Chapter Ten #2
“Okay. Marry me,” Ethan said. “Make that vow with me, and one day, we’ll sign the paperwork.
As far as I’m concerned, if you take that vow now, Gene, we’re already married.
We have a joint account. We share a home.
We sleep together. We work together. If you need that vow, make it with me.
I’ll keep it, but then, you need to keep it too.
This can’t be one-sided. What’s good for me has to be good for you too. ”
Gene was caught off guard.
Was he really saying he’d make that vow to him if he asked?
“Really?”
Ethan nodded.
“I don’t think about anyone else but you.
When I think of sex, or pleasure, it’s with you.
When I lost my job, all I thought was you’d not want me because I’m a deadbeat.
You’re who I think of and want to make proud.
I know what you found out about Callen rattled you, but I didn’t stay in Callen’s room last night.
I came back to our bed. I made my choice. ”
No lies were detected.
In fact, he had a point.
That made his heart race.
“You’ll never be a deadbeat.”
Ethan was honest.
“You come from a good family with a mother and father. You had football practice, and games where they came to watch you play. They cheered for you in college, and they had Christmases with presents and board games. If you tie yourself to me, you’re marrying down.
You see what I come from. My own father didn’t even show up to see me.
My grandfather told you to take me out of here.
My brother is his own mess. This is my reality. ”
Gene was horrified that he saw himself as less than him.
Only, he let him finish.
“Marrying you…Gene, that’s marrying up for me.
That’s me climbing out of the pit of Hell to reach Heaven.
I’m the one getting the prize. I don’t understand how you think I’m going to let go of this.
You’re like winning the lottery. You said it yourself.
I’m easy to love, but hard to navigate my traumas.
You’re easy to love, and there are no obstacles. You have the curse in all of this.”
Oh, fuck him.
His words just came back to haunt him.
And they clearly haunted Ethan.
That hurt Gene.
“Ethan.”
He stopped him.
“I’m going to go check on my brother and get ready for work.
Just know that in this relationship, I’d never say no to marrying you.
We both know that logically, you should say no to marrying me.
It’s not like bringing me home to meet your family would end well.
Notice my fucked-up gene pool never batted an eye at me bringing a prize home.
You can’t say the same thing. That’s the reality of it.
You’re the prize. I’m the burden. Let’s be honest.”
That stunned him and made Gene blink. He didn’t know what to say to that. He never thought Ethan thought that little about himself, but clearly, he did.
Gene just watched as Ethan left the shower and wrapped a towel around his body.
And Gene was left to decode all of that.
Oh, and he didn’t like it.
Not.
At.
All.
It felt like something so laden down with TNT that it could, and would, blow up in their faces.
Had he hurt Ethan with what he’d said last night about him being easy to love, but essentially, his world was a minefield?
It seemed like he had.
Standing there in the water, he didn’t want him to feel that way. So, he finished getting cleaned up.
And he had a lot to consider.
A REAL LOT.
Because somehow, they were in worse shape today than last night.
Jesus Christ.
This was a mess.
* * * Blackhawk & Cantrell * * *
Across the Hall
Callen’s Room
Waking up, he heard water running, and Callen wasn’t quite sure where it was coming from, either. Was there a shower nearby?
Opening his eyes, Callen sat up and looked around to find he wasn’t in his own bed.
Nope.
Oh, and on top of that, he had the mother of all pounding headaches.
Holy.
Fuck.
What ran him over, and why the hell was he in a hotel room?
Oh, Jesus.
Who did he sleep with in some drunken stupor?
At the rate he fucked up, it could be literally anyone. Well, now, he had to figure out how bad this was going to be.
All he could hope was no one got hurt, and he didn’t knock someone up.
The more he tried to think about the previous night, the more his head hurt, and his belly rolled in revulsion.
What did he drink?
Gasoline?
He believed he was one fart away from blowing the building to kingdom come.
Getting out of bed, he saw his clothes on the floor, and he hadn’t been wearing those particular ones when he got home last night.
He tried to piece it together. All he could remember was going home after telling Ethan to go.
Callen tried to remember what happened, but he simply couldn’t.
Great.
He was a black-out drunk like his sperm donor. Hopefully, he’d piece it together.
Going to the bathroom door, he pushed it open and headed toward the shower curtain. It was time to figure out who he’d fucked last night, and how bad this was going to be.
Peeking around the side, he saw something he hadn’t expected to see.
Ethan.
Well, shit.
