Chapter 14 #3
“I’m so sorry.” Tyler says in a nasally voice. “I’m so sorry,” he says again.
I reach out and pat his arm. “It was my fault. Ouch!” I flinch when Mac touches my face gently.
“Be still,” he orders. “Let me look.”
I subside, hearing Tyler’s frantic breathing loud in the suddenly quiet room.
“Okay,” I tell Mac. “But look with your eyes and not your bloody sausage fingers.”
His mouth twitches, and he touches my cheekbone gently. “You’re going to have a bruise.”
“I can’t believe this,” Tyler says, still a tissue to his face. “Mum would be so mad at me.”
“She’d be mad at you for this ?” I say incredulously.
I jerk away from Mac when he cups my cheek. “Ouch, that hurt,” I scold him.
I turn back to my brother. “I love you, Tyler.”
Mac goes rigid, but I ignore him. “You’re my brother, and I will always love you,” I tell Tyler.
Now Mac’s hand tightens on my shoulder, but I keep staring at Tyler. “But if you think this, of all the things you’ve done in the past six months, is what Mum would be mad about, you’re a bigger twat than recent events would suggest.”
He sighs, and the weary sound hurts my soul. I lean into him, and he puts his head gently against mine in a defeated gesture. Mac hovers close, watching us intently.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” Tyler says.
“What’s true?” I ask, tearing my gaze away from Mac.
A spark of anger appears in Tyler’s eyes as he looks at my silent protector. “This fucker is keeping you here. This is where the money came from for Ben.”
Mac sucks in a breath, but I ignore him. Shit, I need to do damage control super quickly.
“Don’t be so bloody stupid,” I snap.
“ What ?”
“It’s like you’ve been reading Aunty Sue’s mafia romances. Grow a brain cell, for god’s sake, or your other one will get lonely.”
“So…?” He falters.
I glare at him. “So? Did you mean to say sorry for having such a ridiculous idea? As if I’d hook myself out. Tyler, you know me. Mac isn’t my punter. He’s my—” I hesitate. “He’s my boyfriend ,” I say firmly.
Mac goes completely still, but I can’t look at him, fearing I’ll give the game away. Instead, I hold my brother’s gaze. “I’ve been seeing him for a while.”
He stares at both of us. “Since when?”
“Since ages. When all the shit kicked off, I turned to him for help. He’s letting me stay here, Tyler.
It’s his flat, but he doesn’t live here.
He’s been really good to me.” The honesty is stark in my voice because it’s the truth.
The situation I found myself in could have gone even more wrong.
I could have ended up with someone who didn’t care and treated me cruelly.
Instead, I got Mac, who might be emotionally unavailable but has still always been good to me. “He’s kind to me,” I say.
Tyler slumps. “I’m sorry for hitting you,” he says to Mac.
Mac clears his throat beside me, his eyes searing the side of my face. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. It was an honest mistake.”
Tyler licks his lip. “I don’t know about that.” He tries a smile and winces at the pain in his nose. “I reckon Wes might be right about our Aunty Sue. She turned every tiff into a full-on horse’s head in a bed.”
An awkward silence drops until Mac finally breaks it. “I’m going to find my wallet,” he says to me. “Try not to move around. I want to check you over.”
“I’m fine,” I immediately say.
He rolls his eyes. “Humour me.”
“Every minute of every day.”
“Cheeky.” He gently touches my cheek, his eyes soft. Then he moves silently out of the room into the bedroom.
I turn back to Tyler, to find him watching me.
“Sorry,” he says. “Shit. I can’t believe I thought you were hooking. Or that I hit your boyfriend. What a first impression of our family.”
“To be honest, that’s probably the best one he could have at the moment.”
“True.” Silence falls, and then he stirs. “I’m going to make this right.” He looks towards the bedroom. “He’s where you got the money from for Ben, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll pay him back.”
“Tyler, we need to talk about?—”
“No,” he interrupts. “I’m going. Walk me out.”
“You don’t have to go.” I climb to my feet and follow him to the door. “ Please stay.”
“I can’t. I have to do the right thing.” He huffs. “That would make a change.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to get help. I know you don’t trust me.” He holds up a hand when I start to protest. “It’s okay. It’s right that you don’t, but I’m going to earn it back.”
“How?”
“Please don’t ask. I hadn’t got that far.”
I huff a laugh, and he pulls me into his arms, dropping a kiss on my head. “Sorry about the smack.”
“Don’t be. It happens to everyone.”
He sets me back. “I feel better knowing you have a boyfriend. And that Mac is someone who will look after you.”
“It’s still casual,” I feel the need to say. “It isn’t like that,” I add slowly.
“I know. It’s something more. You’re in love with him.”
