100. Chapter 100
It was almost a good day.
That morning Graham kissed beads of sweat from Helen’s forehead while she talked sabbatical and a small wedding on a beach, with “definitely no relatives or exes,” and he let himself get excited about what a life with Helen and three million dollars might look like.
After a late checkout, they’d made their way up the coast, stopping for food and ocean views along Highway One.
Helen changed into a flowing white dress she bought in a beach town, showing off her Texas tan.
Graham suggested he come stay with her in Austin for a few months while they figured out their next move, and she was so surprised—so genuinely touched—by the offer, she spent an hour in their Santa Cruz hotel room showing him just how much she appreciated it.
It was almost a damn good day.
By the time they walked to the boardwalk carnival after supper, Graham wasn’t thinking about his brother and Lindsey.
His stomach was a few pounds heavier from the best seafood he’d ever eaten, head a few pounds lighter from the three whiskey sours it took to wash it all down, and for the first time in a long time he wasn’t mad or wishing things were different.
With a deep, contented breath, he dared to think he was even happy.
And then…
“Helen?” he called out. She was haggling with a carnie for a prize.
Graham squinted. The squealing of an AC/DC song blaring from the Tilt-A-Whirl made it hard to focus on the couple coming off the Ferris wheel.
“Honey, I got it,” Helen said, holding up a stuffed penguin like it was an Academy Award. “Told you I’d win.”
Graham took her by the arm and positioned her to look down the midway.
“What is it?” she asked. “Oh. Is that Jase?”
They were eating corn dogs now. Jase sucked ketchup off Lindsey’s finger.
“Do you want to ask them about tomorrow?” Helen asked. She still didn’t get it. She still didn’t see. Graham nudged her to keep watching. “Is something wrong?”
“Of course there’s—” he broke off. “What does that look like?”
“Nothing.”
Jase kissed Lindsey under the string of colored lights by the corn dog vendor.
“Oh,” Helen said. “Wow. Just right out in the open, huh?”
“I knew it,” Graham growled. “I fucking knew it. You told me not to worry about it. They’re sleeping together.”
“You don’t know that.”
“They’re fucking sleeping together.”
Graham crossed his arms above his head because the internet claimed that it opened air passages and nothing tightened the vice around his windpipe like the ultimate betrayal happening in front of his eyes.
Imagining it was one thing. Actually seeing his brother making out with his ex?
Fuck. He paced in uneasy circles as “You Shook Me All Night Long” shook the shellfish in his guts until he tasted clams at the back of his throat.
Helen took his shoulder and forced him to look at her. “Graham. It changes nothing.”
“He’s my brother.”
“You haven’t acted like brothers in a long time.”
“He swore to me.”
“It changes nothing.”
Only it wasn’t true. For Graham it changed everything. Helen took his hand, and they watched Jase and Lindsey disappear behind a row of food vendors, holding hands. They looked good together. Graham hated himself for thinking it.
He had never seen her look so fucking happy.