“It’s fine, Alex. Don’t worry,” Harper added, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Fuck, he was just a kid. How much had he heard?
“I’m so done with this shit,” I announced to no one in particular. Placing a hand on my brother’s shoulder, I suggested. “Go in, Alex. Go be with your mom.” My emotions suddenly felt flat.
He sniffed. “So, the man giving that speech tonight is your dad, right?”
Alex’s words burned through me like acid. “It would appear so.”
“And so, I guess, he’s my mother’s ex-boyfriend too?” he questioned innocently, his tone rising in pitch towards the end of the sentence.
I didn’t have it in me to correct him, so I went with, “Something like that.”
“But we’re still brothers, aren’t we?” That hopeful note in his voice was almost my undoing. I tried to ignore that constant tugging at my heart.
“Of course you are,” Harper swooped in quickly when I didn’t reply straight away. “Phoenix just needs some time to clear his head, OK?”
The younger boy’s shoulders sagged. “Sure.”
I couldn’t even bring myself to fist-bump him or ruffle his hair, I just said. “Take care, kid.” My earlier decision to forge a relationship with him suddenly seemed like the worst idea.Insaneunder the circumstances.
I heard the door open, and my mother appeared, uncertainty crossing her features as she viewed Alex and me. As I turned away, she darted past and pulled him into her arms. I felt a blast of jealousy, I won’t lie.
Disappointment and anger highlighted my brother’s features as he looked at me over our mother’s shoulder.
Harper and I then walked away down the corridor as that hairline fracture across my heart split. For a brief time, my brother had looked at me like a hero, but his expression as I’d turned away was all about how I had let him down.
And now I was nothing. Just a broken man, confused as hell, and floundering. It suddenly felt like a thousand ants were crawling under my skin, and I knew I needed a drink.
The fact that I was now aware of my father’s identity didn’t compute; all those years of not knowing, of wanting answers, and now I had them; it just felt like another giant ‘fuck you’ from the universe.
I couldn’t be dealing with the shitstorm in my head; I just wanted to get to the beach and get wasted, possibly stoned. Hopefully, Micah could hit me up.
And then another horrifying truth hit me; if Dominic Summer’s was myfather, what did that make Storm?
Fuck!
Stop, one thing at a time.
As Harper put her hand around my waist as we hit the stairwell, I was so thankful for her strength and courage. I may have gotten a father that night, but most importantly, I had gotten the girlanda soulmate, one who had been there under my nose for years.
Harper was silent. We both were as we walked, and I watched her from the corner of my eye. So, perfect.
Mine. At last.
And right then, without her, I knew I would have lost my shit and done something I hadn’t done in years… bawled my fucking eyes out.
HARPER
Phoenix was upset and confused, and I had no idea what to do. From the direction we were traveling, I guessed he still had every intention of going to the party. And I knew from previous experience that wasn’t a good idea. Nix was like Hudson when he got tanked, ‘a loaded gun’ about summed it up.
I had to jog to keep up with him. “Maybe we should get a cab?” I part choked.
Phoenix peered down at me with a strange expression. “It isn’tthatfar.”
“I don’t mean to the beach, I meant home.”
I knew he wasn’t listening. As soon as we’d left the stadium, he was a man on a mission. Phoenix needed three things: his brothers, alcohol, and pot, and not necessarily in that order.
After around six hundred yards of struggling to keep up with his longer, more determined strides, I put the brakes on and stopped. “Enough,” I huffed as he kept on walking.
