He expels a sigh, dragging his hand through his hair. “Let’s just say I made a…mistake.”
My eyebrow pistons up toward my hairline. “Who’d you sleep with?”
“What? Why’d you assume I slept with someone?” He tries to laugh it off. But he can’t meet my eyes so I know I’m onto something.
“Because I know you,” I say confidently. “I know you well enough to know you stuck your dick somewhere you shouldn’t have, and now you’re trying to run away from the consequences. So, spill. Who was it? Your boss’s wife?” I prod.
Rocco scoffs. “Yuck! No! Never! I don’t do cheaters. Dad was a cheater,” he says in disgust.
I nod, knowing that he’s telling the truth. My brothers and I all witnessed the destructive effect Dad’s infidelity had on our mother. I’d like to believe that none of us would never inflict that kind of pain on any woman.
“Your boss’s daughter then?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t have a death wish.”
“Your boss’s mother? Grandmother?” I feel a headache coming on. “Jeez, Rocco. Not the grandmother!”
He flings his arms up in the air. “For crying out loud, Lincoln!”
I stare at the distress on his face. I shake my head. “You’re gonna have to grow up, Rocco. Before you blow up your whole life in your own face.”
“Don’t you think I know that…?” He looks out the window and mumbles, “I feel like I just need a…fresh start.”
I’m ready to read my idiot brother the riot act. But before I can tear him a new one and figure out what the hell is going on, I’m pulling into my driveway and cutting the engine. Rocco eagerly jumps out of the truck, popping open the cargo space, hauling out boxes and lugging them inside like his life depends on it.
Trying to dodge accountability like always.
I move at a slower pace, something I soon come to regret. Because when I finally step into the house, I see that Rocco has been carrying Jules’s boxes upstairs tomybedroom.
I panic.
“Hey, wait, wait, wait!”
Rocco turns over his shoulder to look at me as he’s climbing the stairs.
“Uh, we’re just gonna leave that stuff down here,” I call out frantically from the bottom of the stairs. “Maybe we can put it in my office.”
My brother glances down at the box he’s holding. “It saysbedroom, though.”
I fumble over my words. “I, uh, we’re, I’m just gonna leave it down here so Jules can sort through it at her own pace.” I smile tightly.
I’m pretty damn sure that Jules will snap my neck when she sees that her stuff has been placed in my bedroom. She and I haven’t discussed sleeping arrangements, and I definitely don’t want to be presumptuous.
But Rocco is starting to smell a rat. I can tell.
His eyes pingpong between the box in his arms and me. “What’s there to sort through? The box is clearly labeled and everything.”
I exhale. “I just don’t want Jules to feel pressured into anything.”
He frowns. “Why would she feel pressured? I mean, you guys are getting married. What kind of newly weds don’t share the same bedroom?”
He has a point. I hate that.
“Y’know what? Fine. Put it in my bedroom. Fine.”
I’ll have a snapped neck. I’ll manage. But at least I’ll get Rocco off my back. Anything to keep from blowing my fake marriage’s cover.
My brother keeps giving me suspicious looks until we’re done emptying the truck. Once we’re finished with the last few boxes, we head to the kitchen for a drink.
