7. Ian
7
IAN
I barely get all the suitcases from the women into the house before Linc is there, pointing a finger in my face and glaring at me until I motion for him to get on with it.
“Can you tell me why my wife has pictures of you on her phone now?”
Logan bursts into laughter from his seat at the kitchen counter in the other room, and Ben sticks his head into the hall.
“Did you just say that Kennedy has pictures of Ian in her phone now?” He turns around when Linc nods in response. “Hey, Kennedy!” Ben calls out loudly. “Do you want pictures of me, too? I could do with a little bit of pissing off Linc right now. I swear I have back dimples too. They just aren’t as defined as Ian’s are.”
“Sure!” Kennedy’s voice echoes loudly from the back deck where all of the women had vanished to.
“I’m gonna murder every single one of you. Literally tie you down and spoon your eyes out with a rusty spork.”
“Honestly.” I hold up my hands in defeat. “I didn’t send it.”
“No,” Linc bites out. “That was all your woman.”
For the first time in almost a month, I actually think he might be right. That I may still have a chance with her. Maybe I can get her alone during the week and convince her to talk to me about what happened, about what I can do to make it better.
“You should be worried about Ben,” Remy says from the other side of the hall. “He’s the only one who’s not committed for the rest of his life to a psychopath who’d shoot him for taking the last French fry.”
“That’s what you get for stealing my food when I’m pregnant .” Parker waddles slightly as she moves. More of a shuffle than a waddle really. “And I’m barely pregnant at that. Plus, it was only a Nerf gun. Now, if I’d been eight months along, I might have had to steal your duty weapon and get rid of your body.”
Chloe and the others walk in right behind her, all smiles.
“Ooh,” Poppy offers with her hand raised. “I know a few lobstermen. We can get our hands on some unmarked lobster traps, dismember the body, and it would be gone forever.” She lowers her voice slightly to add, “I think I could even get some help scattering the remains so that no one will be able to identify him.”
“Holy shit,” Linc mutters. “They’re all fucking crazy. We’re going to die.”
“Not me.” Logan stands against the doorframe to the kitchen. “Who do you think taught her how to get rid of a body? There’s no one I’d trust more than her to do it, too. She’s my person.”
Poppy beams at the sudden compliment, before covering it with a glare.
“So what’s the sleeping situation here?” Chloe looks around. “Are we all camping out in the kitchen or what? I kind of want to change into something other than the pajamas Kennedy forced me out of the house in.”
“I told you to get dressed.” Kennedy shrugs. “You’re the one who insisted on not doing anything but stand there and stare at a wall.”
Ben clears his throat and gets everyone’s attention. “Every room is massive, and there are twelve of them. Take your pick.”
Linc practically drags Kennedy away by the arm, muttering the entire time. “I’ll show you.” She just titters and lets him drag her behind him with a smile. “You’re not leaving the bedroom all week if I have any say in it, woman.” By the time they disappear, they’re both laughing.
“We’ve got a week without kids,” Parker prompts Remy. “Do you really want to waste any of it?”
Remy is far from a stupid man, and I snicker at the speed with which everyone practically runs for their rooms.
“They’re cheesy.” Chloe walks by me and into the kitchen, and like a fool, I follow her.
I’m probably a glutton for punishment at this point, but the opportunity to spend any amount of time with her is better than finding a room and potentially listening to my friends having sex with their wives.
That leaves Ben and Chloe along with me as the only occupants in the kitchen. While Chloe reaches into the fridge to find snacks, I take a look around. Everything shines, from the black metal appliances to the unmistakably granite countertops. Even the wood chairs around the kitchen island that double as a bar are shining from fresh polish.
“You know that Logan and Poppy are screwing around too,” Chloe says as soon as we are all alone. Well, almost. Even though Ben is there, it’s like she speaks only to me.
And that is the point when I worry I may turn into her stalker.
It’s not like I can answer her statement, either, because that is actually something that I’ve talked to Logan about. Advised him against until he can show Poppy the level of commitment that she needs from him.
“Don’t worry.” Chloe keeps talking as though I actually told her I can’t talk about it, instead of just thinking it. “I know he’s a patient of yours. Bound by confidentiality. But I do think it’s weird that she’s planning on moving, but still came out here for the week just because he asked her to. Their relationship is weird, but I feel like she doesn’t want to leave.”
Again, I say nothing, but Chloe doesn’t need me to. We’ve spent years having one-sided conversations together. Either me ranting and raving about something she doesn’t understand, and her just going along with it and offering support… or her theories and observations about every single person we’ve ever met or encountered.
“I miss Kevin.” Chloe sounds shocked that she says it, but she doesn’t back down. “It’s not all-encompassing, not like it was after we got the news. But he’s there, an ache. And I can’t even wrap my head around the fact that he’s gone. That he won’t be here to cross off the bucket list things.”
I expect tears. For her to break down, emotional over the loss. After all, she hasn’t worked through her grief. Not yet. But Chloe surprises me yet again.
“Did you know that he made me promise not to cry if he died over there? That asshat had the audacity to tell me that my face gets too puffy when I cry and that he didn’t want to be the reason.” She smiles sadly, tapping the white marble of the kitchen island.
“Clearly, he was a jackass,” I tell her.
When Ben doesn’t make a sound, I glance over to see him watching us, a sandwich in his hands. He’s leaning forward in his chair, enraptured by the conversation, and I make a mental note to beat his ass later for being so nosy.
“That’s my point,” Chloe goes on, carrying our conversation through. “I cried. I got it out. And I’m sad. But he did this. All of this.” She waves her hands around the kitchen. “Just to make sure that we… that I didn’t fall into the pit of despair that I walked the line of when our parents died. It’s a lot, Ian. You know that, right?”
