He sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees, “Hell, I’ll tell you it all right now. I pretty much lost it after that night at the party, slept with a new girl every weekend, went to strip clubs every Friday night and was wasted all weekend, every weekend. One Friday, I’m walking out to my car with some of my boys and I see this girl sitting on the tailgate of a big truck. Swear to God I thought it was you. Walked over and saw it wasn’t, but by that point she had seen she caught my attention and started laying it on pretty thick. Honestly it was pathetic, but at that point I didn’t care. Made the guys find their own way and spent the afternoon with her, drove to Vegas late that night and married her the next day. Stupidest damn thing I’ve ever done, and God she drove me crazy. Anytime we were out, she’d try to get me to have my dog tags outside my shirt, and would always wear a ‘Marine’s wife’ shirt. Wouldn’t even call me by my name, always called me Sergeant and let everyone she talked to know she was married to a guy in the military. I mean like literally, it was the first thing she said. Even the other people would look at her weird for just bringing it up like that. She didn’t care about me just the same as I didn’t care about her. We were both using each other for something, and I think that’s the only reason we tolerated each other for the month before I left.”
“And what Lauren said about you and her?”
He scoffed and rolled his eyes, “I accidentally called her Blaze one night, and she got all excited that I gave her a nickname, I was drunk and straight up told her, ‘That name’s not for you, you’ll never be her’.”
“Jason Carter!” My mouth popped open wide, “I can’t believe you actually said that to your wife.” I know it was awful, but I burst out laughing and couldn’t stop.
Carter was shaking with silent laughter, “And yet, here you are laughing about it.”
“I’m sorry,” I wiped tears from my cheeks and laughed louder, “but I was picturing what her face would have looked like when you said that.”
“Oh God she was mad. Slapped me across the face in front of everyone, hurt like sin too!”
“You were in front of other people?!”
“We were at a bonfire with some friends. That night didn’t end well, that’s for sure.”
“Good God, Carter. That’s terrible.” My chuckling made it obvious I thought anything but that.
He shrugged, “Needless to say, that marriage didn’t work out.”
“Oh, I wonder why?” I winked and a smile stretched across my face briefly before faltering when I saw the pissed off expressions on most the people that had just walked through the back door. Brandon was first, shrugging off Konrad’s halting arm with one hand, the other had his phone pressed to his ear. Bree, Jeremy and Aubrey followed behind him, the first two brooding, Aubrey was nervously looking between Brandon and me. “Babe?”
“Let me call you right back.” He said quietly and slid his phone into his pocket, “Harper, I gotta talk to you.”
“No, you don’t!” Konrad said harshly and my eyes widened in surprise.
“I can’t believe you’re even considering this, you arrogant asshole!” Bree shoved him roughly from behind, Brandon didn’t even spare a glance at her.
“Sweetheart, that was –”
“You’re smiling?! Are you kidding me?” Jeremy’s face was bright red as his voice continued to rise, “How can you be happy right now? You’re going to destroy her!” He grabbed Brandon’s collar as he started walking toward the back door again.
“Back off Jer.” Brandon growled and roughly removed his brother’s hand before turning back to me.
“What are we missing?” Carter leaned over and half-whispered to me.
“I have no idea.” My eyes went even wider as Jeremy tried to put Brandon in a headlock.
“I said back the fuck off!” Brandon maneuvered out of the hold and shoved Jeremy into the wall, Jeremy charged Brandon again but Konrad caught him and held him back.
“Brandon Taylor!” I hissed, mortified, “What is wrong with you?”
Even with Konrad holding Jeremy back, Brandon stepped right up to Jeremy, their noses touching as they stared each other down.
“Stop!” I hopped off the tall chair and forced my way between them, both hands on Brandon’s chest, “Everyone calm down!” Once Konrad released Jeremy and Brandon was finally looking at me, I narrowed my eyes at my husband and spoke softly, “Apologize to Jeremy.”
Brandon scoffed, but after registering my expression muttered an apology.
“Now tell me what’s going on.”
“That was Scarecrow on the phone.” Brandon’s face stretched into a smile again.
“Okay, and…?” Everyone’s anger and Brandon’s hopeful expression suddenly clicked and I recoiled from him, “Oh my God, you’re not serious, are you?”
“Harper, just hear me out.” He reached his arms to me and I stepped back until I ran into either Konrad or Jeremy.
“You’re serious?!”
“What is going on?” Carter asked exasperated.
“Sweetheart, please just listen. They want a re-match, his people alone are offering double for a re-match. That plus whatever else from the bets, do you know how much I could bring in?”
“His people? Who is he?” But I had a sinking feeling I already knew who. There aren’t many people who would want to go up against Brandon again.
“Demon.”
“NO!”
“I would make eight grand off his trainers and manager! Eight grand Harper!”
I shook my head and stared at him incredulously, “We don’t need that money Brandon.”
“It wouldn’t hurt either, five minutes and I could walk out with an easy ten thousand dollars. Maybe more.”
“Why are you doing this?” My voice broke at the end and he stepped toward me again, this time succeeding in wrapping his arms around me.
“What’s going on?” Someone asked from the back door.
“Great question.” Carter sounded annoyed.
“He got a call to go fight.” Konrad said softly.