Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
K ellen
Salem wasn’t around when it came time for dinner, so I enjoyed the best lasagna in the world alone since Nathan seems to have disappeared today. Probably for the holiday.
Not that I’m unhappy to not have him around. I’d love it if Matthias would just admit he overreacted by hiring him and send the guy packing.
I know my brother, though. I’ll be lucky if that guy doesn’t shadow me until my dying days.
Seven o’clock and I’m a grown man wandering around his grandparents’ old house in search of something interesting to do. Jesus, that’s a sad indictment of my life.
Tired of sitting around, I head outside for some fresh air. July is always a beautiful time of year around here. It’s finally hot enough to feel like it’s summer, and the nights don’t get so cold that you can’t enjoy doing things outside at night.
Unfortunately for me, it seems no one’s around to do anything with.
I stop in the middle of the sidewalk out to the driveway as I suddenly realize there’s no one here with me. I’m all alone.
How did this happen?
Knowing I better enjoy my time before Matthias realizes I might be having fun and sends his giant watchdog after me, I think about how I can keep busy. I’ve got no car, so it’s going to have to be something close by since I’m not up for dealing with that sickeningly sweet scent of air freshener every Uber and Lyft seem to have.
As I mull over my possibilities, excited at the chance to do something normal again, I see Salem pull up the driveway and park her car. I consider the idea that maybe we can take a ride together, which means we won’t be limited to staying local, but my hopes are dashed when I see another car pull up and it’s not Nathan.
Did she actually invite a guy back to this house?
I should walk back inside and pretend like I didn’t see them pull up and I don’t care who she’s with. The only problem is I can’t seem to get my feet to move. It’s like the damn things are encased in concrete. I even glance down at them as if to let them know it’s time to go, guys.
Nope. They seem intent on making me stay for this humiliation. Thanks, fuckers.
Everything seems to slow down until Salem and the guy move in slow motion. Great. Now not only do I get to see the woman of my dreams with another man but I get to see it all at one-quarter speed.
“Hey, Kellen,” she says like everything’s great between us and she hasn’t just brought another fucking man to my land of exile.
“Hey.”
Not my best retort, but I’m stunned she would do this. I get that we’ve had some rocky moments since we got here, and as much as I’ve wanted to make a move on her, the time hasn’t seemed right, but I thought we had a chance at something. I told her I hoped we could be something more than just two people who spent an incredible twenty-four hours together at an island resort.
Didn’t she believe me?
“Who’s this?” I ask, barely able to contain my anger that she’s seriously invited another man to this house.
She looks back at the car with the guy sitting inside and then at me. “Oh, that’s Micah.”
And with that, she strolls past me like any part of this is okay. What. The. Fuck?
Suddenly, my feet free themselves from whatever mysterious and invisible trap they were caught in, so I quickly have to decide which one to deal with first. Salem or Micah.
Micah. God, that name sounds fucking pretentious. It probably means sent from heaven or some other bullshit.
Since I doubt I’ll be able to keep my cool with him, I choose to deal with Salem instead. Spinning on my heel, I march into the house to find her in her office rifling through some papers. Maybe he’s a courier?
No, that doesn’t make sense. It’s nighttime. And he doesn’t seem like a courier.
“Um, what’s up? Who’s Micah?” I ask, still barely containing my emotions.
She lifts her head and looks over at me before returning to the mess of papers. “Nobody. Can we talk later? I’m in the middle of something here.”
Before I can say no, I’d like to know who the hell that guy is right now, she finds whatever piece of paper she was looking for and runs out of the office, leaving me standing there like some damn idiot. Now I have to decide whether to follow her and watch the two of them drive off into the sunset or remain here and let my anger grow.
My feet, now full of life and making decisions I might not agree with, are moving before I think the rest of my body knows what the hell is going on. By the time I reach the front door, I haven’t decided what I’m going to say or if I want to say anything at all about this new development.
I look out and see Salem’s new guy in her car and her leaning in through the window. I can’t see what’s happening, but since I’m a grown man with a brain, I can take a guess.
She waves as he backs out down the driveway, and then turns to walk toward me as I contemplate how I want to handle this. She knows how I damn well feel. At least she should since I practically told her I wanted us to be together once this whole Gina mess was over.
Then again, maybe she and Micah have been together the whole time and she never told me. I don’t know why he’d be okay with her staying out here with me for months on end, but who knows? Maybe he’s a stupid guy. It’s not like there aren’t millions of those in the world.
Either way, staying quiet about this isn’t my style, so she better be ready to hear what I have to say.
Salem doesn’t even slow down as she walks past me into the house, forcing me to follow her with my opinions eager to leave my mouth. That she thinks this is perfectly fine pisses me off, but if I’m being honest, this hurts more than anything else.
She walks down the hall to the office, so that’s where I go too. I find her seated at the desk like nothing out of the ordinary just happened. I swear this woman is driving me crazy!
Leaning against the doorframe, I clear my throat and say, “So, what was that?”
Without missing a beat, she answers, “That was Micah.”
What am I? A fucking dentist who has to pull the information out of her mouth?
My patience all but gone with that damn answer, I say, “Yeah, I got that the first time you said his name. Who the hell is he, and why did you bring him here?”
Giggling, she says, “Oh, he’s nobody. It’s nothing.”
Nobody? Nothing? And she giggled? What is going on here?
I don’t know what else to say without making myself look like some jealous asshole, but I damn well want to know who this Micah guy who’s nobody is. If he was nobody, she wouldn’t have let him drive her car away.
