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“I’m listening.”
“Your feelings won’t go away just because they’re inconvenient. You and Beck… I know it’s complicated, being stepbrothers, but you’ve been closer than close for a long, long time.”
“So, what am I supposed to do now?”
“I don’t know,” Lyle said. “But whatever choices you make, don’t let this thing come between you. Take it from someone with firsthand experience. Losing him from your life will be so much worse than anything you’re feeling now.”
I swallowed and nodded. Lyle was right. Regardless of my misgivings over filing for divorce, it would be ten times worse to lose Beck for refusing to give him what he needed. Ready or not, this marriage had to end. If only so that I could hold on to him.
* * *
BECKETT
“I don’t knowwhy I let you talk me into this.”
Beside me, Andi sniffled. “What? It’s a good movie.”
“It’s a terrible movie,” I argued. “She can’t possibly win him over, and even if she does, then she’s the villain.”
Andi let out a blubbering wail. “I knowwww!”
On the big screen, a movie starring Julia Roberts tormented us with pining and a missed opportunity for love. Ordinarily I wasn’t one to get sappy over romance movies, but it was hitting me straight in the feels, too damn similar to my own life at the moment.
Andi and I had given up on gamer chairs and created a mound of pillows to lean on. Wes and I didn’t have that many, but luckily our sister came with a shit ton of them. A pizza box sat on the floor before us, having arrived while we were in the gaming phase of the night and I was at least marginally happy.
“So, why are we doing this again?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m doing this because it’s cathartic. I need to purge all my heartache over Colt.”
“That dumbass,” I muttered.
Andi smacked me in the gut. “He’s not a dumbass. He’s just…”
“A jackass?”
She laughed. “Shut up and watch the movie. You need this too.”
I’d had to confess that I was having some romantic trouble in my life. I couldn’t tell Andi that her brother was the source of my melancholy, of course, but she’d been too perceptive to miss it altogether.
All day, I’d fooled myself into thinking I was in a good mood. I’d done a great job winning over the mayor. I’d found a workable plan for filing for the divorce. Then I’d convinced Wes to go along with it…
And that’s where my mood went to hell.
Maybe it was just an adrenaline drop. I’d been all revved up to file the paperwork tonight and put our mess behind us. Once Wes left, I was back in a holding pattern. That was the logical explanation.
But after I admitted that I was bummed about a relationship too, Andi had put on this damn movie and insisted that watching it with her would help. But I felt worse than ever, my eyes burning with a desire to spill when I hadn’t cried since Calista Locke shoved a butt plug into my ass too fast, sending blazing hot pain ripping through me. That woman was wild as fuck, and I wished her girlfriend luck, because yeah, I’d ended up liking the pegging, but the other stuff she’d wanted to try? Too far, man. Too far.
“I need ice cream if I’m going to finish watching this,” I grumbled.
Andi swiped at her tears, voice surprisingly bright for a woman who was bawling. “We have ice cream?”
“We have caramel-praline.”
She blew a raspberry. “Yuck.”
“And death by chocolate.”
“Yessss. Give me all the chocolate.”