“Uh…”
At the sound of his voice, his brother turned around as he rinsed the shampoo from his hair.
“Well, look who is up. How you feeling, dumbass?” he asked.
Callen lifted a brow.
“Pardon?”
When his hair was shampoo-free, Ethan hit the water and grabbed the towel he’d worn from his room across the hall.
Yeah, he’d classed the place up by walking naked in a towel across a hotel hallway to shower in his brother’s bathroom—a brother who confessed his feelings last night.
You couldn’t get classier than that in their world.
“I’m guessing you don’t recall last night,” he said, grateful for that.
Now, if he could just erase his memory, and Gene’s, it would be a better day. Only, Blackhawk wasn’t lucky like that.
Not.
At.
All.
At his brother’s words, Callen’s heart was racing.
He didn’t.
But he was in his underwear and Ethan was naked in the shower. There were no women here, or Gene. It was only them. He began trying to put it together.
“No.”
Ethan dried his hair and then tied it back.
“What do you recall?” he asked.
If possible, he was taking Callen’s confession to his grave. Now, he just needed to see what the man remembered.
Callen thought about it.
“I had a fight with you over three bodies, and then I got a ride home. I saw your letter and then started drinking.”
Yeah, well, that letter was gone.
Ethan took it back when he’d left the man’s home. He didn’t need that haunting Callen.
Or him.
“What else?” he asked.
Callen was trying not to check him out or think about what he wished happened.
Instead, he focused on the previous night.
“I was drinking and…”
Yep.
Ethan knew when Callen finally figured it out. What gave it away was the look of absolute horror on his face.
“Kaya Cheek showed up.”
And there it was.
“Oh, did she ever, genius. You did it up good this time, drunk and disorderly.”
Callen wanted to puke again.
“Oh, holy shit,” he muttered. “What did I do?” he asked. “What the fuck did I do?”
Ethan was to the point.
“Kaya Cheek. Again. Your dick was wet, and she was not wearing panties. Put two and two together, Callen James Whitefox.”
Callen felt nauseous.
In fact, he couldn’t keep the bile down. Knowing he let that skank ride him…
Yeah, he puked in the nearby toilet.
Oh, and it was violent.
To Ethan, this proved his brother was still hungover. He’d gotten him to puke up some of the booze, but Callen had ingested a great deal of Jack.
When he was done vomiting, Ethan handed him a hotel glass with water in it.
Then, he crouched down.
“I showed up to talk to you, and found you so drunk you could have died. She got you to drink an entire bottle of Jack, my dude. She got you so liquored up that she was going to get you to cum in her. What’s the first rule of survival on the rez as a Blackhawk, Callen James?” he asked.
He closed his eyes.
“Don’t let Kaya Cheek get knocked up.”
Yeah, that was it.
Too bad he didn’t remember that when wearing three-inch-thick beer goggles.
“Well, I got there just in time, and I tossed that skank out. Like I said, your dick was wet, so you’d better hope and pray it was from her mouth, and not that bear trap of a vag.”
Callen struggled to remember.
Oh, and it took a toll on him. His brain was screaming from dehydration and being forced to work.
Finally, he could remember most of it.
“It was head. She didn’t get on yet. I can remember some of it. Did we take a shower together?” he asked.
Ethan laughed.
Oh, that was the least of their issues.
Apparently.
“Yeah, to sober you up, dumbass. I also had to make you puke, so you didn’t die. Are you competing with the sperm donor for the dumbest mistakes on a twenty-square-mile parcel of land? Like knocking up Kaya Cheek? Timothy will skin your ass when he finds out about this.”
Callen rested his head on his arms on the toilet.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Ethan wasn’t done.
It appeared Callen didn’t recall what he said to him, so he was NOT bringing it up.
EVER.
No matter what secret they shared with each other, it could never happen.
“I want something in return for saving your ass.”
He looked up.
“What?”
Ethan shared.
“I want you to stay here and sober up. Take the day. Then, I want you to go to Timothy’s. You cannot be alone with Kaya Cheek wandering around looking for revenge. She’s going to be on the warpath. I threw her out, naked and angry.”
He laughed a little.
“Did you take pictures?”
That made him laugh, too.
“No. I was too busy worried that she’d be my fucking sister-in-law when she forced you to marry her. This family has enough issues. We do NOT need to procreate.”
He looked ill over the mere thought he’d have to tie the knot to that nightmare.
“Yeah, so no, no pictures. I need you to not do stupid shit, Callen James, because I won’t be here to save you.”
That hung there.