“Shush, for fuck’s sake,” I whisper, sneaking a look behind me. I relax slightly when I see Mac isn’t there. “It’s early days,” I settle for saying—a statement that is both true and nebulous enough not to get me in trouble later.
“Might be, but you’ve still fallen for him.”
“That means nothing.”
“It means something to him. Look at how angry he was. I reckon he thought you’d got someone on the side.”
“Probably. That’s a bit too much of an Aunty Sue plotline for me.”
“She would definitely read it.” I snort, and he shrugs. “He’s got some sort of deep feeling for you.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“It’s not silly to want him to return my brother’s feelings.”
There’s a noise from behind me, and I gulp when I turn and see Mac at the bedroom door. How much did he overhear? His expression is cool once more. All feelings and emotions are locked away in the place where only he has the key.
I suppress a sigh. The last several minutes have been a disaster, but it was sort of nice to know he’d be angry if I had someone else.
I turn back to my brother. “No radio silence,” I instruct him. “Please just message me every night before you sleep, even if it’s just the sleepy emoji. Then I can sleep easy knowing you’re okay.”
He sighs. “Alright. But I won’t phone, and I meant what I said, Wes. Keep your fucking nose out of this and don’t ask any more questions. I don’t want you on the wrong sort’s radar.” He looks beyond me at Mac. “Please tell him to stop.”
“I’ve known Wes long enough to know that is an impossible task,” Mac says drily.
Incredibly, Tyler chuckles. “Welcome to the Archer family.” He kisses my nose and touches the tender part of my cheekbone as gently as a butterfly. “See you around, Wes.”
“Sooner rather than later,” I tell him. Then he’s gone, and the sound of the door shutting is almost startling in the quiet room.
When I turn around I’m surprised to find Mac standing closer. “Did you get your wallet?”
He nods and then hesitates. “Come into the bedroom. I want to look at your cheek.”
I follow him into the bedroom. The bed has been made, and the clothes put away, and somehow, the knowledge that he stood in here and did this so I could have some time with my brother is the straw that breaks me. To my horror, tears come into my eyes.
“ Hey ,” Mac says, drawing me into the bathroom and helping me up so I sit on the counter. “Wes, no.”
“Sorry,” I say, dabbing gingerly at the tears leaking out of my eyes and then wincing as I touch the sore spot on my face. “I’m so sorry. I’m being silly.”
“Stop it,” he says in a slightly panicked voice. “I can’t bear to see you cry, so please don’t do that.”
I sniff again. “Well, seeing as you’ve asked so nicely.”
His face is screwed up in some emotion, and suddenly, everything with my brother—all the complicated emotions—overwhelms me, and I start to cry in earnest. Then I gasp as he draws me into a hug.
His grip is tight, and he surrounds me with his body as if protecting me from the world.
I feel safe and comfortable as I cry, and I grab his suit lapels, trying to drag him closer and closer.
I don’t know how many minutes he holds me, but eventually, I realise that he’s rocking me slightly, his head resting on mine as he makes comforting sounds.
“I’m not doing as you told me,” I finally say with a loud hiccup.
He grips me closer. “Don’t worry about it. I gave up on that ridiculous idea a long time ago.”
“Cheeky,” I say, sniffing and burying my face in his chest.
He freezes. “Please tell me you didn’t just wipe your nose on me,” he says in a horrified voice that somehow makes me laugh.
“I think I might have done.”
He makes a disgusted sound, and I laugh again, smothering the sound in his jacket.
“I’m so sorry,” I tell him. “I’m not laughing.”
“ Really ? Because that evil cackle suggests otherwise.”
That makes me laugh harder. It stops abruptly when he kisses my face, the gesture so tender and completely without the usual sexual overtones that it makes me blink. Then he pulls back grabbing some loo roll and offering it to me. “Blow.”
I lean forward and promptly do as he said.
“Was it wrong that I thought you’d do it yourself without me holding the tissue?” he asks in a revolted tone.
I snort and take the paper from him and wipe my face while he watches me quietly. When I’ve finished, he wets a towel and completes the job to his satisfaction.
He winces when I jerk as he hits a sore spot. “Sorry,” he whispers.
“It’s okay. It’s fine. Just a bit sore.” Finally finished, he cups my face in his big palm, looking at me intently. “Will I live?” I say flippantly.
He taps my chin gently. “Not if you keep getting between people fighting. Whatever possessed you?”
“I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
His eyes widen. “You wanted to make sure I was okay?”
“Does that offend your macho pride? Don’t worry. It’s just that Tyler was angry, and I didn’t want him to hurt you. We’d all have felt terrible about that,” I finish earnestly.
His mouth twitches. “Me, probably most.”