Page 213

Gordo frowned at me. “I know. Stop being an asshole or you’ll find yourself on a bus to Raleigh.”

Everyone’s eyes rounded just before they scurried back to their positions. There was trouble, and then there was Trouble. “I’m sorry Coach. Won’t happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t. I don’t care what our relationship is, you can’t go around half-cocked. That’s how people get hurt.” Gordo had been good friends with my older brother for as long as I could remember. We’d played on the same college team for one year. He knew me better than anyone else on the team. If I was testing his patience then I’d gone way over the line.

“Yes Coach.”

He stared at me for another long second, like he was about to say something else, then turned, grumbling something under his breath.

When we were done for the day I waited for Isaac. Our new spring training facility was only thirty minutes from our home on Calusa Key, so this season we were staying on the island for the month. We even had a joint team retreat with the Tangerines planned. The island’s big, exclusive resort was all ours for three days.

And it was the perfect opportunity to get Willa alone and pull my foot out of my mouth. It wasn’t like she could ignore me the whole time. And there were only so many places to go in the resort, let alone the island.

Whether she liked it or not, we were setting things straight.

The pickup truck chirped as Isaac emerged from the gate and I opened the rear door to toss my bag in before climbing into the passenger seat. My brother and I were close and always had been. But this last year had changed things. We moved off the island, Isaac became my boss, and he fell in love with Kate. We lived together so we were physically closer than we’d been since we were kids, but sometimes it felt like we’d drifted.

“Gordo said you had some trouble.” He started the truck to get the air conditioning running then looked over at me expectantly.

I tried to shrug it off. “My temper got the best of me.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Your temper?” I was known for being impulsive, we both were, but not angry. “You’ve been grumpy. What’s going on?”

“Are we heading home or what?”

He folded his arms over his chest and stared at me.

We weren’t going home until I gave him something.

When I still didn’t say anything Isaac filled the silence. “You were happy at Christmas. You were happy at our wedding. Then you went on vacation and came back grumpy. What happened?”

I ground my teeth together. Why was it so hard to tell him? Normally I would have told him everything. Just spewed it out and let him reorder my thoughts into something that made sense.

“The fuck, man? I know Kate’s changed things but why won’t you talk to me?” He shoved his fingers through his hair before slapping the steering wheel. “I hate this. What do I have to do to fix this?”

I let my head fall back against the seat. “I swear I’m not trying to be a pain in the ass.”

“I think that’s the problem. You’re trying so hard to be easy, to stay out of the way, to give me space, that you’ve cut yourself right off.”

He wasn’t wrong. I wanted Isaac and Kate to figure out what their marriage looked like on their own. I kept to my side of our Brady Bunch house. I took Rosie for adventures so they could be alone.

“Talk to me, brother.”

Maybe the bigger issue was that Isaac knew me so well. He’d see the truth no matter how much or little I told him. But going on like this, trying to deal with my anger on my own, wasn’t going to cut it. “Willa went home early.”

“Why?”

I let out a long breath. “I think I said something that upset her.”

“Think or know?”

I closed my eyes, picturing that room, Willa leaned up against the windows, the quiet. “I know.”

“Want to tell me what you said?”

No. “Let’s just say she was upset at me for the same reason you’re frustrated with me right now.” You’d think for all the trouble it was causing me I’d start letting people in.

But habits are hard to break. And I’d become an expert at denying I had feelings of any kind.