Only You (Adair Family #5)(11)

“She’s our friend, or have you forgotten that?”

Whoa, where did that come from? “Was, not is.”

“She has no one. Do you care?”

An ache speared my chest, and I ignored that too. “I guess I stopped caring when she fucked my brother.”

Tension crackled around the table as Eredine murmured under her breath and Arran leaned toward me, eyes flashing. “One, that’s not polite to mention in front of Ery. Two, I didn’t sleep with your girlfriend, Bro, and I’m done acting like it was that kind of betrayal … unless, of course, you finally admit you wanted Monroe for yourself.”

“Arran,” Lachlan snapped.

Arran shook his head, gaze still on me. “Nah, I’m sick of carrying around that guilt. He doesn’t get to treat me like I betrayed him if he doesn’t actually give a shit about Monroe. Either he cares or he doesn’t.”

Heart racing, I pushed up from my chair, yanked money out of my pocket, and threw it on the table. “I couldn’t care less about her.”

“Sit.”

At the rumble from my left, I turned to gape at my bodyguard. “Are you kidding me?”

Walker shrugged casually. “I make all your decisions, and I’ve decided you’re finishing your pint.”

“While this wee prick antagonizes me?”

“Sit.”

With my Black Shadow on the line, I slowly sat and took a lengthy chug of my beer.

Lachlan grinned from Walker to me and back to Walker. “I think I like this new arrangement.”

Robyn visibly choked on her laughter, and I glowered at them.

“So, we’re good, then?” Arran leaned past Ery. “Since you don’t care.”

“Aye, we’re fine.” I’d like to kick his antagonistic arse, but we were fine.

“What are you planning to do while you’re home?” Eredine asked, breaking the tension.

“Rest,” Lachlan answered for me.

“I can’t just rest. I need to do something.”

They all looked at Walker, surprisingly way too okay about my bodyguard making all the decisions on my behalf.

Walker sighed. “I’ll think of something productive.”

Thankfully, Eredine the angel switched the subject to the fact that more locals had shown up at the pub tonight than usual. It was taking the villagers a little longer to get used to the idea of Arran and Lachlan running the Gloaming with all the changes they’d made.

Later, as Walker and I got into the SUV to drive back to the estate, I felt a black cloud hover over me. Sometimes alcohol, even in small amounts, depressed me, which was why after I got drunk and started a fight at a club in LA a few years ago, I’d mostly steered clear of the stuff.

“Maybe your next decision for me should be for us to leave. We could go to an island somewhere with exotic beauties serving us food in coconut-shell bikinis.”

Walker sighed as we pulled away from the Gloaming. “No. You’re where you’re supposed to be.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You really think so?”

“Aye. Problem is, there are things you’ve kept hidden from your family. And you’ve been absent. They miss you. They’re worried about you.”

He was a talkative bugger tonight. “So that gives Arran the right to be a dick?”

“It just means things are probably going to be bumpy for a while until you work out all those old resentments.”

Walker the Wise, I thought humorlessly.

“What the hell am I going to do here for months? I’m knackered, but the thought of doing nothing makes me restless.”

“Maybe we’ll start with your family. See if they need help with anything.”

“Arran clearly needs help with a smack to the face. Cheeky shite.”

Walker’s lips twitched. “Typical brother. Pushing all the right buttons.”

Indignation suffused me. “No buttons were pushed. She isn’t a button.” She was a ghost.

And I had enough ghosts haunting me.

I didn’t need another.





4





Brodan





THE PAST





* * *



That was it. I was never getting serious with a lassie, ever. Okay, so I already knew that, but Michelle Kingsley had one hundred percent sealed my fate as a bachelor for life.

And I was barely fifteen.

I was not the only guy Michelle had been messing around with for the past year. She was not the only girl I had. But a few months ago, she was the first lassie I’d had sex with, and even though it wasn’t her first time, she was acting like it was and suddenly, we were supposed to be boyfriend and girlfriend.

Moving onto Laura Bannerman as my casual go-to had made things nice and clear.

Which was why I was spending my lunch break with Michelle in my face and an embarrassing audience of our classmates to witness her meltdown.

“You think you’re hot shit, but you’re not!” Michelle yelled, her face purple with anger.

It was difficult at that moment to remember why I’d ever fancied her. “We both knew the score,” I reminded her quietly.

“The score?” She gaped. “The score!” She shoved me so hard, I lost my footing and nearly fell.