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Adam said nothing, his eyes on the fire. I knew my brothers well enough to be able to tell when they were in the middle of deep thought.
“He’s right,” Adam finally said. “Marcus, I get that you’re not comfortable with this kind of stuff, but—”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he snapped, stepping over and swiping his glass of whiskey from the side table where he’d put it.
“You know damn well what that means,” Adam said. “You don’t like feelings – especially ones that bring you closer to other people.”
Marcus scoffed, shaking his head as he dropped into one of the chairs in front of the fire.
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” He followed this up with a long draw of whiskey, but no other words, meaning that he understood that Adam had a point but didn’t want to admit it.
“Yeah,” I said with a smirk. “We all feel it; the faster we can accept it as a fact and go from there, the better.”
“She’s something special, alright,” Adam said. “I’m glad we discussed this before we left on the mission but all the same, we’re going to have to table the matter of Aubrey until we get back, make sure we handle the task at hand, first. Still, it’s hard not to get excited about this.”
Marcus shook his head. “Are you guys really being this naïve? Do you need me to remind you of what happened with the last woman we tried this with?”
The mood in the room cooled, neither Adam nor I said a word.
He was right. We’d mentioned Tiffany to Aubrey. What we hadn’t done, however, was tell herwhythat whole situation had gone south and why it had ended.
“This is just how it was with Tiffany,” Marcus went on. “All of us were stupid and giddy about how perfectly everything was working out, how we couldn’t believe our luck at this amazing, beautiful woman going for the insane idea of being with all of us at the same time. You two might be looking back at all that with rose-colored glasses, but I’m sure as hell not.”
Adam and I shared a look.
Images from those few days came back into my mind as clear as a movie. I remembered us all going into town, hitting one of the local bars as a group. We drank, joked, flirted. A group like ours, four brothers and one woman, attracted all the attention that one might guess.
I remembered that feeling in the air, that tenseness that arrived as the bar patrons slowly put it together that we weren’t just a group of folks out on the town – we were something more. People stared; people talked. By the time we paid our tab and headed out for the night, we’d unknowingly set the stage for the gossip that would bring everything down.
We’d known something was wrong two days later, after Tiffany had gone into town to pick up our weekly grocery haul. She’d left with a smile on her face, eager to get back and spend the evening with all of us. When she’d returned, however, her expression was dark.
Something had happened.
It’d taken some time to coax it out of her, but we’d eventually gotten to the bottom of it. People had been talking at the store, whispering to one another as she passed. At first, she’d tried to ignore it. So what if people talked? By the time she’d reached the register and the girl running it refused to take care of her, telling her that she didn’t even want to look at someone who participated in something so “unnatural,” Tiffany had enough.
We’d tried to calm her, to tell her that it didn’t matter, that the townspeople would get used to it. At first, it seemed like we’d gotten through to her. She’d gone to her room to be alone that night, sure, but I’d felt confident that we’d calmed her nerves.
Maybe we had. Over the next few days, however, she reached her breaking point. It all came to a head during the farmer’s market that weekend. We’d been there with her and had a chance to see first-hand what she’d been dealing with. The five of us couldn’t take a step without someone pointing or glaring or whispering. Halfway through the outing, Tiffany broke into tears and ran back to the car.
We tried again that night to put her at ease. However, there was no doubt in my mind that each of us knew that it was over, that she’d hit her limit. The next morning, she was gone, leaving nothing but a note that said while we’d be in her heart forever, she was done.
That was the last we’d seen of Tiffany. While we’d only known Aubrey for a short time, the idea of her leaving like that, of never seeing her again, was enough to make my heart hurt like mad.
“She’d never do that,” I said. “She’d be able to handle the talk, the whispering.”
Marcus shrugged, seeming unconvinced. “Maybe. Maybe she’d find it funny, like we did. Good chance that she won’t, though. Good chance that she’d leave, just like Tiffany did.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. As I watched the flames dance, I knew for damn certain that there was something special about Aubrey, something different.
What I didn’t know, however, was if thissomethingwould be enough to keep her at our sides when the heat came on. And itwouldcome on.
Chapter 17
Mac
“How are you feeling?” Although I’d never been one to pry, I couldn’t help but ask the question as I made my way down the hall with Aubrey.
“Good.” She said the word with confidence. “Very good. How could I not after experiencing what I just did with you guys?” She smiled at me as we walked.
