Chapter 39
Micah
I pull into the parking lot of The Pact and slam a fist into the horn, startling a couple entering the bar and grill.
Waving an apology, I climb out of the truck, then shut the door with a loud thump.
Then, because I still feel like shit, I smash a hand on the hood as I pass.
I feel like an asshole for leaving, but chances are good I’d have blown my top if I stayed home.
That’s the last thing I want to do, but shit, how much longer am I supposed to be patient?
Ivy has made it clear she wants to be an independent woman. Every time I try to help, she’s pushed me away. Oh, fuck…
Maybe I’ve been fooling myself. Maybe she isn’t as interested in me as I am in her. Or maybe, her mother’s right…
No. To hell with that. Ivy doesn’t use people. She just doesn’t.
I push through the doors and scan the place that was a second home as a kid.
The bartender lifts a hand. The jukebox is playing some sappy shit that means someone’s nursing a broken heart.
Nathan’s at a table in the back, drinking alone.
I cross the room and pull out a chair and it isn’t until I sit that I realize he’s a wreck.
Two days’ worth of scruff. His hair’s a mess.
If Nathan were a dog, he’d be a Golden Retriever, but tonight, the look on his face screams something else.
Something dangerous. Rottweiler? Maybe Doberman.
“What happened to you?” I ask, suddenly afraid I found the reason for the sappy shit on the jukebox.
His eyes meet mine and he makes a sound that might have been a laugh but is far too gritty to sound funny. “What happened to you?”
He’s slurring. A lot. Nathan doesn’t slur. He doesn’t grump or bitch. He drinks the appropriate amount of alcohol and smiles and has his shit together at all times. He’s such a good guy, he’s almost a cliché of himself.
I grimace. “Girl trouble.”
Nathan throws back the rest of his drink and signals for another. “Man. Fuck. M’sorry t’hear that. Thought Ivy’s better’n the rest of ‘em.”
“The rest of ‘em? Are you talking about women in general?” From the man who devoted his life to working at a charity for underprivileged children and the women who raise them, that’s a big statement. “That’s a broad fucking generalization right there.”
“Sorry. S’been a shit couple days.” He tries to drop his head into his hand, but misses and bonks his forehead on the table, curses, then leaves himself as he lies.
The waiter arrives with his drink, eyeing my cousin with concern. I shrug, then order a beer. “Problems with Blossom?” I ask once we’re alone.
“You could say that.” Nathan peels his face from the table and cradles his newly filled glass. “Problems with Ivy?”
“Man, I don’t even know. I left before I could find out.”
“Sounds like a problem t’me.” He throws back his drink and signals for yet another round.
“How many of those have you had?” I ask with a frown.
“Not enough.” Nathan puts a hand to his chest, his fingers claws, his brows furrowed. “There’s a fucking hole right here, Mi. And I dunno what I’m gonna do about it.”
I’ve never seen him look this devastated and I was there when Miranda Servati turned down his prom-posal.
“What the hell happened?”
“Shhheezzcheat-in,” he says, staring blearily into his empty glass.
I blink, wave off the waiter as he returns with the drink Nathan requested—it’s past time to cut him off—and turn on my drunk translator.
“She was cheating,” Nathan slurs again. “I suspected for a while now but when I confronted her…” He sucks in his lips. “It wasn’t just one guy. There’s a whole fuckin’ crew of us.”
“You’re kidding.”
“It gets better.” He hiccups while I decipher his words.
“She doesn’t even have a job. She says she has a job, but when she leaves for ‘work,’ she’s visiting another one of her many, many men.
She just uses us all for money. Like, she moved in with me so I would send her girls to private school.
This other guy, he bought her all her clothes.
She’s a…” He shakes his head, trailing off, presumably chasing down a word I’m not sure he’ll find.
And here Ivy’s been afraid she was taking advantage of me.
“She’s a parasite,” I supply, jogging Nathan back from wherever he went.
He blinks once, twice, a third time and still can’t focus. “And I fell for it. I thought she just needed someone to help her get on the right track. She wasn’t the best person—”
“You can say that again.”
“But I thought it was because she didn’t know any better. That if I could show her a better way to live, you know, be the example, be the good I want to see in the world, I could help her and those girls. Turns out I’m just a fucking chump.”
