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“And that is?”
“Isn’t it obvious? We’re related, man.”
“Yeah,” he nods, “by marriage, not blood.”
“It’s more complicated than that. Her dad was a very respected, very well-known US senator. He probably would have been President someday. And her family…they’re old money, and the society they are part of doesn’t play. If anyone would have found out about us, they’d have dragged her family through the mud. Especially after the tabloid shit show that surrounded her father’s death. She didn’t need that kind of scandal in her life.”
“It wouldn’t have been a scandal.” Jake pushes back. “You were practically adults when your parents got married. And those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Scandal is all those with money seem to attract.”
“We weren’t adults when our parents got married. I was sixteen and she was fourteen.”
“Okay,” he nods, “and when did you two become a thing?”
“The summer after I graduated. Before I left for Highland.”
“So what, you were eighteen and she was sixteen?” I nod. “Still no big deal. What’s the age of consent in Georgia?”
“Sixteen,” I admit.
“Okay, then I really don’t see the problem.”
“Come on, man. You know as well as I do, no major league team would have wanted to get within ten yards of a rookie with a tabloid past. No matter how good an arm he had.”
“I don’t know.” Jake grabs the ice from the table and puts it back on my hand. “I think you may have thrown the wrong pitch on this one, Cabron. I mean, they can’t exactly clutch their pearls over you two. Isn’t the whole cousin fucking thing common down here?”
“Not in that crowd.” I shake my head with a dry laugh.
“Bullshit,” he laughs back. “There are secrets in every family tree and I am willing to bet there are more than a few skeletons in the closets down here. But, leaving the past in the past for a minute, what happened last night?”
The irony of what he just said is hard to ignore. The past happened. That’s what sent my night into a tailspin.
But instead of sharing every detail, I give Jake the high-level—running upstairs, kicking in the door and finding her with Royce, and finally, the kiss we shared.
“And Miriam?” He taps the couch. “I assume she has something to do with what happened last night, given the eat shit and die look she gave you?”
“Who?” I ask, slightly confused.
“The girl that just did the walk of shame out of here. She said her name was Miriam.”
“Miriam, Maude, same difference. It’s my run in with her which sent me upstairs to find Ellery and come to think of it, planted the seed of what I said to her.”
“That bad?” He arches a brow.
Let me call the football team and have them run a train… Who the fuck says that? A jealous asshole that wants the one girl he can never have, that’s who.
“Yeah,” I admit. “It was.”
We sit together in silence for a moment and when I take the ice off I sit back again and look over at him. “Thank you for what you said earlier. Before my whole Street Fighter moment. It’s nice to know one of my friends doesn’t see her as a piece of meat.”
“No thanks needed.” He claps my shoulder. “After talking to her last night, I feel like she’s my sister. And I bet if you told Marcus and Cal, they’d see her that way, too.”
“Not yet.” I shake my head. “I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with her and I being in the same vicinity for the summer.”
“Say no more. I got you, brother. But now I know why you were drinking so much last night.”
“Yeah.” I run a hand through my hair and lay my head back. “I was trying to forget about her.”
“Did it work?”
