“Whenever you’re ready, you can tell me what’s going on, but until then, we can just sit here, okay?”
“Wyatt thinks I’m having an affair,” I blurted out, the words tumbling out now that I’d started. “With you, to be clear. He saw your ring when you met and your car when you dropped me off earlier. He didn’t let me explain. He just unloaded on me and took off.”
Alex went still, but he didn’t interrupt. My voice was shaking now, my hands trembling as I stared at them in my lap. “He said I was just like Mallory, my father’s mistress, then told me he wouldn’t hear me out because he didn’t want to know.”
“That’s not okay,” Alex said flatly.
“I know, but I don’t know what to do,” I whispered. “He wouldn’t listen and my mom just keeps pretending he’s a kid. She told me he would come around once he’s cooled down, but he won’t. Sometimes, it’s like she doesn’t even know him at all. He’s not just going to let this go. Not after…”
“Your father,” Alex finished for me, proving once again that even though we hadn’t known each other all that long, he understood me better than even my own family. “You’re worried that your brother is going to do something stupid because he thinks you’re like the woman who nuked your lives.”
“Exactly.”
He leaned forward with his forearms on his knees and his eyes locked on mine. For a second, I thought he was going to soften. Pull me closer. Kiss me and tell me it would all be okay, but I knew it wouldn’t happen even before the thought was even fully formed.
“You need to move in,” he said with no hesitation and no softening the blow. “I’ve had enough of this.You’vehad enough of it.”
My breath caught. “Alex?—”
“No,” he said gently but firmly. “I’m serious. This isn’t sustainable, Killer. You’re married. You shouldn’t be sneaking around like you’re doing something wrong.”
I pressed my lips together. “Wyatt needs me.”
He held my gaze, one big hand coming up to cup my jaw. “You can still be there for him, but you don’t need to set yourself on fire to do it.”
“That’s easy for you to say.”
“I know,” he admitted without skipping a beat. “My siblings are older. They don’t need me the way Wyatt needs you, but that doesn’t make what I said any less true.”
I stood and started pacing, that old familiar restlessness creeping back in. “Things have always been this way. I hold things together. I smooth the edges. If I leave, everything changes.”
“And if you don’t?” he asked. “What happens toyou?”
I stopped pacing. I didn’t have the answer. Frankly, I was torn between keeping things exactly as they had always been, and my marriage to Alex. Moving forward with my life.
Logically, I knew I was entitled to that, having my own life. Wyatt had a mother and a father, and I was neither of those things. But at the same time, I’d always been his stability. His solid ground. Sure, he was acting like an idiot right then, but that was what teenagers did.
“Our marriage is still new, Alex,” I said finally, my voice quieter now. “It’s fragile and let’s be honest, the way we started?—”
“Is not where we are now.” He stood, stepping into my space and taking my hands. “What we have is real, Jane. It might be new, but it’s real, and sure, itisstill fragile, but it’s not going to grow if we don’t put in the time and the effort to strengthen it.”
Both our phones chimed at the same time and we froze, then looked down almost in sync. Zach’s name flashed on the screen of Alex’s phone when he pulled it out of his pocket, turning it so I could see the email as he read out loud.
“Those two board members are officially out. Working on a third. Will update.”
My pulse spiked. “That was fast.”
“That’s Zach,” Alex said with a hint of pride in his tone. “He’s a pretty damn good closer. Second only to our cousin, Sterling, as far as I’m concerned. He has a tendency to get things done.”
I exhaled slowly, my heart suddenly fluttering in my chest. “A third, though?”
Alex’s eyes were sharp now, his mind already moving. “Boards hate instability. With the first two gone, the rest will panic.”
I sank back down onto the couch. “So what does that mean?”
“It means that right now, Zach has made it possible for your mother and me to hold the majority votes.”
My stomach flipped. “Alex…”
