Chapter 18 #2
I gasp and cringe against the counter, my gaze flying to Calder’s face. His jaw is rigid, anger flashing in his dark eyes. He slips his fingers from my pants but doesn’t turn. I try to peer around his broad shoulders to see who the intruder is as I fumble with the clasp on my jeans.
The door shuts behind the man, who stops in his tracks on the welcome mat.
His irritated gaze takes us in, and a dark brow cocks.
His windblown hair is a shade darker than Calder’s, and he’s wearing almost the same outfit Calder had on when I first saw him.
Only, Bowen’s white dress shirt is already unbuttoned. Contempt fills his dark eyes.
“Bowen,” Calder says in a clipped tone.
Oh crap. This isn’t how I wanted to present myself to the others. A hussy with her legs around the eldest brother. Calder doesn’t want to like me, and they all want to hate me.
Bowen draws himself up, nearly as imposing as Calder—more so, since I’ve had my tongue down his brother’s throat. I try to sit up straight. At some point, I dropped my legs from Calder’s waist.
“Jesus, Calder.” Recognition makes his eyes go wide. “Meredith? Calder, what the hell? Anyone but her.” Disgust drips from his tone.
“Hey!” I shoot him my own glare. He doesn’t get to come in here and be an ass. I’m not going to repeat this with each Cross.
“Watch it,” Calder warns his brother.
Bowen levels an appraising expression on Calder. There’s a modicum of warmth, and a whole swarm of emotions I can’t place. He shifts his attention to me, and the air around me turns as frigid as his eyes.
“Did he tell you we’re selling, so you decided to use your sister’s tactics and sleep with him to stay?”
A groan leaves Calder. “Bowen, shut up.”
I can’t believe I put myself in this position. If Bowen hadn’t walked in, I would’ve had Calder’s hand all the way in my pants. I would’ve ridden it and hollered his name—in my workplace. The brewery is my refuge. It was. Until Calder showed up.
I slide sideways off the stool and stumble away, kicking the purse I dropped. It skitters across the floor. Crap. “Much as I love to get accused of lying and prostituting myself, and hearing my sister get insulted before she’s in the ground, I’ve got to go.”
Calder briefly closes his eyes, and to Bowen’s very minor credit, there’s a beat of self-recrimination in his expression.
I snatch up my purse and hug it to me. I need to leave and stay out of this mess, but the entire problem is how deep I’m stuck in it, and I have been for years. “I get that this has brought up all sorts of trauma, and the shock of the financials—”
“What about the books?” The update that the money situation might be dire must’ve made him forget he’s supposed to hate me
”—but your dad…” I continue. “He kept this going for you. For all of you. And if you sell without stopping to consider what you’re losing, you might never get it back.”
“What would we be losing?” The marble is back in Calder’s face. The same wall that always erects when Ransom is brought up makes him cold again. “An ugly house?”
Ouch. I hit him with sentiment, and he closed himself off. “It’s where you both grew up. It’s where you learned to walk and to ride and probably even to drive.” My throat burns raw when I swallow. “It’s my home.” Where I had the best life, and the best of my sister.
“What’s with the house?” Bowen asks, more confusion gathering in his features.
Calder shakes his head like it hurts to hear the point I made. “Forget the house.” He doesn’t address his brother. “We’d lose not one, but two failing companies.”
“Shit,” Bowen breathes like he’s finally caught up on the conversation.
“You want us to save all this,” Calder says to me, hooking his hands on his hips. “Why? So you have a place to work? A place to live? So you don’t have to run back to Tanner?”
“Low blow.” The back of my throat burns.
Guilt darkens his gaze. “Mer—”
“I’m sure Dad will throw some money your way in the will.” Bowen’s flippant tone stops any softening that was happening in my chest. “If there’s any left.”
“Bowen, fuck.” Calder still doesn’t take his gaze off me.
Pressure pushes out at my temples. There’s no more arousal. No desire. Only disappointment and betrayal. They’re not getting it, and they don’t want to.
“I watched Ransom work late here to keep the doors open and then get up early to help the ranch survive. I watched him stare at your high school pictures on the wall and get lost in his head when he thought no one was watching. He was doing all this for you, and this is how you repay his memory? Dumping his life’s work—and your mother’s—like it’s worth nothing but a few bucks?
” A disgusted noise rips out of me. “Maybe that’s just me.
I grew up with nothing, and what I got in Scandal was so much more than dollar signs.
But I guess if that’s all you consider when it comes to worth, then I shouldn’t expect either of you see what the problem is. ”
I storm out the door, but neither of them stops me. I get in my car, slam the door, and tear out of the parking lot, but I don’t go to the house. I head for Sawyer’s. I don’t want to be around Calder.