Rule(29)

I grunted and sank down on the couch next to him.

“I dunno.  Shaw and I have all kinds of twisted history, who knows?”

“But she spent the night with you?”

“Yeah.”

“And I’m assuming because I’ve known you since forever that you didn’t spend the night discussing politics and watching TV?”

I glowered over at him.  “No.”

He shook his head and made a tisk, tisk sound.  “What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t, clearly.”

“Dude, she’s not one of those girls.  You can’t just have me escort her out in the morning and never talk to her again.”

“Hey I woke up alone this morning.   I didn’t make her go anywhere.”

“But you would’ve and Shaw is way to classy and smart to do a walk of shame.  Man I can’t believe you hooked up with your brother’s girl.  You really do have some problems, that’s a whole mess I wouldn’t even jump into no matter how hot the girl was.”

I made a strangled noise and reached forward to put my elbows on my knees.  “Let’s just say I don’t think there is any real reason to worry about tarnishing Remy’s memory.  I don’t know what was going on between those two for all those years but after last night there is undeniable proof that they weren’t sleeping together.”

Nash swore and his eyes got wide.  “She was a virgin?”

I nodded.  I probably shouldn’t be sharing all this with Nash, but I was confused and he was my best friend.  I was in over my head.

“She was a virgin and gave it up to you, holy shit bro that’s like a huge deal.”

I sighed.  “That’s what I thought but then she was gone when I woke up and she was pretty trashed last night so maybe it was just beer goggles and too many martinis making the choices for her.”

“She seemed fine this morning, I mean she looked hung over and pretty obviously worked over but she wasn’t nervous or weird or anything.  She called Ayden for a ride and ran out for breakfast while she waited. I dunno man, she didn’t seem all swoony in love or stalker pissed off, she just seemed like normal Shaw.  Granted I always thought she kinda had a thing for you.”

I turned to him with a look of bewilderment.  “What?”

“She puts up with your shit no matter how bad it is.  Don’t you remember that one New Year’s she showed up to get you and you brought home the redhead and her friend?  That was a freak show and Shaw didn’t even blink she just tossed you your pants and told you to get it together.  She lets you be all moody, surly and grumpy and doesn’t even bat an eye and trust me dude that shit gets old super-fast.  She’s willing to go to battle with the only parents she’s known to show her any love because she wants them to treat you right and quit blaming you for Remy’s death, she isn’t doing any of that for Margot or Dale, and she sure ain’t doing it for Remy, the only person any of that benefits is you.  Even as stubborn and self-involved as you are, you have to be able to see that.”

“But she’s Shaw.  Perfect, Shaw.  Even when she was little she was untouchable and aloof.  She would be over at the house all the time with Remy and every time I said anything or did anything she would just look at me like I was an idiot.”

He snorted.  “You were an idiot.  You don’t remember being sixteen?  We were nightmare and never very nice to her.  You made fun of her hair, teased Remy mercilessly about spending all his time with her, you were an ass.”

“I was?”

“Dude, you still totally are.  And Shaw is Shaw.  She’s so freaking beautiful it hurts look at her sometimes, but she doesn’t even know it.  She’s still untouchable because she’s always going to be richer and smarter than we are, but she doesn’t care about any of that.  She’s cool, she doesn’t care that you’re just you, and honestly Rule, any chick that can put up with the headache that is you, well I’d put a goddamn diamond on her finger.”

I punched him in the shoulder.  “I’m not that bad.”

He gave me a look.  “Yeah you are.  Think about it, it only took seeing her dressed as a sexy referee to get you to notice she was an actual girl after all this time.  You suck.”

“But man oh man did she look good in that outfit.”

“See, total suckage.  So what are you going to do now, call her?”

“I don’t know.  Rome is coming to town and since I like my privates located where they are I need to keep it on the low down.  I don’t think she’ll say anything to him.”

“Probably not, she knows it would drive your crazy mom right over the edge.”

“Yeah.”

“So,” he paused and gave me a pointed look.  “Was it worth screwing everything up?”

I let my head fall back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling.  “It so totally was.”

I had had the best sex of my life with a girl that I had thought was way out of my league and in love with my dead brother, yeah Nash was probably right if anybody could put up with all the crazy I was rocking I should probably lock them in quick because even I could see how seriously screwed up what I had allowed to happen last night had been.