A nod, that’s all I manage to give her. If I open my mouth, I’ll end up sticking my foot in it, and she hasn’t said anything to me since the accidental encounter in the hallway that separates my office from hers in the building we both share for work.
“I don’t know why I’m rambling.” Chloe pauses, fiddling with her fingers and staring at the counter like someone has told her to stop.
“Don’t you?” Ben grunts from around a bite of sandwich. “I mean, seems obvious.”
I shoot him the darkest look I can imagine, but he’s already broken the moment.
Chloe turns her full attention on him with a sweet smile plastered on her face. “Do you really now? How about we talk about the fact that you sat here in the kitchen silent, eating and watching us with those lawyer eyes? Or about the fact that you haven’t gone to go claim a room yet, either?”
Ben doesn’t flinch as he stares right back at her with the strangest expression on his face. Almost like she’s his opponent in a game of chess, and he is calculating what he needs to say or do next to get the response he wants. He doesn’t say anything, though, while he finishes his sandwich. Just watches her watching him, and even when she starts to shift from foot to foot with obvious agitation, he doesn’t so much as make a sound.
Not until he is done and wipes his face with his napkin.
“I’m going to have a lot of fun this week,” Ben finally tells her with that same calculating look. “Especially since I’m the only one who knows exactly what’s on your brother’s bucket list. Not only that, Chloe, but who do you think taught your brother how to finally kick your ass at the prank war going on inside your house?”
Chloe flinches, but it isn’t from the reference to Kevin. I see the shock take over her face. “You wouldn’t.”
“I mean, I did promise Kevin that I’d make sure you never got too big for your britches.” He slaps a hand on the table. “His words, not mine. I think his exact words were, ‘Benton Mays, you better promise me that if I die and you have to play this ridiculous video, that you torture the fuck outta Chloe to keep her on her feet. Nothing’s off the table, ’cause you know she’ll just turn those watery eyes on Keller and he’ll give her whatever she wants because he’s a sucker for those stupid eyes.’ So, yeah. I think I’m gonna have a blast.” Ben walks by, offering me a wink over Chloe’s head, but she won’t have seen it anyway. She is too busy fuming over the sudden aggravation she feels over Kevin pulling the strings from beyond the grave.
“I wish I could summon him back like Casper the Friendly Ghost and then torture him for a year. Make him listen to every single sappy song that’s ever been invented. And then, sing every one of them into a microphone that has speakers taped to his ears.” She stops talking, her mouth hanging open. “I can’t believe?—”
“Yeah, you can,” I tell her with a small smile. “Kevin’s not some perfect creature of a man that you need to memorialize and torment over. He’s your brother and you love him, even if he’s gone. That’s okay. You’re allowed to be angry and upset.” I push her gently by the shoulders until she starts moving out of the kitchen. “Come on. Let’s go find some bedrooms. I still need to change ’cause these shorts aren’t doing me any favors.”
Chloe’s cheeks and ears flush so red I can tell from my position behind her, and I hear her start to mutter under her breath. “They’re not doing me any favors either; that’s for damn sure.”
All I can do is smile. Am I above using the body that I know she craves to get her to pay attention? Absolutely not. And if her reaction earlier, when Kennedy’s Suburban first pulled into the driveway, is any indication, Chloe may be able to forgive me after all.
If I didn’t think she’d catch me, I’d be fist-pumping the air as I follow her down the long hall toward the rooms.
When she walks in the first door on the right, naturally I have no choice but to take the next room. If I’m going to torture myself by being in the same house as the woman I love more than anything in the world, I’m going to do it in style.
That, and I want to unashamedly eavesdrop on her. What if she has a nightmare or she needs help in the middle of the night? I’m not going to walk away from her. She’s the one who does the running, and I’ll gladly follow her for the rest of my life.
“I know you’re on the other side of the wall.” Her voice filters through the vent on the floor as soon as I quietly shut the bedroom door. One of the ones built into old New England homes to help heat travel from room to room.
“Yeah.” There’s no use hiding it, and I’ll never lie to her. Chloe knows how I feel. It’s not like I actually try to hide my feelings. Or the fact that I carry the ring around like a lovesick fool, hoping she’ll tell me she made a mistake and she’ll take me back.
“Thank you for coming, Ian.” Her voice takes on the same husky tone that she has right when she wakes up in the morning. “I know I hurt you… It would have been so easy for you to walk away. I know you’re not just here because of Kevin. I was so angry and?—”
“Come on already!” Ben slams his fist on my bedroom door. “It’s time to get the first item on the bucket list taken care of. We don’t have all night and I know you’re in there, Lover Boy.” He jiggles the handle and then walks away without opening the door even though I didn’t bother locking it. “You too, Chloe.” I notice that he doesn’t pound on her door or yell at her, though. No, he’s barely raising his voice when he addresses her.
I pause, waiting to see if he’s truly broken the spell of peace between Chloe and me. It’s been so long since she spoke to me, like actually spoke, that I’m not even ashamed to say that I’ll wait here as long as it takes for her to talk to me. I’m a sucker for her, always have been, and always will be.
“Do you know what the first thing on the list is?” Chloe’s question filters through the vent. “Ben won’t tell me anything about it, and when I ask, he reminds me that Kevin would love that I’m worried about the surprise of it all.”
I’m unable to stop the small laugh that escapes at her words. “No clue. That’s exactly what Kev would say about it, though. He’d get a perverse laugh out of you having no choice but to go along with whatever it is that he’s cooked up.”
“That figures.” She sighs dramatically. “I guess we should get going before he decides to come back.”
I’ve put off thinking about the bucket list for a week, more worried about how Chloe would react to me being here than anything Kevin put together for us to do.
But now that we’re here, and Chloe isn’t yelling at me or running in the other direction, I can’t wait to find out.