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“Good to each other?” I finish for him. “Is that your problem? That they only had one another and still have a better family situation than us?”
He exhales on the other end of the line. “Why are we even talking about this? It doesn’t fucking matter.”
“It matters to me. He’s currently in my life and you’re my stepbrother. It’d be nice if you two were cordial with one another.”
“Key word here being currently. Let’s not have this conversation and once you two legally split, we can just pretend this never happened.”
That was my plan when I agreed to this whole thing, only now, I don’t know how I’m supposed to forget any of this ever happened.
I sure as hell won’t be able to forget about last night.
Speaking of the man I’m married to, Isaiah pulls up, parking his SUV right in front of mine, his boyish smile glowing through the windshield when he catches me waiting for him.
“Speaking of he who shall not be named.” I gather my keys and slip on my sunglasses before opening the driver’s side door. “He’s here. I’ve got to go.”
“Remind him how much I hate him for me, will you?”
“And you think I’m being sensitive today? The guy is living rent free in your head. I’ll talk to you when you’re being less of an asshole.”
I hang up the phone and slip out of the car.
My stomach dips when I see Isaiah, an odd fluttering that makes me feel equal parts sick and excited. The memory of the way he moved in my hand, the way he panted my name low in my ear last night as he came, is all I can think about as he rounds the hood of his car and meets me by the door of mine.
“There’s the old ball and chain.”
“That’s a new one.”
“We’ve been married for over a month now. I figured with the short lifespan on this whole marriage thing, it’s probably time we move out of the newlywed phase.”
He’s got this knowing smile on his lips, this goofy sparkle in his eye that screams he’s giving me a hard time. But the reminder causes my chest to sting, as if I didn’t know there was an end date to this whole thing. As if I wasn’t the one who set it.
“Sorry I’m late.” With an arm over my shoulders, he pulls me in for a hug, pressing his lips to the top of my head in the most casual way. As if we’ve done this all along. As if we’ll do this forever. “I had to swing by the market on the corner of my block. I wasn’t sure if you’d have enough time to grab one of these this morning, seeing as you had yourself a late night and all.”
He pumps his brows a couple of times like a fucking dork before unfolding the newspaper under his arm and handing me today’s issue of The New York Times.
“I heard Saturdays are the hardest, so you just let me know if you need some help with that.”
I huff a laugh, but it’s a choked, watery laugh because this is insanely sweet of him to do, to think of me without begging him to.
“Have you ever even completed a crossword puzzle?” I ask, instead of gushing about how grateful I am.
“Nah. I’m more of a word search guy myself.”
Popping my trunk, he pulls my bag out of the back, dragging both of ours behind him as we head through the private airport terminal, past security, and out towards the team plane on the tarmac.
This has been our routine since the season started. We meet in the parking lot and walk on board together. Reese has yet to beat us to the plane, but we haven’t wanted to risk showing up separately and opening ourselves up to questions.
“Isaiah,” I begin, as he passes our luggage off to one of the line guys to place in the pit of the plane. “Why do you and Dean hate each other so much?”
“I think it’s best if you get that answer from Dean himself.”
“I tried. He won’t tell me what happened.”
Isaiah huffs a laugh. “Of course he doesn’t want to tell you. Guy’s a fucking tool, but as much as I can’t stand him, you care about him, so I won’t be the one to try to change your opinion of your brother.”
At the base of the stairs, I pause, looking up at him. “I wish you would tell me, but okay.”
“Okay.”
