gaze locked on his, I said, “We’ll be fine.”
He studied me for a long moment before huffing out a breath and shaking his head. “Will we? I’m not so sure. You’ve been fucking around with my sister behind my back for years? And I’m just supposed to, what? Shrug it off?”
I sat down on the bench, waiting for him to join me. Once he did, I said, “Look, man, I’m sorry you found out this way. But I’m not sorry about being with her. After this long, there was no easy way to tell you.”
He breathed out a humorless laugh. “You could’ve told me from the beginning.”
I was pretty sure he had no idea the beginning was a decade ago, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to bring that up now. Especially when it involved my taking her virginity. “No. I couldn’t have. For one thing, she didn’t want me to. For another, it was none of your business.”
“My sister sure as fuck is my business.”
I shook my head. “Not about this.”
“And since when does what she want override our friendship?”
I could’ve sugarcoated it. Told him what he wanted to hear—that it didn’t. But I’d lied to him enough. And now that everything was out in the open between us, I wasn’t going to keep even more from him. So, with a shrug, I said, “Since day fucking one.”
He paused for a long beat and stared at me, as if the answer surprised him. “And when was that?”
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.”
“Oh, that’s fucking great.”
“What are you really mad about here? That I didn’t tell you?
Because I can understand that. And I’m sorry that you found out this way, but I can’t go back in time and change it.
” I rested my elbows on my knees, my hands hanging between my spread legs as I glanced over at him.
“Or are you mad it’s me she’s with? Because if that’s the case, we’ve got a hell of a lot more problems than this because that shouldn’t be an issue.
I’m your best fucking friend. Your brother in everything but blood.
You know me. You know who I am. And you know I’d never do anything to hurt her. ”
“No? Then why’ve you strung her along for years?”
“Strung her along?” I breathed out a laugh. “Man, I’ve been trying to lock her down for years.”
He was silent for several moments, shock written clearly across his face. Finally, with disbelief heavy in his tone, he said, “You’re serious.”
“As a heart attack.”
“So, what…you’re in love with her?”
I glanced over at him and shook my head. “I know this has been a bit of a mindfuck for you, but I’m sure as hell not going to tell you that before I tell her.”
If I thought he’d been shocked before, it had nothing on him now. He stared at me, openmouthed, for what felt like forever, trying to read something in my expression. Probably trying to find a crack in my demeanor to prove I was lying. But he wasn’t going to find it here.
Finally, he glanced over my shoulder, toward where we’d left Addison and Avery, before meeting my gaze again. “So, you’re into her.”
I barked out a laugh. “You could say that.”
He shook his head and blew out a long breath. “This is a lot to wrap my head around. Shit, man, you were right there with me in high school, scaring off any fucker who looked at her.”
“I was. But you and I had very different motives.”
He lifted his brows. “Even back then?”
I dipped my chin in a nod. “Even back then.”
“You want to be with her.”
It wasn’t a question, but I answered it all the same. “More than anything.”
“And how is that supposed to work? You live in Vancouver.”
“I already told you…that’s a conversation I owe her before anyone else.”
He met my gaze head on, no longer questioning but accepting. Standing, he tipped his chin in the direction we’d come from, one brow raised as if in challenge. “Then what the fuck are you waiting for?”
That was as much of a green light as I was going to get from him.
It was also a good fucking question. I’d been avoiding Addison this week, getting my shit in order so I could tell her my plans.
Finally come clean about the discussion I’d had with my coach and the medical team.
Let her know exactly what my future was going to look like.
What I hoped our future could look like.
I pushed to stand, intent on pulling her into a darkened corner or the back seat of my truck or wherever the hell I could, just so we didn’t have to talk out in the open where anyone could eavesdrop.
Instead, I turned around and came face-to-face with the rest of her brothers. Not to mention her concerned best friend and Mabel, who held her phone in front of her as if she was recording, as well as what appeared to be half of Starlight Cove waiting in the wings.
And all of them were standing between me and my girl.