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I couldn’t let the Vegas wedding or the sex or the fears of what people might think ruin our relationship. We might not be boyfriends, but we were bros, and I refused to give that up. The pining and the moping and the worry had to stop—before everything between us became as tainted as the love Julia Roberts’ character had for her best friend.
I was still awake, mind too troubled for sleep, when Wes slipped into the room. It was dark, and I could only make out his silhouette as he undressed. I closed my eyes, not wanting to invite conversation when I was so conflicted over what we had to do next.
The bed dipped as he climbed in on his side. I tried to breathe evenly, though my heart raced as it always did when we first got into bed together. My body remembered Vegas all too well and all the things we could get up to when in close proximity.
Wes shifted a couple of times, then rolled over and put his arm over me. He nuzzled the back of my neck, making goose bumps rise. Then he whispered so quietly I almost didn’t catch his words.
“I miss happy Beck. That’s why I’m gonna do this. To get him back.”
I almost answered, but something stopped me. And when he brushed a kiss to my neck, I knew what it was. Shame swirled with arousal, but I couldn’t bring myself to let him know I was awake. I was afraid he’d stop touching me. Also afraid I’d beg him to touch me more.
So I listened in the darkness as he held me, whispering truths he was afraid to say in the light of day.
“I don’t want anything to come between us, ever. I can’t lose you.”
He squeezed me once more, then rolled away. His breathing evened out and soon turned to quiet snores. He’d gotten his truth off his chest, even if he didn’t believe I’d heard it. But me? My truth was still fighting with my good sense, trapped in my throat, making me feel as though I couldn’t breathe.
CHAPTER12
BECKETT
“Lookslike you and Wes are good for more than bickering with each other after all.”
I pivoted on my heels, still in a crouch, where I’d been assisting Logan with the planting of one of the water-tolerant plants edging the pond, a red twig dogwood. These plants would add a bit of beauty to the area, but more importantly, they would help curb erosion along the pond’s edges.
I tipped my head back to see Tucker and Laurie silhouetted against a blazing sun. “Eh, he’s on residential maintenance today, or I’m sure we’d be going at it as usual.”
That was a lie, and Logan’s sidelong look at me said that he knew it too. Tension had thrummed between Wes and me, both of us all too aware of our plans to file for divorce tonight. We’d met with the crew as usual, dealt out assignments for the day, and parted ways with barely two words between us but far too many looks.
Every time our eyes met, they seemed to catch and hold. There was that same feeling that hung in the air just before a storm, like something was brewing, and it was time to batten down the hatches. When it broke, I didn’t know if I’d still be standing or if I’d be swept away.
Or maybe I needed to stop watching romance movies with Andi.
“This is looking great,” Laurie said.
“It really is,” Tucker agreed, glancing around. “You all are working some magic out here.”
I stood and pulled off my dirty gloves then smacked them against my thigh to make some of the clinging soil drop free.
“There’s a lot more to do. We’re really just getting started. Had to wait for the big machinery to come and go.”
“We saw the gazebo on the walk across the park,” Laurie said. He grinned at Tucker. “Maybe we should get married again there.”
Tucker chuckled, an ease to him that had been missing before Laurie came back into his life. He seemed more relaxed these days, a smile quicker to come to his face as it did now. “I think three honeymoon periods is more than enough.”
Tucker and Laurie eloped in their twenties, then reunited earlier in the summer, when they had a second wedding reception. But then they re-proposed to each other for real after that. Apparently, that proposal was just to agree they were going to stay married, not get married again, though that gazebo would make a nice setting for one last ceremony.
It kind of made my one single marriage to Wes seem more normal. If only he wasn’t my stepbrother.
Laurie grinned. “Pretty sure Lula Miller would say every day should be a honeymoon period, and she gave us the wedding gift to prove it.”
Tucker turned a little red, piquing my curiosity. “What did she give you guys?”
“Nothing,” Tucker said quickly.
“Was it a little something by our sex toy empress, Paula Goodman?” I asked coyly.
Tucker spun on his heel, gazing around the park as if suddenly interested in every blade of grass. Laurie grinned and nodded yes behind his husband’s back.
