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“I’m fine,” Scott said. “I’m not here to get wasted, I’m here to check in on you.”
I snorted. “Noble of you. As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”
“Well, seeing that you’re fine, mind telling me what the fuck you were thinking, throwing the presentation in your favor?”
I blinked at my brother. “Where the hell did you hear that?”
“I talked to Mackenzie today.”
“Where?” I demanded, shocked. A pang of jealousy shot into my chest, too—Scott got to talk to her, and I didn’t.
“She was at the hospital. We ran into each other and the topic came up.”
“How…” I shook my head. “No, scratch that. I don’t even want to know how it came up or where that conversation went. I don’t have to justify myself to you.”
“No, you don’t,” Scott said. “You just have to be happy with yourself and the choices you’ve made.”
I bristled at that. “You sound like a fucking fortune cookie.”
Scott didn’t answer me. He just stared at me while I sipped my whiskey, feeling like a total dick.
“It was an accident, okay?” I blurted out.
“What?”
“The presentation.”
Scott raised his eyebrows. “I don’t know how something like that can happen by accident. I thought you were going to change things around, to give her the contract, or give her your presentation or… something.”
“I’m not like you, you know,” I retorted. “I’m not a hero.”
“Who says I’m a hero?” Scott asked.
“Look at you!” I cried out. “You’re the guy who saves lives, who swoops in when it’s well past the final hour and you pull kids back from the dead, giving them back to their parents, giving them a second lease on life. You’re doing all the right things while I’m just out for personal gain.”
“Don’t say that."
“Isn’t that what you suggested?” I asked. “That all that matters is who I am and what’s going on in my life?”
Scott sighed and shook his head. “I never said it like that, Troy. All I said was that there are bigger things out there than your own pain, and as soon as you realize you’re not alone in this world, you can start to open up and let others in.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t ready for this conversation. I wasn’t ready for the heartbreak that had come with Mackenzie, the uncomfortable feeling that had suddenly come with my moral compass pointing in a different direction when I’d always been fine with what I did before… I wasn’t ready for any of it.
“Stay out of my business, okay?” I clapped back, my anger taking over, hiding the fact that I was getting dangerously close to falling apart. “I’m happy with my life, and I’m perfectly fine.”
“Sure, you are,” Scott said dryly, and I didn’t care for his sarcastic tone. He continued talking before I could say something about it.
“She’s doing fine, by the way.”
“Who?”
“Rachel. Mackenzie’s sister. Isn’t that what you asked for?”
Right. I also wanted to know how Mackenzie was doing, but I let Scott keep talking.
“The operation was successful, and although she still has a long road to recovery, it looks good.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. At least there was one thing that had gone right in that family.
