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And grown men didn’t fight.
Plus the way he felt right now, any fight he was involved in would end up with someone in the hospital.
Marley sighed. “Come on, man, you’ve gotta get out of this funk. You’re the one who told her to go to New York.”
“I know that.” Pres gritted his teeth.
He could hear Marley shuffling his feet. They were in the garage of the house, sheltering from the rain. Trying to see if it was going to stop in time for them to at least finish the work on the roof.
“Have you heard from her?” Marley asked.
“Yep.” Pres turned around. Marley was at the entrance to the garage. The overhead door was open, and he was leaning against the wall, looking out at the rain.
“She okay?”
“I think so. She was rushing to another meeting when she called. They’re having a lot of them. Trying to get them to bond.”
“Did she say if she’s staying?”
“Nope.”
Marley shook his head. “You’re a fucking idiot.”
“Thanks, man.” Pres let out a low breath.
“I mean it. What was sending her away all about? What kind of stupid mother fucker tells the woman he loves to leave?”
“I didn’t tell her to leave,” he said. “I just refused to stand in her way.”
“Not the way I heard it.” Marley shrugged. “From the way Mom tells it, you pretty much said that unless she went to New York you’d never be completely sure about you two.”
“I never said that.” Pres frowned. “That’s definitely not what I said.”
“Then what did you say?”
He swallowed. He didn’t want to think about this. He didn’t want to think about anything. For the past two days he’d lived for messages and voicemails from Cassie. They’d managed one broken conversation last night when she was heading out to a bar to meet the other band members.
“I said she should try it. That’s all.”
Marley turned his body to look at him head on. “Because nothing says I love you like ‘fuck off to another state’.”
“You know why I did it.” Pres was getting annoyed again. Not that it took much. He felt like a tinder-dry pile of sticks. The merest spark made him want to explode.
“Jade was going to go anyway,” Marley said. “You and I both know that. It was never a match made in fucking heaven. You got married because she was pregnant. And she was never the settling down type.”
Pres inhaled sharply. “I don’t want to talk about her.”
“I know you don’t want to,” Marley said carefully. “But don’t you think you should? Because I don’t know if anybody else has pointed it out to you yet, but Cassie isn’t Jade.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Pres shook his head.
“I think you know it here,” Marley said, pointing at his own head. “But not here.” He pressed his palms against his chest. “Not where it matters. Maybe in here you’re thinking that if you play things differently, everything will turn out okay.”
“Won’t it?” Pres asked, his voice low. It felt like he was being hollowed out. Emptied.
“No. Because Cassie isn’t Jade. She doesn’t need her freedom or her youth or whatever the fuck Jade was chasing. She needs you. You and Delilah.”
“She has us. She knows that. I made sure she knew it.” Pres tried to center himself. It felt like his whole world was tipped at an angle. Making him feel dizzy as fuck. “I told her I’m not going anywhere. And I’m not.”
