“Yes and no.” I paused to take a sip of my espresso martini. I would be up all night after a couple of these, but they were worth it. Ronnie made them better than any of the bars in New York. I think it had to do with her lack of measuring anything before mixing it up. “I had already applied and got accepted into NYU. It was my top choice well before anything happened between me and Sebastian.” Luke’s jaw clenched, and I glared at him through narrowed eyes before continuing. He had to forcibly work to relax his muscles. “We hooked up,one time, and the next day, I thought he was going around telling everyone about it. It just made me want to get out of town faster. But I was leaving regardless. New York was where I wanted to be, where I needed to be if I wanted to take my art seriously.”
“He didn’t say a word about it. Even if he didn’t tell me, I would have heard it through the grapevine. Did you know?” Luke asked Wes.
“No.”
“I know that now. But I didn’t talk to him about it back then. I just decided that he was an asshole who used me for bragging rights,” I admitted before leveling a meaningful glare at Luke. “It wasn’t the truth. He didn’t take advantage of me back then, and he isn’t now.”
“How long were you home for before you guys started hooking up?” Luke asked.
“We didn’t get together until the weekend before he talked to you at the tattoo shop. I was actually surprised he wanted to talk to you about it so fast. We hadn’t really defined anything between us, so it felt like a bold move to announce it.”
Luke pondered what I said and seemed to decide that it was acceptable, like he had some sort of control over it. The server stopped by our table to clear the empty glasses, asking us if we needed anything else. She left with a short list of requests, including another basket of sweet potato fries.
“Any questions from you?” Wes sat hunched over with his elbows on the table. He almost looked like a normal-sized person when he was sitting like that, until he got up and his six-foot-six frame towered over everyone around him.
“What made you want to come home?”
Damn Wes. I was fine answering questions about me and Seb. I wasn’t ashamed of being with Seb. I would answer any of their questions, even if I didn’t love talking about my love life with my brothers. I couldn’t say the same about my relationship with Blake.
Ugh. I hadn’t so much as thought about Blake in weeks. My heart beat faster, my palms clammy, as a latent fear rushed through me at the thought of him. The urge to look over my shoulder, make sure I was safe before I opened my mouth,pulsed through me. It was ridiculous. He hadn’t reached out since I’d blocked him. It wasn’t like he was going to show up in Calla Bay out of the blue to drag me back to New York.
“My last relationship was pretty shitty. I was coming home for your New Year’s Eve bash,” I said, gesturing to Reid, “and it seemed like a good time to get my bearings and regroup.”
“You told me that before. That it wasn’t good. What happened, Lydia?” Luke asked softly.
“Do you really want to know the details?”
Luke sat back in his chair, taking a pull of his beer. “Will I want to know the details?”
“No.” I knew my brother. He wasn’t going to like what I had to say. He wasn’t going to like that he wasn’t there to protect me from every evil in the world.
“Then yes,” he said.
Reid agreed as well, but Wes was quiet.
“What about you?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told your brother when he asked me to look into it,” Wes said. Unbelievable. I shot a dirty look to Luke. Wes chuckled. “Wrong brother. It’s your story, Lydia. You can tell it when and if you’re ready. But when you are, I’d like to hear it.”
I sucked in a deep breath and tipped my martini back. I should have ordered another one when the server was here. I felt like I was going to need it.
“Okay. But if any of you yell at me, I’m walking out.”
* **
“Lyds.” Luke wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pulling him close to me. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“It’s okay, Luke. I didn’t tell anyone. You couldn’t have known.”
The June night air was cool and misty, the salty scent of the ocean lingering in the low fog. Wes and Reid had taken off a minute ago, while Luke and I hung around in Harpoon’s gravel parking lot.
“Still.” He shook his head. He couldn’t fix something that was already in my past, and Luke didn’t like when he couldn’t fix things for others. It was one of the things I loved about my brother. “If you ever need me, call. I don’t care what I’m doing or how far away I am. You call me, do you understand?”
“I promise. But more than that, I promised myself that I wouldn’t ever be in that situation again.”
Luke rested his chin on top of my head. Honestly, it was easier to talk about the second time. Opening up to Seb had been hard, but after that gate was opened, it didn’t feel so monumental this time. I managed to get through it with minimal tears, which my brothers, wisely, never commented on. They all listened, letting me take as long as I needed to get it all out. At one point, Wes stood from his chair so fast, it clattered back, almost toppling over.
“Sorry, I just need to stand up. Keep going,” he said. With his long hair left down around his shoulders and his thick beard, his eyes dark with rage, he looked absolutely murderous.
