Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I didn’t hear from Mark at all, but at twelve on Sunday he knocked on my door. I was nervous and anxious. Whatever he was scared to tell me was going to come out today.
“Hi,” I greeted, but his jaw was tense, his eyes unwelcoming.
My smile waned.
“If this is how you’re going to be then maybe we should just skip it and call it a day?” I snapped. My emotions had been all over the place for the last few days and I was annoyed he was being obvious about his true feelings about telling me the secret.
I made a move to close the door but his foot jammed in to stop me and he pushed it open.
“I don’t have time for this. You wanted to know and now you’re going to find out,” he said angrily.
I crossed my arms. “Stop it.” This wasn’t the guy I was used to, the one who was always in control.
He looked tired and grumpy.
“I haven’t slept and this hasn’t been easy to organize,” he explained.
What did he have to organize? The deeper into this secret he led me, the more confusing it was. None of what he was saying was making any sense.
“Why do you have to organize something?” I asked, wanting to find out as much as I could to prepare myself.
He rubbed his hands over his face before dropping them to his sides. “This doesn’t just involve me.”
I frowned. His secret involved others?
“Just trust me,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “This will be easier to cope with if we do it my way.”
Cope with? How bad could it be? I felt a tremor of real fear but I was too far in to back out now. Besides, if we had any chance of being together, we had to put this to rest. I didn’t want to be half in a relationship for fear it couldn’t withstand some secret.
It had to be all or nothing. Having had him touch my life in the way he had, I couldn’t imagine him not in it as my boyfriend.
“So, what’s it going to be?” He arched an eyebrow.
“I’ll do it your way,” I conceded. All or nothing , I reminded myself.
Our future was in my reach. I could feel it and I couldn’t let it slip through my fingers when we were so close.
When we reached his car, he opened the door and I got in.
At least I was feeling a little better about being in a car since he had pushed me to drive.
He got in and started it up. He didn’t look in my direction and there was no affection.
He was keeping his distance. Was this his way of protecting himself if things played out the way he expected?
But I was determined to show him I was in this for the long haul.
We drove for about an hour before he pulled up outside a nice house with a picket fence. It was charming and beautiful.
When I opened the door, Mark was there to help me out.
“Where are we?” I asked. My mind was filled with more questions than I had answers .
“I brought you here to meet some special people.”
I looked at him and he had a smile on his face for the first time since he had picked me up.
He walked to the door and I mobilized myself to hurry behind him. Before he could knock, the door opened and a girl flew at him. He caught her and hugged her. I was startled and all I could do was stare, open-mouthed, trying to figure out who she was to him.
“Mark,” she whispered. “It feels like it’s been ages.”
A laugh rumbled in his chest. “It’s been a month.”
They were close. Anyone who was witnessing this could tell. I swallowed. I hadn’t seen him like this with anyone, even me, and I felt a pang of jealousy.
“Oh, I forgot,” she whispered when she released Mark and peered at me shyly with wide toffee-colored eyes. “I’m Haven Knight.”
He had never mentioned her.
“I’m Tracy.”
Then I noticed we had been joined by another guy. He shook hands with Mark. “Good to see you,” he murmured before his eyes drifted to me.
“Damien Knight,” Mark said, introducing him to me as Haven moved to the stranger and he put a protective arm around her.
They shared the same surname, and they were wearing wedding rings, which meant they were married.
Whatever she was to Mark, it wasn’t romantic, and I felt a little better, but not completely.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I replied nervously, trying to figure out what was going on.
“It’s about time you got here,” another voice pipped up. It was another guy. “And you finally brought a girl?”
Mark rolled his eyes. “This is Chris.” His voice held a lot of affection for the guy .
“Nice to meet you…” The stranger with the dark-blond hair offered his hand.
“Tracy.” I shook his hand.
I had never seen Mark like this with anyone. There was a closeness between these four that I hadn’t witnessed before.
Chris ushered us all inside, moaning about being hungry and having to wait for our arrival. I wanted to pull Mark to one side and ask who these people were but I never got a chance before I found myself seated beside him at a dining table opposite Chris, Haven and Damien.
