Faith and Ivy shared a look.
“What?” Tessa asked.
Ivy shrugged. “I hear what you’re saying, about agreeing to be friends and everything, but Tessa, guys don’t watch shows like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that’s something a girl might do with her girlfriends. But a guy doesn’t do that with his guy friends. If a guy is doing that? He’s into that girl.”
Sharon waded in. “I realize I’m new to this party, but I’ve seen the way he looks at you. And that is not how a guy looks at his friends. Male or female. He looks at Faith and Ivy like they are friends. I think he might think of Hope and Emily as his surrogate little sisters. But the way he looks at you is neither friendly nor familial. He looks at you the way a drowning man looks at a life raft as it floats away.”
26
ZANE PRAYED THE GIRLSwere going easier on Tessa than the guys were going on him. He’d stood the entire time, but now Luke and Gil were also both on their feet.
“What kind of an idiot are you?” Luke’s fury was big, bold, and blistering.
“You should have insisted she go to the cops.” Gil’s anger simmered on the edge of a full boil.
“This is messed up.” Benjamin’s head was down, his elbows on his knees, with the burden of knowledge heavy on his shoulders.
Charles leaned back in his chair and muttered, “I do not understand women.”
No one had punched him, so Zane figured these reactions were as good as he could have hoped for.
“She’s telling the girls?” Luke asked.
“Yes.”
“And Jacob knows?”
“He knew when it happened,” Zane confirmed. “She left out a few details, but he knew enough.”
“So we need to have Jacob’s head examined too?” Gil asked.
And even though he’d expected their anger and censure, Zanelost it. “She didn’t callyou. Okay? She calledme. And I made the call. Jacob agreed. At that moment, she was willing to admit she had a problem and willing to go to rehab. If we’d insisted she file a report, what guarantee could we have had that she wouldn’t drink to escape the pain of it all?”
Zane pointed at Gil, decades of hurt fueling his diatribe. “Youhave no idea.Yougrew up with the blasted Cleavers for parents. I’m not convinced that your mom isn’t an angel sent to earth. She mailed me buckeyes when I was recovering. Did you know that?Yourmom. Do you know where my mom was during that time?”
Gil shook his head.
“No. You don’t. Because I don’t either. My mom has never realized how messed up she is. She’s never faced her need, never been willing to do the hard work to heal. She’s never cared enough about me to bother. So, no, I didn’t insist that Tessa go to the cops. I helped her get into rehab, I drove her there, I took care of everything for her so she wouldn’t have to worry about anything except her treatment, and when she got out, I ignored how much my feelings went way beyond friendly because what she needed from me was for me not to fall in love with her but to like her for the extraordinary woman she is.”
Four sets of eyes stared at him. Then one by one, four gazes dropped to the floor.
Zane tried to breathe around the rage riding him. Tried to remember that these men were his friends, his brothers, his anchors. He’d had eighteen months to come to terms with what had happened that night. They’d had ten minutes. “I need some air.” He turned and walked to the front door. But when he went to close it behind him, Luke was there. Zane ignored him and leaned against a porch rail. “I’m not kidding, Luke. Give me some space.”
“Can’t do it, brother.” Luke tugged on his shoulders and wrapped him up in a bear hug. “I’m sorry. I was out of line.”
The door opened and Gil came out, Charles and Benjamin hot on his heels. Gil joined the hug, and when they broke apart, he said, “It isn’t an excuse, Zane, but you have to understand. We love her too. Not the same way you do, apparently, but...”
Gil barely dodged the punch Zane aimed at his shoulder. “You’re all a bunch of idiots.”
Benjamin shook his head. “I would like the record to show that I stand by what I said. This is messed up. But, like you said, she called you. And she’s been sober ever since. I’ve only ever known her sober, but it would gut me if I had to watch her descending into the clutches of an addiction, so I can only imagine what it was like for you.”
Charles leaned against the door and said, “I feel like I might be tossing a live grenade into this bro lovefest y’all have going, but right now what I want to know is why it was so important for you to share this with us tonight.”
Luke, Gil, and Benjamin all focused on Zane.
