And that was a great big affirmative as she nodded, again giving him another of those deep, searching looks. “I’m so sorry,” she said again. “It’s just that he’s my brother.”
What now...? His best bud Dave Patterson’s lyin’, cheatin’ asshole-of-an-ex was Casey Esparza’s brother?
Yeah, Dave definitely hadn’t told Rio that little factoid. Nor had he mentioned, not even in the too-many-beers-to-drown-the-heartbreak phase of his still-seemingly-raw breakup, that he and Jon had been together for nearly ten years.
Ten years. Jesus Christ.
“He’s just gotten out of rehab,” Casey said, clearly still talking about her brother, H-less Jon. And whoa, that was news to Rio, too. “And I just...” She took another fortifying breath. “Well, I wanted to make sure you and Dave both knew that he went in on his own this time—I didn’t drag him, Dave didn’t drag him—obviously. Mom didn’t... No one dragged him. He wanted to go in. He was ready. And he’s done the work. He really has. It was a sixty-day program.”
“That’s... good,” Rio said. Why was she telling him this? Was Dave not answering her calls? “But that kinda doesn’t erase the fact that he treated Dave like shit.”
“That was the disease,” she whispered. “The alcoholism.”
He looked at her, hard. “You really believe that?” He knew that Dave and Jon had been on-again-off-again for the few short years since Dave joined Team Ten. But even when they were on-again, Jon had never come to the base, and he’d never hung out with Dave at any SEAL Team parties or cookouts. Rio had never even met the guy in passing, not even once. That seemed even more strange now. “Is Jon in the closet?”
Casey laughed her surprise. “Jon? He was out when he was, like, seven. I think he was in love with Dave back then, too.”
“He has a weird way of showing it,” Rio said. “And alcoholism sucks but it doesn’t give you a free pass to be an asshole.”
“I know,” Casey admitted. “It’s just... Well, he says he’ll do anything and... He wants his life back.”
And suddenly Rio got it. The asshole wanted his life back, as in Jon wanted Dave back. “So you want me to... what?” Talk to Dave? Convince him to give the H-less asshole a second chance—or at least to go see him? Rio was not even close to comfortable with that. Dave was way too vulnerable when it came to his manipulative ex—that much Rio knew for sure. He shook his head.
“Do you love him?” Casey asked.
So okay. He’d thought she was done surprising him, but... “Do I...? Well, yeah, I guess. I mean... He’s... pretty great.”
“He’s amazing,” she said, and Rio realized that her eyes had filled with tears that she swiped at almost savagely as she again started to back away. “Dave is. I don’t know why I bothered to ask, because of course you love him. He makes it so easy—everyone loves him. I just thought... Ten years, you know? And you haven’t been with him for even ten weeks. But it’s not okay—me, doing this. I’m not even sure what it is I’m doing here, and Luc, my god, I am so, so sorry.”
And with that, she turned and ran.
“Whoa,” Rio said. “Wait!”
She’d called him Luc. Like his cousin Luc, whom Rio had convinced Dave to go out with a few times after his ugly breakup with Jon.
“Hey, I’m not Luc, I’m his cousin Rio,” he shouted after Casey, but she’d already thrown herself into a very plain white little Prius that was parked just a few cars down and was already driving away, her tires squealing as she pulled out of the lot.
Casey made it only a few blocks before she had to pull off and surrender to her tears.
What had she been thinking?
Seriously, how had she imagined this would go down?
Hi, Luc Rosetti, I’m Casey Esparza. My brother Jon is the recent ex of your wonderful new boyfriend Dave. I need you to do me a favor and break up with Dave—you haven’t been together that long, so I’m sure it’ll be no big thing. Because, see, I’m convinced that Dave and Jon belong together—that my brother’s issue with alcohol and drugs is just a small bump on the path of their together-forever romance that started nearly a decade ago when they were both barely sixteen.
So I’m gonna just ignore the fact that you’re a person, too, with a heart and a soul and the ability to fall in love, and to love deeply, because you matter less to me than Jon and Dave do. And I’m a Very Important Person with a cult-hit TV show, a People’s Choice Award, two and a half million Instagram followers, and yeah, an album, even though it didn’t sell very well, so that makes me right and you wrong. Or at least it makes you inconsequential.
But see, it’s important that you break things off with Dave ASAP, because a very good friend is getting married this weekend. I know Dave is gonna be there—he wouldn’t miss it. And of course Jon’s going, too. And with you out of the picture, well, this wedding is the perfect time and place for their reconciliation. I mean, come on, a wedding, right?
And hey, you won’t just get points for being a good guy! You’ll get a consolation prize! I just got invited to the premiere of Robin Chadwick Cassidy’s latest movie, and somewhere in the darkest corner of my Very Important Person’s brain, I thought that you could go with me—escort me on the red carpet and to all the after parties. In case you didn’t know, I’m a huge gay icon, and everyone who’s anyone in Hollywood will be there. I can introduce you to... well, who’s your favorite actor? Robin will be there of course—okay, nope, he’s married, but... Just come, and I’ll help you find a shiny new boyfriend—one who’s not Dave, because he belongs with Jon, not you.
Do we have a deal?
What the hell was wrong with her?
She loved her brother.
She loved Dave, too.
