Chapter Twenty-Five
I sprint after Bear, my heart hammering against my ribs, but I was too late. By the time I cross the threshold into the dining room, the air was already thick with a suffocating, hostile tension.
Mac’s eyes darts from Bear’s fuming, rigid posture straight to Jay. “Jay, do me a favor and take Natasha out to the yard for a bit?” she asks, her voice tight but remarkably controlled.
Jay didn’t need to be told twice. Nodding quickly, he scoops a confused Natasha up onto his back, murmuring something about a piggyback ride, and bolts out the back door. Hamish cast a long, cautious look over his shoulder before following them out, letting the screen door click shut behind them.
The second they were gone, the floodgates open.
“You had absolutely no right to go telling Danny that I didn’t deserve to be with her,” Bear snaps, his deep voice vibrating the silverware on the table.
Mac didn’t flinch. Instead, she slowly turns her head, leveling me with a fierce, icy glare. “So, what, you just run back and tell him every single little thing we say now?”
My cheeks flare a bright, hot crimson. I nervously shift my weight from one foot to the other. “I... I only brought it up as a joke, when I got off the phone with you the other week,” I mumble, suddenly wishing the hardwood floor would swallow me whole.
“Look, I didn’t put it exactly like that, Mitchell,” Mac argues, turning back to Bear and crossing her arms defensively. “I just simply stated that I thought she could do better.”
“Why? Because I went to state prison?” he hisses, stepping closer until he was looming over the edge of the table. “If your memory is failing you, Mac, let me remind you that I wasn’t the one who was actually supposed to go.”
“Mitch, man, stop—” Darren starts, raising a hand.
“Don’t you dare fucking defend her right now!” Bear roars, spinning on his brother.
“She is my wife!” Darren yells back, finally losing his own temper and standing up to face him. “And whether you like it or completely hate it, Mitchell, she is going to be in your life forever. Because she is the mother of my child.”
Bear let out a harsh, mocking scoff, rolling his eyes. “Whatever.”
“I just didn’t want Danny to get completely caught up in your mess, Bear,” Mac interjects, her voice losing some of its sharp edge, replaced by genuine exhaustion. “You literally relapsed just last year, and I didn’t want—”
“You relapsed?!” Darren snaps, his head whipping toward his brother, his eyes wide with an immediate, panicked betrayal.
“It isn’t a big fucking deal,” Bear growls, his jaw clenching tightly as he looks away. “I was lonely, and I had a weak moment, and—”
“I explicitly told you to come straight to me whenever you started having those thoughts, Mitchell!” Darren shouts, his voice cracking with emotion.
“Well, I didn’t,” Bear snaps fiercely. “And I haven’t touched the shit since then, so it’s completely irrelevant anyway.”
“It is a massive fucking deal when you are a recovering cocaine addict, Bear!” Darren spat.
“You were what?”
The entire room freezes. Every single head snaps toward the back door. Standing in the entryway, looking completely and utterly gobsmacked, was Jay.
“Jay—” Darren starts, his voice dropping into an immediate, guilty panic.
“Why the hell am I only just now hearing about any of this?” Jay demands, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and deep hurt as he marches directly into the center of the kitchen. He points a shaking finger at Bear, then at me. “And how on earth did Danny know about your history before your own biological brother did?!”
“Jay, look, we just didn’t want to worry you,” Darren says quickly, stepping forward to try and placate him.
Jay let out a harsh, breathless laugh. “What else have you guys been keeping from me? What other massive secrets are you hiding?”
The room fell into a dead, painful silence. Darren and Bear both look away, unable to meet their younger brother’s eyes. Finally, Mac let out a heavy, defeated sigh.
“Bear went to jail for Darren, Jay,” Mac says quietly.
Jay’s jaw drops. “What?!” he screams, looking between the two of them.
“I didn’t want him to miss Natasha’s birth,” Bear states flatly, his tone completely defensive, though he still couldn’t look Jay in the eye.
“Well... I mean, that’s incredibly sweet,” Jay murmurs, completely thrown off for a fraction of a second. Then, without warning, he wound up and punches Darren hard right in the bicep. “How could you let him do that, you idiot?!”
“I didn’t want to!” Darren argues fiercely, rubbing his arm. “But he refused to give me a choice. He wanted to get clean, and he insisted it was the only way it would actually stick.”
“I honestly cannot believe the two of you kept something this massive from me,” Jay huffs, his chest heaving as his eyes welled with tears. “I genuinely thought we were close. I thought we were a team.”
“We are sorry,” Bear grumbles roughly, the fight completely leaving his body at the sight of Jay’s genuine hurt.
Jay wipes his eyes quickly, then spins around to growl at Mac, pointing a firm finger at her chest. “And you. You have absolutely no right to decide who or what is good for Danny. She is an adult, and she gets to decide for herself. Personally? I think she made the absolute best decision of her life by choosing to be with Bear.”
Mac blinks caught off guard by his sudden fierceness, but a small, reluctant smirk slowly creeps back onto her face. “Well, yeah... we actually made a fifty-dollar bet on that, remember? You said they’d get together, and I said they wouldn’t.”
Jay’s intense anger instantly evaporates, a massive, triumphant grin breaking across his face as he nudges Bear’s solid ribs. “Easiest fifty bucks I have ever made in my entire life.”
Bear just scowls at him, though the tension in his broad shoulders finally began to thaw.
