She nods. “I understand. So we take it slow.”
It feels like a relief that she understands. If I go in, we’ll have sex, and it will be amazing. But it will also be clouded by everything that went down tonight, and I want Millie to be my sole focus when I’m fucking her—just like she was the other times we were together.
She leans forward and kisses me. “See you on the beach for sunrise yoga!”
She closes her door before I can protest, and I can’t help but walk away with a smile on my face at her antics.
I’m not sure what comes over me, but I head down to grab one more drink from the bar. It’s as I’m walking through the lobby that I hear my name.
“Archer!”
I turn around, and I see my brother calling me. He’s alone, and he’s striding across the space toward me.
“Where’s your wife?” I ask once he’s close enough to hear me.
“She turned in early. I was hoping I’d run into you. I’ve been trying to call your room, but your phone seems to be disconnected. I tried texting you, but you never answer. How the hell is a guy supposed to check in with his brother when his brother falls off the grid?”
“I came here to fall off the grid, man,” I admit.
“Why?”
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I ask. “My ex married my brother five minutes after we broke up. My father manipulated me into signing paperwork that made me an accomplice to his illegal activities. The leaguesuspended me forty games because of it. I needed to get the hell away from all of it.”
“You have every right to be angry with me for the part I played in that, but I swear to you, Archer, this wasn’t how I ever saw any of this going down,” he says. “I told you why we got married.”
“And I told you I just wanted her to be happy. Is she happy?”
His eyes turn toward the ground when he answers. “Yes. We both are. And I’m sorry you’re hurting because of it. You’re my brother, and I hate all of this. I hate the distance between us, and I wish we could find some way to get past all this.”
Truth be told, I put the distance there long before I broke it off with Tatum. The distance with my family has nothing to do with her at all.
He draws in a breath. “All I’m saying is that we haven’t dealt with it, and we should.”
I try to stand outside the situation and look in. Is it shitty that my brother married the only woman I ever loved? Yes. But they had their reasons, reasons that had less to do with love and more to do with money. At first. It’s clear there’s something there now, something that was maybe always simmering and I chose to ignore. Something that grew into what was meant to be as Tatum and I grew apart.
And as someone who supposedly has a new girlfriend, I’m being forced to play the part, no matter how it might feel in the moment. “You loved her as long as I did. Maybe longer. She ended up where she needed to, and I’ve moved on. Things are good with Millie,” I lie.
He studies me, and he presses his lips together. He’s looking for a crack. A reason not to believe my words. He’s probably been punishing himself worse than anything I’d ever do.
But I’ve perfected the act. I stand there in left field, my face devoid of emotion. It’s a skill I learned long ago. If nobody can read me, if nobody knows me, it’s easier in the end.
He seems emotional as he steps forward and gives me a quick hug with a fist pound to my back. He clears his throat as he pulls back. “Answer your goddamn phone when your siblings call. Okay?”
I offer a small smile. “Not a chance.”
* * *
It’s too early, and I’m more than a little grumpy that I’m up before the sun when this is supposed to be a vacation. But I head down to the beach anyway, possibly in part because Millie had mentioned sunrise yoga yesterday, and I don’t want her to be there without me in the event Ford and Tatum show up to check it out.
They don’t, and honestly, I’m glad. It gives me time to put my full attention on Millie.
And this time, we actuallyenjoysunrise yoga together as we partner up and put our focus on our bodies and each other.
When we’re done with yoga, we take a walk on the beach and agree on a place for breakfast, which we walk to next.
We’re sweating and laughing about the yoga pose where my face was practically in her ass as we’re seated, and we must be on the same goddamn timetable as my brother and his wife, because there they are, already seated in the booth behind us and just sipping their orange juice as they wait for their meals.
“Hi again,” Millie says enthusiastically, trying to break up the tension.
