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“Heading home?”
I nod, bristling slightly as Dom joins us, followed closely by Ave. “I gotta get back for a trial starting next week.” It feels like my own trial is about to begin.
“Where’s the girl?” Ave chimes in. “I thought I was going to see her bags in your cart when you finally dragged yourself off that island.”
“Yeah, well.” I glance down and shake my head. I have no idea what I would even say to explain what just went down on Merit, but I suppose they’ll hear it from Ains soon enough. “I did, too. But that’s not how it worked out.”
“How did it work out?” Sam asks in his characteristic friendly, open manner. Like anything I said in return would be just fine. Little does he know how wrong he is this time.
“It just didn’t.”
Dom clears his throat and I purposely look away instead of toward him. If that guy thinks he can bully information out of me, he’s dead wrong.
“Reina told me she’s been seeing you two around town and that you looked an awful lot like a couple.”
I shrug. “It was just a little island fling. Back to reality.”
“You never brought her over to meet us,” Ave says, his voice full of the teasing I would expect from him. “First girlfriend you’ve had and we missed the entire relationship? Lame.”
“I’ll introduce you to the next one, okay?”
They’re all quiet, watching me. I’ve got to get out of here. “I thought it was something, but it turned out I was wrong. Surely you guys can all understand not wanting to air your dirty laundry all over the island.”
“It’s not all over the island, Ben. It’s us,” Sam says.
“I have it on good authority that you two were shacked up at Katy’s earlier today. Reina said you were smiling so much she almost didn’t recognize you. And now you’re running off to the mainland with your scowl back in place. Something happened,” Dom accuses.
Damn this tiny island. Nowhere to hide.
All the more reason to get back to the city, where literally no one gives a shit what you’re doing.
“Yeah, something happened. But I don’t really want to talk about it. It’s no big deal. We hung out, it’s over, end of story.”
“Would this something have anything to do with Ains coming home?”
I whip my head to Avery so fast the world blurs. “How the fuck do you know that? What did he tell you?”
Ave’s mouth drops open as his eyes narrow. I look away quickly, realizing my mistake, only to find narrowed eyes from the other two as well.
I shake my head. “It’s not what you think.”
“You’re not running away from the first good thing you’ve found since Breanna died the second your adult son shows up? Because that’s what it looks like to me,” Ave calls me out.
Dom crosses his arms and cocks his head to the side. I’m not brave enough to look at Sam and risk the kind, understanding face I’m sure he’s wearing.
“Coincidence,” I offer, convincing no one.
“Ains wants you to be happy, you know. If you found someone you want to be with,” he holds up a hand when I start to interrupt. “Even if that woman is a bit younger than you, he would be supportive.”
“You don’t understand.” Not that I’m about to help them with that problem.
“We understand perfectly, man,” Dom says. “We were there when Breanna passed. We know you took the responsibility of making sure Ainsley turned out all right seriously. We know that’s kept you alone all these years.”
“We’ve always given you your space with all that. I mean, you seemed to find some comfort at the club in New York. And we were all supportive when you started bringing some of that stuff over to the Merit house,” Ave adds. “But it never felt like something you wanted to talk about, so we gave you space.”
Boiling hot shame rises from my gut and overtakes my mind, turning the whole world gray. “You guys talk about this? You talk about me?”
How could I not have known this?
