Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Keats
I stand in front of her, with all of my fucked up bullshit exposed, and my heart laid bare.
Until today, Berk was the only person who knew that Amber was unfaithful.
I told him the night I caught her cheating.
I went to a bar in midtown while she cleared her belongings out of my home. I drank to numb the pain, and then it turned into more.
I swallowed shot after shot to chase away everything.
By the time the bartender got my phone out of my hands and called my brother, I was falling over.
Berk arranged for Sinclair to stay at his place. Then he got in a cab and came to get me.
I cried on his shoulder.
I don’t know what the fuck was wrong with me.
His wife died less than two months before that, but he helped me up the stairs. He put me into the bed in the guestroom and promised he’d help me burn my bed.
That never happened.
Instead, he ordered me a new mattress, and on the day it arrived, I apologized for letting him down.
He hugged me and told me that I was lucky I found out about Amber when I did. He wanted me to know that my pain didn’t matter any less than his. I needed to process the loss I was experiencing.
I shouldn’t have done that by bringing a string of women home, but I did.
Sinclair was living here at the time. She stayed on the top floor and when she’d forget to close the door to the suite, Dudley wandered down the stairs and into the arms of the strangers I’d bring home.
Maren watches me as I eat my dinner.
She hasn’t said anything since I confessed my sins. The only words out of her mouth were about the food and how good it is.
She places her fork on the island. Wiping a linen napkin over her lips, she turns to me.
“I loved a man once.”
I close my eyes against the unexpected assault of emotions. Anger and sadness swirl inside of me. I swear I feel regret even though I didn’t meet her until recently.
I would have given anything to be her first and only love.
“Who?” Curiosity drives the question from me.
“Kollin,” she stops short of supplying his surname. “He was my supervisor.”
“At Knott?”
With a shake of her head, she looks at me. “No, it was a long time ago.”
Relief floods through me. I want this guy to be a distant memory, not my competition.
“I thought we would get married.” She half-laughs. “I was young and stupid.”
“What happened?”
A deep sigh escapes her. “Our future wasn’t what he wanted anymore, so it ended.”
I rest my fork on the plate in front of me. “Did you still want it?”
Her head snaps to the side. Her eyes lock on mine. “At the time, I did, but looking back, I realize it wasn’t what I needed. He wasn’t what I needed.”
I’m what you need. I will always be what you need.
I swallow those words with a mouthful of wine.
“I’ve changed a lot since I was with him.” Her hands fold onto her lap. “Isn’t it funny how we envision our future at one point in our lives, but fate takes it in an entirely different direction?”
“I’m glad fate brought you to my office.”
Her hand reaches out to cup my cheek. “I am too, Keats.”
“We just chased all the skeletons out of our closets.” I perk a brow. “I, for one, feel fucking relieved.”
My phone rings.
I glance to where it’s sitting on the counter. “Who the hell is that?”
The corners of Maren’s lips edge up into a smile. “You won’t know until you answer it.”
“I’ll ignore it.” I gaze into her eyes. “They can wait.”
It stops but starts up on a ring again almost immediately.
Maren tosses it some side-eye. “Our clients get into a lot of trouble. You should check.”
I stare at her, feeling more connected to her than I’ve ever felt to another human being. “Our clients.”
A blush covers her cheeks. “You call them that.”
“Because they are our clients.” I press a soft kiss to her mouth. “Just like we ate our dinner, and you’re wearing our robe.”
Her gaze drops to the front of the robe. “This is our robe?”
“I want it to be,” I confess. “I want you to wear it whenever you’re here. I want you to feel at home here.”
She skims the pad of her thumb over my eyebrow. “We’re moving fast, Keats.”
We both glance at my phone when it starts ringing for the third time.
“Get the phone,” she insists with another kiss to my mouth. “Business first and then pleasure.”
“And then more pleasure after that?”
Her tongue darts over her bottom lip. “And more after that too.”
I sprint to the phone and scoop it into my palm. Berk’s name lights up the screen.
“What’s the emergency?”
“What do unicorns eat?”
I laugh when I realize that it’s Stevie on the other end of the call. I hear music in the distance. Classical music. That means my brother is working out.
I glance at the clock on the microwave.
“It’s way past your bedtime,” I point out.
“I was asleep, and then I woke up,” she chirps.
“Where’s your dad?”
“Lifting weights,” she groans. “He has bigger muscles than the hulk.”
If that’s true, I need to up my game. Competition is a healthy part of my relationship with my brother.
“Put him on the phone, Stevie.”
“Daddy!” she screams into the phone. “Keats wants to talk.”
I watch Maren as she pours us each another glass of wine. I’m grateful that she’s not rushing out of here. I want her beside me when I wake up.
“Hey.” My brother’s breathless voice takes over the conversation. “What’s going on? What do you need?”
“Give Stevie a kiss and put her back to bed.” I chuckle. “And don’t lift too much. You don’t want to hurt that old body of yours.”
“Go to Hello Street, Keats.”
That’s Berk code for go to hell.
I reciprocate in kind. “Only if you go fork yourself.”
Maren’s eyes widen.
“Goodnight, little brother.” He yawns. “You’re a sweet fool.”
That’s not code for anything. That’s what Berk said to me when I was a kid looking for the approval of the older brother he adored.
“I love you,” I say it because I mean it.
“I love you too,” he responds before he ends the call.
I silence my phone and set it on the counter. Maren is all I want to think about tonight. With the good grace of fate, this will be the beginning of a lifetime of nights to come.