“Why are you letting him take your car? Who is this guy to you? Let me guess. He’s some lawyer who wears three-piece suits and always colors inside the lines. Probably never gets in any trouble, so he doesn’t need your services, right? Well, good for you.”
I don’t stick around to hear her response since it’ll probably just be some one or two word answer that will only piss me off even more. Storming out to the kitchen, I throw open the refrigerator door and grab a beer before marching outside to the patio.
After practically collapsing onto the chaise lounge that is quickly becoming my home office where I meet with people, I chug half the bottle of beer and hope it hits my bloodstream quickly and does something to improve my mood. It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than six ounces of beer to do that, though.
I can’t believe she brought a goddamned guy out here. She could have gone anywhere with him, and yet she chose the one fucking place I can’t leave to put on her little romance show.
How the hell I’m going to stay here with her now is beyond me.
By the time I finish that first beer—a matter of seconds, truthfully—I’m no closer to feeling better, so I head back inside for a second one. Something tells me that’s not going to help either, but it sure as hell can’t hurt.
As much as I want to say something to her, I don’t know what exactly that is yet, so I don’t waste time hanging around the kitchen like some sad teenage boy hoping his crush appears so he can have a chance to chat her up. Fuck that. If she wants to talk to me, she knows where to find me.
It’s not like I ever leave this goddamned place.
Halfway back to my new favorite spot outside, I hear footsteps behind me. They don’t sound like they’re from someone who has to go mid-two hundred pounds, so I’m guessing it’s Salem. I expect them to go away once I walk out the door, but they continue to follow me.
So now she wants to talk. Hmmm. I better figure out what the hell I want to say then.
I return to my chaise lounge and wish I had turned on some of the lights back here since it’s starting to get dark. Oh, well. Let’s hope no wild animals decide to check out the backyard tonight.
“Kellen?”
She says my name like a question, although I’m not sure why. Is she unsure who I am now? Some time spent with Micah and now she doesn’t know my name. He must be some lay.
I don’t answer since I’m not sure what I want to say to her yet. She calls out my name again, this time without the question mark, so I calmly say, “Where I always am.”
In the dim light, I see her walk over to where I’m lounging on exactly the piece of furniture meant for that kind of activity. I don’t know how I didn’t notice before, but she’s wearing a pair of white jeans and a blue T-shirt I’ve never seen in the entire time we’ve been here together. That must have been some special date.
She sits down on the chaise lounge next to mine and says, “You seem to be unhappy about something. What’s wrong?”
A million things threaten to fly out of my mouth at this moment, but I swallow them all and simply answer, “I’m fine. How are you?”
Those two statements come out sounding pretty robotic, and normally, I’d care that a woman I want might not like that. Tonight, though, I don’t give a damn. Don’t like it, Salem? Maybe don’t bring a man to the house I’m forced to stay in as part of my penance for being a social outcast.
“I’m fine too.”
“I went looking for you before. I thought you’d be working. You know, that thing you’re supposed to be doing to fix my problem?” I say through nearly gritted teeth.
“Oh, did you want something?” she asks sweetly.
I don’t know what this game is she’s playing, but I’m not interested. Go find Micah, honey, and leave me alone with my beer.
“Nope.”
It’s never good when two people are down to one word answers. The next step is usually no words.
“About Micah…”
That’s all she gets out before I swing my legs off my comfy chaise lounge and lean forward toward her. She wants to talk about Micah? Okay. We’re going to talk about Micah.
“Yeah, about him. I’d like to know how you’d feel if I brought a woman here. Probably not so great. But then again, I’m an asshole who harasses women, so I guess that’s expected of me. Not sure what that says about you since you’re supposedly a decent person, but hey, who the hell am I to judge, right?”
Because the sun set about twenty minutes ago, I can barely see her face, but damnit if she isn’t smiling. What the hell is there to smile at in anything I’ve said?
Salem doesn’t respond for a few very long moments, which makes me want to continue with my attack, but then very quietly she says, “I wouldn’t like it.”
My brain is filled with dozens of things I want to say to her, so I’m not sure what that answer means. “You wouldn’t like it? What?”
Again just as softly as she spoke the first time, she answers, “I wouldn’t like it if you brought a woman here.”
“But it’s okay for you to bring Micah?”
Another long pause. Jesus, by the time she tells me who the hell that son of a bitch is, my reputation will have cleaned itself up and I’ll be able to leave my prison here.
“Micah is my sister’s boyfriend. He needed to get her car. I don’t own a car, so she lent me hers when I told her I was staying here. Turns out she needed it for this weekend because they’re going to some festival up in Massachusetts and she didn’t want to take his car, so I met him when he got off the highway and he followed me here.”
I want to ask why they didn’t just swap cars when he got off the damn Taconic, but I don’t. I already look like a jealous asshole. I don’t need to amp that up any more than I have tonight.
“Oh. So you didn’t kiss him when you leaned into the car when he was leaving?”
The words leave my mouth, and I instantly regret saying that since it definitely makes me look jealous. So much for trying to be cool for a second there.
“I did, but just like I always do when we say goodbye.”
Great. Now she knows I’m a jealous shit. We haven’t been together for months, yet I’m acting like her boyfriend. Not that I wouldn’t want to start up again.
Sure I don’t want to continue this conversation and look like a total jackass, I stand up and take a big swig of beer. “Well, good to know. I have to go now. Have a good one.”
As I head back into the house, I think about that woman who once told me whoever walks away first wins. I’m not sure what she was talking about because if how I feel right now is winning, fuck, I don’t want to know what losing feels like.