She looks at my brother. “Anything you want to add to that?”
He doesn’t make eye contact. “No. It’s like Bash said. I met Remy in the Rinse when Bash was in Ireland. Then shit went down, and he…”
“You never mentioned it,” I blurt out.
Something is building up inside me like a pressure cooker with no controls. I sound petty, tossing accusations around like this. I feel petty. This is playground mentality; it doesn’t apply to me and Cash. I’m better than this.
Or maybe not. “You didn’t tell me that you spent the night in my guest room with a beautiful woman. If you’d told me, I?—”
“You what, huh?” Cash is animated again, rage bubbling up beneath the surface. “You’d have left her alone? You’d have fired her for crossing a line with the boss’s brother? Tell me, Bash, what exactly would you have done if you’d known how I felt about her?”
“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t have fallen for her myself, that’s for goddamned sure.”
Cash deflates like a burst tire.
I rest my elbows on the breakfast bar counter and massage my temples with my fingertips. It hurts. It isn’t the half bottle of brandy that I downed before I got here. It’s everything else: this conversation, Remy Jones, the pregnancy, Cash.
“Fallen for her?” Mom’s tone has softened like butter left out of the fridge. “Is that how you feel?”
“Yes. I don’t know. Maybe. Not that it matters now, anyway.”
“Why not?”
“Long story.” I sit back on the stool and finish my coffee, telling myself that by the time the caffeine hits, I’ll have figured out how to handle the situation.
“Cash?” Mom hands the spotlight over to my brother.
“I…” He’s struggling too.
Normally, I’d elbow him in the ribs, tell him to get a grip, finish his sentence for him. But not on this occasion.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about her,” he murmurs. “If I hadn’t gotten arrested, I’d have told her how I felt. I didn’t know I was already too late.”
“That makes two of us,” I add.
I should’ve known. When Remy searched underneath the bed in the guest room for her silver pendant, it should’ve all added up. When she stood in the doorway and asked me if that was it, I should’ve ignored the blood pumping around my body and realized the truth. But my heart chose that moment to take control of the reins, and I didn’t fight it.
“You want me to feel bad because I met her first?” Cash furrows his brow and finally looks at me.
“You want me to feel bad because I didn’t know?” I shake my head. “You think that she’ll choose you because you were first? Technically, she thought that you were me. She came to seemetoday. She came to tellmethat I’m going to be a father.”
“Ha!” Cash snorts. “Nowyou want to accept responsibility.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“A few hours ago, you accused her of scamming us on her ex’s behalf.”
Not my finest moment, but I’m too angry to admit it right now. “I didn’t see you go down on one knee and propose to her.”
“I was in shock. I didn’t get a fucking chance to propose. She’d already fled the building like you called the cops on her.”
“So, that’s it.” I’m rapidly running out of steam because he’s right. I’m the reason that Remy Jones ran away. Me and my fucking fear of walking into a trap. “You’re going to propose to her.”
He hesitates. He’s staring straight at me, but I’m not what he sees. Then, “Yes. I’ll propose to her.”
The ringing in my ears reaches a crescendo. I’m numb. Sliced open and hollowed out. If Cash marries Remy…
“Fine,” I say.
