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“You won’t even tell me?” She pouted, then bit into her burger.
I laughed. “No. I will not tell you. Ask me anything else, I’ll be truthful, but if I have a secret, I have a reason for it, and it’s not because I’m a dick doing something awful. It’s because sometimes you have to keep your damn mouth shut.”
Obviously she didn’t like my answer. “I don’t think a couple should keep secrets from each other.”
That would be alarm bells going off. Was she thinking we were a couple? That was not good. At all. I mean I fucking liked her. A lot. But this was just…whatever it was.
“I don’t know what to tell you.” I suddenly felt like Cain. I wanted a drink. A large one.
“Okay, so tell me this. Why did you and Ali break up?”
This wasn’t even fun anymore. “We were never together. I liked her in high school, and so when I had the opportunity I had sex with her. She lied and told me she and Cain were broken up already.”
Her jaw dropped. “Wait, what? She was with Cain?”
Now it was my turn to be surprised. “You didn’t know? I thought everyone knew. Yes, Ali and Cain were together for like two years. She told me they were broken up. They weren’t. So I mean, technically, Camp could be Cain’s, but we’ll never know. Because, you know, we have the same DNA.”
Bella was looking at me like I had grown two heads. Or maybe even three. “Are you serious?” Her voice had risen three octaves.
I nodded. “As a heart attack, baby.”
She covered Camp’s ears with her hands. “Why would you have sex with your brother’s girlfriend?” she whispered urgently.
“I told you. Ali said they were broken up.”
“For how long? So what, they broke up on like Tuesday and you banged her on Wednesday?”
I really didn’t like having my sins thrown at me like this. It was fucking uncomfortable. Mostly because I knew she was right. So I got defensive. “Yeah. Something like that. What? She threw herself at me. I didn’t pursue her. It was one time. Then I found out the truth and I felt like shit about it and here we are.”
I stared Bella down. There wasn’t anything I could do about the past. I couldn’t really justify my behavior. It had been a dick move to jump on my brother’s ex and I had regretted it every day since then. But it was complicated because I couldn’t regret Camp.
“That’s really horrible,” she said.
“I never said I was a saint.” I stood up and took Camp from her. My son didn’t belong on her lap. I set him down on the carpet in the living room and gave him my phone after pulling up a baby game app he loved. This had been stupid to bring him here. This was my day with him, our guy time, and now I was just annoyed that I was being lectured.
Because I felt guilty. Guilty people get defensive, and that was most definitely me.
“Yeah, but that’s kind of a big deal, Christian. That is not a little thing like you were both out and were flirting with the same girl.”
This had all gotten too real. Too much. I didn’t need her judging me. I had already judged myself. “You are a runaway bride,” I said. “I don’t think you have a whole lot of room to be criticizing me.”
Her face went white and she set her burger back down on her plate. “That is not the same.”
“Passing judgment is. You don’t like it any more than I do.”
—
I swallowed hard, fiddling with my horseshoe necklace. I honestly didn’t even know what to say. I had convinced myself that Christian was Mr. Nice Guy. And here I was looking at him and he was telling me he’d had sex with his brother’s girlfriend. Did it really matter that they had been broken up? I mean, it did. Because nothing was worse than willingly cheating with Ali on Cain. But it still was lousy.
Not the worst thing anyone could do, but not the nicest. It didn’t sound like he thought Cain and Ali had broken up for very long. Days, maybe. And he wasn’t really apologizing for it.
“So if you’re willing to tell me that, I can’t even imagine what your biggest secret is.” I stood up, feeling like I needed fresh air. The cabin was stuffy. I wasn’t sure if I should appreciate his honesty or despise his behavior.
“Keep imagining, because I’m not telling you. But it’s not about me, I will tell you that.”
“You can’t keep secrets from people,” I insisted. “It’s not cool.”
When he just stared at me I grabbed a French fry, shoved it into my mouth, picked up my burger, and stomped outside. I was going to find my phone.
