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He opened his mouth to say she was good. But he was so fucking sick of all the lies. “A mess.”
There was silence for a moment.
“What?” Josh finally said. “What’s happened?”
Michael didn’t want to tell him. He didn’t want to tell anybody. But everybody was going to know soon, anyway. He slumped back on the bed, his voice low as he clued Josh in on what had happened, his little brother listening silently as he described the clusterfuck they’d just been through.
“Oh boy,” Josh said. “That sounds like a major fuck up.”
“Thanks,” Michael said dryly. “You’re a real help there.”
“What did you expect?” Josh asked him. “Seriously, this was always going to be a mess. I told you that when we talked in Charleston.”
“You’re not helping.”
“I tried. I told you to do something.”
“I did. I sold my business. I cut ties with London. We agreed we’d tell our parents this weekend.” If he could turn back time, he would. He’d kiss Grace and leave, and her dad never would have caught them.
They’d have let him know gently and things would be different.
“Then you would have dealt with it this weekend.”
“No. We would have controlled the narrative.”
Josh barked out a laugh. “You’d have what?”
“We would have told them on our terms. And her dad wouldn’t have had the image of us doing the dirty in her bedroom seared into his brain.”
“Of course he would. And he would have gone apeshit. Anybody would have.”
“He would?” Michael frowned.
“Put yourself in his position. Or even better, imagine it was Sabrina doing the dirty with a guy twice her age.”
“I’m not twice Grace’s age.”
“Stop splitting hairs. Imagine Sabrina was with some thirty-six-year-old guy. Our baby sister, still in college. What do you think Dad would do if he found out?”
He knew Josh was referring to Cam. Of all his siblings, Michael was the only one who didn’t call him dad.
“He’d kill him.”
“And if he didn’tyouwould.”
The image of his sister flashed through his mind. “She’s just a kid.”
“And Grace is Daniel’s kid,” Josh pointed out. “Always will be.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but he couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. There was a pounding in his head, reminding him he’d just spent hours flying halfway across the world. That it was something stupid o’clock in London and he should be asleep.
“I need to go,” he said gruffly.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Mike.”
“Like what?” he asked. “Fall in love with the one woman I shouldn’t?”
“Yeah, like that. But seriously, be careful. I know you like her, but she’s still way younger than you. Remember all the shit we went through in our twenties?”
