They talked for another ten minutes, Liam sharing snippets of their time in Vegas so far, his voice a steady anchor. Just as Seth was feeling more centered, more grounded in his decision, Liam’s tone shifted slightly.
“You know…” his Irish friend began almost casually. “Sometimes the things we think we’ve resolved have a way of resurfacing when we’re on the verge of something new. Something that matters.”
Seth froze. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Keep your eyes open, mate.”
A chill ran down Seth’s spine “If you know something?—”
“I don’t. Just…be aware. That’s all.”
Seth waited for more, but Liam fell silent. The vague warning sat uncomfortably in Seth’s chest. He’d already been through hell and come out on the other side. The past was behind him. He’d made damn sure of that. So whatever niggled at Liam couldn’t be worse than what he’d already survived.
“Thanks for the cryptic warning,” Seth said dryly. “Really helpful.”
Liam chuckled. “Sorry. Sometimes I get feelings about things, but I can’t say for certain what they mean. Probably nothing. Just…take care of yourself, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Seth promised before they hung up.
But as he darkened his phone and left the home gym, that familiar doubt crept back in. He’d made the choice, taken the leap, and committed to their future. If the rest of his tomorrows were mapped out and everything was falling into place, why did he still feel like he was holding his breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop?
It’s just nerves, he told himself. Anyone would feel unsettled about committing to a whole new life in one night.
As Seth let out a deep breath and headed for the stairs, he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was waiting in the shadows. Something he hadn’t accounted for.
Seth was halfway up the stairs when his phone buzzed again. He glanced at the screen, expecting a follow-up text from Liam. Or a message from a client with a cheating spouse. Instead, his mother’s name popped up. He froze.
Shit. It was three-fifteen in the morning in New York. After all the upheaval tonight, he didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to juggle a crisis three thousand miles away.
But Grace Cooper wouldn’t call at this hour unless something was seriously wrong.
“Mom?” Seth answered, sinking onto the stairs. “What’s going on?”
The sound that came through the speaker was something between a sob and a gasp. “Thank goodness you answered. I’m sorry to call so late. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Hey, hey. Take a breath. Tell me what happened.” Seth’s protective instincts kicked in, and he shelved his own turmoil. “Are you okay? Is someone hurt?”
“No. But…” Her voice broke again. “Carl and I went away for the weekend. He got sick, so we came home early. We walked in…and found Jack and Connor. Sleeping…with the same girl.”
Fuck. Seth closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He’d feared this day would come. After the twins had spent last summer with him in Cali, he’d gotten an eyeful of their proclivities. He hadn’t expected them to change, but he thought they’d be smart enough not to fly their freak flag around their deeply Catholic mother.
“Mom, I’m sure that was shocking, but?—”
“Shocking?” Grace’s voice climbed an octave. “It was... it was disgusting. Sacrilegious. Where did they even get that idea? How could they do something so...so deviant?”
He flinched, his fingers tightening on the phone. Deviant? If only she knew what her eldest son had been up to earlier this evening. Hell, for months.
Grace continued, her voice thick with tears. “When I confronted them, they admitted they’ve been sharing women all along. Why would they do that? How did I not know?”
His mother had often been willfully blind to her younger sons’ more colorful exploits, chalking up their antics to “boys being boys” rather than acknowledging the depth of their wild streaks.
“What did we do wrong?” she wailed on.
Because she didn’t know what to do and wanted him to fix the problem.
What a clusterfuck.
“Mom, I know you’re upset, and that you don’t approve. But Jack and Connor are grown men. They can make their own choices, even if we don’t agree with them.”
