25. “We Are Family” #2
Martha blew out an annoyed breath.
And that was when it happened.
After the storm of yesterday, our brief sojourn under the sun of good friends (even ones who were getting in your face), good food and lunchtime cocktails went behind the clouds and the rain started pouring.
“There you are.”
I knew that voice, and it made my skin turn cold.
I turned to see my brother there.
Considering Easton was cocky, spoiled, a mama’s boy and had the personality of a bro podcaster, it was really too bad he was so good-looking.
He got Dad’s blond hair and blue eyes, he wasn’t super tall, but he wasn’t short by any means. He worked hard at his body, so he was lean and fit. And when he wasn’t in surgery or in his office, he liked to be outside, so he had a nice tan and looked what he was: healthy and active.
I felt Javi straighten beside me.
“Easton,” was all I could force out.
“Since you’re not responding to texts or voicemails, thought I’d find you personally to thank you for fucking up my birthday,” he announced.
I felt Javi get super, double, crazy pissed beside me.
Easton didn’t miss it, and even if Javi was about two of Easton, that didn’t mean Easton hesitated even a second to look at him and ask, “You the caveman that hijacked Dad at work?”
Ummmmmmmm…
Unh-unh.
No way.
I stood. “Maybe we should talk somewhere else.”
“Why?” Easton returned. “Your caveman waltzed right up to Dad’s receptionist and demanded to see him. Tit for tat, Harlow.” He threw out an arm. “You don’t want this going down at your work, you should have brought your boy to heel.”
I didn’t need How to Handle Alpha classes to know you didn’t say stuff like that about an alpha with that alpha right there .
I knew I was correct in this when I heard a growl, some other scary noises, chairs scraping, I sensed people shifting.
But, because it was more urgent even than all of that, I was focused on what was happening inside me.
Something was dying.
No, something had been dying for a really long time, and now it was just…
Dead.
My brother didn’t even allow me to introduce him to my boyfriend. The man I was falling in love with. The man I’d talked kids with. The man I was doubling up on life stuff to share houses with.
My brother probably spent the last hour tracking me down just to be crappy to me. He made great money and could be doing practically anything on a sunny Sunday in Phoenix, but what he chose to do was find me just to be mean to me and bring rain to darken my bright day.
God, that thing was so dead .
I knew it was something I wouldn’t mourn, because it had never been mine in the first place.
It was the fact I wouldn’t mourn it that was so very sad.
Easton, being Easton, didn’t know that he’d delivered the death blow to something crucial in me.
He just kept talking.
“Mom was a mess. It was clear she and Dad had a fight before they showed at the restaurant. For your information, they’ve been fighting a lot lately.
He’s been up in her face about contacting you to work things out, when it should be you reaching out to apologize.
It was tense. Not one of us enjoyed the evening. All thanks to you.”
“Baby,” Javi whispered sinisterly in my ear.
A warning.
Shut Easton down, or he would.
I turned to him and looked him right in the eye.
He blinked at what he saw.
“It’s okay,” I assured.
He looked hard at me like he needed to believe what he was seeing.
Then, in a much different whisper, he said, “Spine of steel.”
Jessie, however, didn’t hear us.
“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” she asked Easton.
“Are you in this conversation?” Easton drawled sarcastically.
“I’m aware you think the world revolves around you, jackass,” Jessie retorted, earning Eric putting his hand on the small of her back, probably to tell her to butt out, but I knew no way my bestie was going to stand for Easton being a dick to me.
On the best of days, she could barely stomach him.
Easton hunting me down to be mean was a no-go.
“But there are, like, twenty people sitting here having lunch and cocktails, and you walked right up and got in her shit, with her real family sitting right here. So what did you expect?”
“Her real family?” Easton snarled.
“She didn’t hesitate to meet us for lunch when we made plans just about two hours ago, but she sure was nowhere near Le Amé last night,” Luna pointed out.
Easton scowled at Luna.
I sat down and reached for my paloma.
“Harlow, I’m talking to you,” Easton dismissed the others and snapped at me.
I looked up at him and said calmly, “The reason I didn’t reply to your texts or voicemails is because I’ve blocked you. Before the day is through, I’ll block Mom and Dad too. Please don’t worry about Javi visiting you at work or home or anywhere. It’s done with us. He doesn’t need to.”
Easton’s brows hit his hairline, which I just then noticed was receding. “It’s done with us?”
I took a sip of my paloma and said, “Yep.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Easton demanded.
“Funny how much educatin’ these doctors get, but they get their big degrees and still don’t know English,” Shanti quipped as she and the rest of the troop, feeling my vibe, also took their seats.
Easton stepped closer to me, probably to get my attention, but now I was dipping my Mexican eggroll in green chili.
“I won’t be trackin’ you down to have a word,” Javi said dangerously. “But you get one step closer to my woman right now, I’ll be hauling your ass out the door.”
“Did you just threaten me?” Easton asked, sounding shocked and repulsed.
I bit into my eggroll.
Ooooooooo .
So good!
Lucia did fusion like nobody’s business, even when she wasn’t there!
“I look like a man who makes threats?” Javi asked.
“Actually, Javi will have to fight us off, since we’ll be hauling your ass out of here, you don’t get the hint and leave,” Jessie put in.
Easton turned his attention back to me. “What does ‘done with us’ mean?”
I dipped my eggroll and took another bite of it.