“Okay, seriously, from this exact moment on... absolutely no more keeping secrets from each other. Clear?” Darren says, looking at each of his brothers.
All the Roberts brothers nod in solemn agreement.
“Well... in that case, I guess I better go ahead and tell you guys the massive secret I’ve been keeping lately,” Jay murmurs, shifting his weight nervously.
Bear grunts, crossing his arms. “What?”
“Hamish and I are officially in a controlling relationship,” Jay announces casually.
Darren blinks, looking at his younger brother in total, utter confusion. “What do you mean by that?”
“Hamish completely controls me,” Jay murmurs with a happy little shrug. “He picks out my clothes, he makes all my major choices, and he literally dictates exactly what I have for lunch every day.”
Bear raises an eyebrow, entirely unfazed. “That is incredibly weird.”
I sharply slap his arm, and he levels me with a dark glare.
“Well, it’s my life,” Jay states defensively, a bright smile returning to his face. “And honestly? I really like it this way.”
Darren stares at him for a long beat before a soft, accepting smile broke across his face. “Hey, whatever makes you happy, Jayden.”
Darren steps forward, pulling Jay into a warm, heavy embrace. Jay immediately extends his arm outward, waving it toward Bear. Bear let out a loud, theatrical groan, rolling his eyes dramatically, but he steps forward anyway, wrapping his arms around both of them.
I stand back, watching the three of them, a soft smile on my face. What an incredibly chaotic, beautiful little family.
----
By eleven o’clock that night, I was frantically pacing the floor of our living room, my anxiety spiking with every passing second. Where the hell was Mitchell? He wasn’t answering a single one of my calls, and my texts were being left completely on read.
I absolutely hated being that clingy, obsessive girlfriend... but tonight, I was fully leaning into the role.
Suddenly, a loud, violent banging echoes from the hallway outside our front door. My heart leaps into my throat. Paranoid, I lunge into the corner and grab my aluminum tennis racket, holding it like a weapon as I creep toward the entryway. I slowly click the lock and open the door a crack—only to stare down in absolute horror at a completely wasted Bear sprawled on the carpet.
“Danny!” he cheers loudly, his eyes completely glassy as a sloppy, vacant smile broke across his face. “Oh my god... I literally could not get that stupid door open to save my life.”
“Where on earth have you been?!” I ask, lowering the racket and crossing my arms tightly over my chest.
“At a bar,” Bear answers, hiccupping slightly as he attempts to sit up. “I think... I think I might be a little bit drunk, Daniella.”
I couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle, shaking my head as I reach down to help haul his massive, heavy frame off the floor. He stumbles heavily into the apartment, carelessly tossing his keys onto the kitchen counter, where they slid off and hit the floor.
“Who exactly did you go to the bar with?” I ask, guiding his swaying body toward the living room.
He furrows his brows in deep, drunken concentration. “Honestly? I can’t remember a single thing.”
“And why didn’t you pick up any of my calls?” I ask, wrapping my arms around his waist to keep him steady. “You had me completely worried sick, Mitchell.”
“I lost my phone!” he laughs loudly, entirely amused by the situation.
“Great. Wonderful,” I mutter dryly. “Come on, let’s get you into bed, Bear.”
“No!” he whines dramatically, pouting like a giant toddler as he tries to pull away from me. “I don’t want to go to bed yet.”
“You are hammered,” I state firmly. “Let’s just go get some sleep, okay?”
He pouts even harder, his lower lip sticking out. “But I just want to stay up and hang out with you.”
I giggle, my heart melting a little bit at how soft he got when he drank. “How about we go cuddle instead?”
“Yes, please!” he yells enthusiastically.
Before I could even react, he tore away from me and sprints toward my bedroom. I follow closely behind, bursting through the door just in time to see him clamber up onto my mattress and start aggressively jumping up and down on the springs like a child.
“Mitchell, get down from there right now! Get down!” I order, trying to sound strict.
He pouts again, instantly letting his legs give out so he drops heavily onto his ass. A split second later, a horrific, loud CRACK echoes through the room. I gasp in absolute horror as the wooden slats completely splintered, and the entire center of the bed collapses flat onto the floor underneath his massive weight.
Bear sat amidst the wreckage, blinking up at me in dazed confusion. “So... I think you might need to buy a new bed, Danny,” he states helpfully.
“You think?” I question, my voice dripping with pure, deadpan sarcasm.
His eyes suddenly darken with a familiar, playful heat, and he growls low in his throat, crawling out of the broken frame toward me. “You look so incredibly hot right now.”
He stalks over, framing my face with his large, warm hands and capturing my lips in a deep, sloppy, alcohol-laced kiss.
Knowing exactly where this would lead if I let it continue, I quickly pull away, breathless, and point a firm finger toward the door. “Bed. Your room. Now.”
He let out a loud, miserable groan, his shoulders slumping as he drags his feet and storms off toward his own bedroom across the hall.
By the time I walk in a few minutes later to check on him, he was already completely passed out cold, snoring softly face-down on his mattress. I sigh, gently pulling a thick blanket over his broad shoulders before placing a plastic bucket right by the edge of his head.
Just in case.
I knew for a fact he wouldn’t be particularly thrilled to wake up sober the next morning with puke all over his hardwood floor.
With a tired smile, I turn off his light and walk back out into the living room, grabbing a pillow and deciding to sleep on the couch for the night.