My eyes flash to Brenda. “This is your date? Seriously?”
Nate cuts me a look. “Chill, bro. We’re just getting a beer.”
I glance at Vicky, who’s watching us intently, then back at Nate. “Don’t call me bro.”
He shakes his head and his expression goes all wounded. “I get your issues with me, Marcus. Really. What I did to Blaire was a dick move. But that was, like, a century ago. You’ve got to let it go, man. All this hating on me for something I can’t change isn’t healthy.”
“What exactly did you do to Blaire?” I ask, getting in his face. “Because I know there was more to it than just fucking her roommate.”
He shakes his head, but holds his ground. “Blaire has always told you everything. I was a dog. I pulled shit I shouldn’t have. If I could take it back, I would, but I don’t know why you’re all fucking hell bent on making it more that it was.”
I glance at Brenda again and find myself fixed in a full-on scowl. She hooks her hand through Nate’s elbow. “Come on. Let’s sit at the bar.”
He gives me one last look, then guides Brenda past me to the bar. They slide onto stools and Vicky comes over and takes their orders. At least Brenda’s got her mother watching out for her. Nate probably won’t slip anything into her drink.
But I wouldn’t put it past him to try.
What I know about Nate. 1) He’s a lying dirtbag. 2) He’s always had an arrogant streak a mile wide. 3) When he was dating my sister, he fucked her roommate while Blaire was sleeping ten feet away. 4) There’s more to what happened between he and Blaire than she’s told me. 5) It’s taken her years to find herself again after whatever it was.
6) It’s my fault.
He was my best friend. I knew how he was with girls. I should have tried harder to talk Blaire out of dating him. But things were weird between us right after Caiden went to jail. All I could see is that this older guy had taken advantage of her and she kept defending him. It pissed me off.
I start toward the bar, my fists bunched at my sides. I let that prick fuck with my sister, but I’m not making the same mistake twice. There’s no way he’s fucking with my friends.
Deanna grasps my arm before I get out of her reach. “Hey there, cowboy, I don’t know what you’ve got against that guy, but your friend’s a big girl. I don’t think she’s going to appreciate you riding roughshod over her date.” I shake loose from her grasp, but she steps between me and my target and presses up on her tiptoes, adding low in my ear, “You got some frustration to take out, take it out on me.”
I glance over her shoulder to the bar. I wish I knew for sure what happened between Nate and Blaire four years ago. Right now it’s just a gut feeling that he did more to her than cheat on her. But there’s nothing I’m going to say right now that isn’t going to piss Brenda off, so I spin for the door. “Let’s go.”
When we get to Deanna’s, a rambling farmhouse on the edge of town near Lover’s Leap, she shows me the closet behind the fireplace.
“I wonder what they used it for,” she says, looking around the small space. It’s bare except for three empty wooden shelves attached to the far wall.
I knock on the wall and find it’s solid cement. “Probably was built as an earthquake shelter.”
She presses me up against the wall with her body and sends me a suggestive smile. “I think we should test it out—see if it’s really unshakeable.”
She pulls open my jeans, and even though I’m not really into it, I’m just drunk enough that I don’t stop her when she slides her hand under the waistband of my boxer briefs and grabs my cock. She fists her other hand into the hair on the back of my head and pulls me into a kiss. It takes a minute, but my body finally starts to get with the program, my cock stiffening in her grasp. She slips off her panties under her skirt and spins us so her back is against the wall. She climbs up my body so she’s straddling my hips, and when she reaches for the shelves next to us, I realize they’re not totally empty. A condom sits on the corner of the lowest one.
She planned this.
I don’t know why that bothers me. It’s no secret we came back here to fuck, so why not do it in the closet behind the fireplace? But I feel myself reflexively peeling my body back from hers.
“Listen, Deanna…” I say, grasping her wrists and lowering her hand from my body. “I’m not really feeling this right now.”
Her eyebrows go up and she glances down at my boner. “Really?”
I fasten my fly. “I’ve just got a lot going on right now. It’s totally no reflection on you.”
“Okay…” she drawls, giving me a look that leaves no doubt I’m crazy and she’s pissed.
I duck out through the passage into the living room and she follows. “I’m really sorry. Give me a rain check?”