“Harlow!” he bit.
And then the most surprising voice in the universe for that moment in time and what was happening entered the conversation.
Dream.
“What it means is that Harlow has no contacted you,” she stated primly, like she was a teacher and Easton was a very slow student.
“It means she will not be accepting communications from you, and she will not be offering the same. It means she will not be spending time with you for any reason, including birthdays and family holidays. It means, for whatever her reasons, she’s at the end of her tether with you. ”
And then, blowing me (and everyone) away, Dream delivered a doozie.
“She’s the kindest, most cheerful woman I’ve ever met.
You walked in, she saw you, and it was the first time since I met her, which was years ago, that I saw her face fall.
I don’t know what you did to her, but I can guess with your behavior since you arrived how you’ve treated her.
So, to end, as Harlow has declared her intention to separate herself from you and the rest of her family, it is your only recourse to respect her decision and leave her alone. ”
I was staring up at Dream, blinking rapidly, and I was pretty sure my mouth was hanging open.
I didn’t have to look to know all the other Avenging Angels were doing the same.
I felt Javi’s surprise, and this was reciprocated by anyone who knew Dream at the table.
“The ‘leaving her alone’ part of that should start right now,” Dream warned.
“Who the fuck are you?” Easton asked irately.
Dream straightened her shoulders and shook her part braided, part ratted hippie hair (that looked cute, she totally worked the hippie-dippy thing, probably one of the reasons why she got knocked up three times).
“I work at this establishment, and we reserve the right to refuse service for appropriate reasons. And my appropriate reason for kicking you out is that you’re a huge dick and a major downer.”
I heard Willow titter, Ally snort, Annette hoot and Shirleen whisper, “Oowee.”
Easton looked down at me. “This isn’t done.”
“It’s done,” Javi stated.
“I don’t even know your name,” Easton sneered at Javi.
“You don’t need to know my name to understand this…” Javi stood (oh boy). “Is…” Javi stepped around my chair and closer to Easton (oh shoot!), and Cap, Brady and Roam took his back (yikes!). “ Done .”
Easton was finally clueing into a few things about the Hottie Squad, albeit tardily, if the pallor of his skin was anything to go by.
“You with me?” Javi asked deceptively quietly.
Easton’s gaze was pinging to all the boys, but he mostly kept an eye on the biggest, and the most pissed.
My guy.
Easton stepped away but tried to fire one more shot at me. “You’re going to break Mom and Dad’s hearts.”
I tried not to let that make my heart clench, but it was unavoidable.
My heart clenched.
Hard.
But just the night before, I advised Javi that he needed to look after himself. Do what needed to be done to protect his peace of mind.
And as much as I hated it (and man, did I hate it), I needed to do this to protect my peace of mind.
“I know how much that hurts, and it isn’t what I want, but to protect myself from constantly feeling the same, this is my decision,” I replied.
Easton started to get pissy again. I had so much experience with it, I noticed right away.
“I don’t get—” he began.
But Javi stepped in front of me, cutting off Easton’s eyeline.
“I’m thinking you’re not with me,” Javi noted.
“Back off, asshole. I’m with you. And fuck it, it’s not like she’s a loss,” Easton returned.
There were lots of angry noises at that, including Shirleen asking, “Am I needing to take off my earrings?”
But Javi said softly, “Oh yeah, she is. And you know she is. That’s why you’re here.
Because your father is sick of playing second fiddle to his son and maybe even thinks its sick how up your ass his wife is.
He feels guilt, as he should, that he let Harlow swing in the breeze.
And he’s wondering why he wasted so much of his life with an elitist bitch who spoiled his boy and abused his girl.
Your mom convinces herself she’s perfect by making Harlow feel small.
And since you didn’t get anyone kissing your ass last night because they were all up in their own heads, you realized that Harlow is the one that keeps the balance in your family.
She’s your mother’s punching bag. The only joy your father has.
And your opportunity to convince yourself you’re something special when you’re just another average white guy with a good education paid for by his rich parents and nothing more. ”
Oh.
Wow.
We hadn’t talked about it all that much, but Javi sure had a lock on my family dynamic.
“Are you done?” Easton asked stiffly.
“That answer has been relayed to you repeatedly,” Javi responded.
I couldn’t see what was going on, but there was a very long, weighty pause where I figured my brother was trying to win a staring contest with Javi.
Unsurprisingly, he lost and stormed out.
I finished my eggroll.
The boys sat down.
Martha, who, in the meantime, had found herself a chair and pulled it to our table (so very Martha), slurped her coffee, leaned toward Shirleen and said, “I kinda don’t mind they get kidnapped, and their apartments broken into, as long as no one is hurt, seeing as, with these girls, nothing is ever boring. ”
“Welcome to our world, sister,” Shirleen bragged smugly. Then she took a sip of the appletini Dream brought her.
Dream was also hanging around, so Luna said, “Dream, that was really cool of you.”
I tensed for Dream to go back to being Dream, but today was going to be full of surprises, I knew, when she replied, “I know I got this job only because Tito and Tex like you.” There was a very long moment of silence before she forced out, “Thanks.”
Luna was staring at her, shocked.
We were all smiling at each other, hopeful.
Tex walked into the room and boomed at Dream, “Probation over. You’re officially hired.”
And then he walked right out.
I glanced over at Tito.
He was still poking at his iPad.
But he was smiling.