“You deserve better. The next time—”
Nathan laughs and it’s bitter and dark and cold. He’s not a Doberman anymore, he’s a fucking wolf with his hackles up. “There won’t be a next time. I’m fucking done. Done with women. Done with being a nice guy that gets taken for granted. And I’m done talking about it. What happened with Ivy?”
That’s the question, isn’t it? What happened with Ivy?
I spin my beer bottle between my hands. “I don’t even know, Nator…” I trail off as he glares. “Nathan,” I correct, apologizing before continuing, “Her mom called and told her she’s treating me just like she did that asshole she was engaged to. That she’s taking advantage of me and—”
“Fuck, man.” Nathan’s face crumbles and he frowns so deeply he looks like a cartoon. “You got Blossomed too.”
I didn’t. I know that for a fact. Ivy and Blossom are two different creatures. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
But he’s already tried and convicted her. “She moved in. Let you pay for her shit. Let you take care of her kid—”
“My kid.”
“Are you sure?” He arches a brow and I brace myself against the table as my jaw tightens.
“I’m gonna assume that’s the liquor talking and let that slide.”
Nathan holds up his hands. “Right. Sorry. Nell’s yours. There’s no fuckin’ doubt about that, even if there’s doubt about Ivy.”
“But there isn’t.” The answer is so reflexive, so right there on the tip of my tongue, it has to be true. I don’t doubt her.
However, judging by the confusion on Nathan’s face, he has no clue what I’m talking about. “Isn’t what?”
“There isn’t any doubt about Ivy.”
He drags his hands down his face. “Either I’m too drunk for this conversation or you’re talking circles. You just said her own mother says she uses men. Shit Mi, she was still engaged when she moved in with you.”
On paper it looks bad. I know that. But the details matter. They shift the story from whatever spectrum of shitfuckery Blossom is on, to the trouble Ivy’s been trying to dig herself out of since she moved back to the Keys. “She was in the middle of breaking it off.”
“So she says.” Nathan scoffs and I’m running out of patience for him being drunk and stupid.
“What the hell are you getting at?”
“I don’t know, man. It just seems like you can’t trust anyone nowadays.
” He picks up his glass, frowns when he notices it’s empty, then puts it back down.
“D’you know how many people apply to the foundation even though they have more than enough resources to take care of their kids?
They’re just looking for some easy money.
There are so many fuckin’ scammers out there… ”
“Not Ivy.”
“How can you be sure?” He’s so fucking down about the Blossom thing that he doesn’t notice I’m reaching the edge of my patience when it comes to shit-talking the woman I love.
I fold my arms on the table. “Because I know her.”
“But do you?” He shakes his head, like the whole world has let him down. “That’s what I’m getting at—”
“I do know her. And you do too.” I stab an angry finger his way.
“So you can watch your fucking mouth when it comes to her. Ivy is a totally different circumstance than Blossom and the greedy fucks scamming the foundation. She’s a good person.
She always has been and always will be. She’s had a rough couple years and is trying to put herself back together and is doing a damn good job of it. You know that and I know that.”
Nathan swallows hard and bobs his head so hard he has to grab the table not to fall out of his chair. “You’re right. You’re right. I’m drunk and pissed and I’m being a bitter asshole because I got taken for a ride and feel like an idiot. You’ve got a good one with her.”
“Hell fucking yes, I have a good one. What we have is something worth fighting for.”
“Then what the shit are you doing here with me?”
“Her mom said…and so she…I needed…” I swipe my hands over my face. “That’s a good fucking question.” I stand and pat my cousin on the shoulder, then worry about leaving him alone in this state and sit right back down.
“What’re ya doin’?” he asks.
“I can’t leave you like this.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.” I slip my phone out of my pocket and call Angela, who promises she’ll be on her way in a matter of minutes. I hold out my hands and wiggle my fingers at Nathan. “Keys.”
“What?”
“Give me your keys.”
“Come on, man. I’m fine…” Except it sounds more like “C’mmonman, ahm pffinne…” as I disengage my drunk translator.
“I’m not kidding. Angel’s on her way to sit with you.
I’d stick around, but I’ve gotta get back to Ivy before…
” Before what? Before she starts listening to her mom again?
Before she finds an apartment? Before she thinks I abandoned her when she needed me most?
“Whatever. Just hand ‘em over. I’ll get them back to you tomorrow.”
Nathan digs in his pocket and drops his keys into my hand.
I thump him on the back, and he makes an expression that could have been a smile if he didn’t look so heartbroken.