Chris was the most vocal and outgoing of the group. Someone called him ‘Chatterbox Chris,’ which made me smile. In the past few minutes I had been able to deduce Haven was shy and Damien was quiet and watchful. Of the group, he seemed the most distrustful of my presence.
The food smelled good but I didn’t have much of an appetite. My nerves were shot and I was waiting for Mark to reveal what we were doing here.
Chris talked away but I was too busy looking from one to the other, trying to figure where they fit into Mark’s life.
I had never heard him mention one of them but that wasn’t much of a surprise as Mark didn’t talk much about anything.
It had taken me so long just to find out the few details about his childhood and parents.
Mark seemed visibly relaxed in their company and I watched him with fascination.
When Chris said something, Mark laughed.
Haven smiled a few times but the presence of Damien caught my attention.
He was watching me with distrust, unlike the others.
He didn’t like my presence in their tightly knit group.
I felt like an outsider watching from the sidelines as they talked about their day-to-day stuff like work and some vacation Chris had just gotten back from.
“Paris is the city of love,” Chris said, wiggling his eyebrows, and I found myself grinning. He had one of those personalities that was difficult to resist. There was something about him that I just connected with and I understood why he was so easy to be around.
The food got passed around and I took some although I didn’t eat much, most of it I pushed around my plate. What made it worse was how Mark didn’t once hold my hand or act like we were anything other than friends, which bugged me.
Once lunch was finished, I helped Haven clear the table. She was very quiet and I didn’t know how to start a conversation. When we went back into the dining room, she took the seat beside Damien and I went to sit back in my place beside Mark.
The air was tense. Something had been said between them when I had been in the kitchen.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Damien said tersely, shaking his head.
Haven touched his arm. “Please, don’t.”
When he looked at her, his eyes softened and he touched her forehead with a kiss. It was so sweet. There was so much love between them it was evident for all to see.
Chris touched Haven’s hand. There was something really fragile about her and the way the guys gravitated to her in a protective way, especially Damien.
I watched as Mark leaned back in his chair, looking resigned as he let out a heavy sigh. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.”
It all still felt so surreal. I had no idea revealing his heavy secret would involve three other people. It made me realize that this was going to be bigger than I had ever imagined.
“I have never asked any of you for anything until now,” he said, linking his fingers on the table. “Now I’m asking you guys to tell Tracy the story.”
“How do we know we can trust her?” Damien asked skeptically, studying me like he could read my thoughts .
“I trust her,” Mark responded. It was the first time he had said anything to make me feel special in some sort of way.
Damien remained unconvinced and gave me a skeptical look.
“If you trust her, I’m in,” Chris said. For the first time the humor that had been a constant was gone and he was serious. I bet that didn’t happen often.
“I owe you so much, you know that,” Haven said directly to Mark. “If opening up is something you need, I’ll do it.”
When Mark looked at Damien for his answer, he frowned. “I don’t like this one bit but I’m outnumbered.” He shifted in his seat. “Besides, out of us all, you have the most to lose, so if this is something you’re prepared for, then who am I to stand in your way?”
There was a heavy silence. “She’d better be worth it,” he added, inclining his head in my direction.
I was still clueless but I knew whatever was coming was going to be difficult to hear, even though I was still sure it couldn’t make me see Mark differently.
Needing to reassure myself, I reached out and touched his arm.
He looked at me as his hand covered mine briefly before he stood up, putting some distance between us.
“This is Haven’s story,” he began. “It’s probably best for her to start.” He stood beside my chair.
They shared a look and I could see her nervously shift in her seat. This wasn’t easy for her. I could tell in the way she seemed to prepare herself for the walk down memory lane.
“I didn’t grow up in the best environment.” She couldn’t look me in the eye, instead she fixed her eyes on her hands.
“That’s an understatement,” Damien scoffed. Chris shot him a look that made him shift in his seat. Damien slid his hand over to cover Haven’s hands. I could see the immediate difference in her posture when he was near, he gave her the strength to cope.