Page 62 of His Bittersweet Regret

I shook my head to deny that. The assholes might have been bullies to me and the reason their brother ultimately decided to do what he did, but they never held a gun to his head.

“No, Bas is right. This whole thing started with our jealousy and it just snowballed out of control. Now, our nephew’s life is completely fucked because we refused to grow up and see the damage we were causing.”

“Jealousy?” I asked, not understanding what the twins had to be jealous of.

Brixton sighed as he once again stared at his own feet, almost like he was afraid to look me in the eye. “At first, when Marsh hooked up with you, we thought you were a cool chick. He was having fun with you, and honestly, we thought it would end quickly. That was our experience with girls in high school.”

“Only, he never stopped having fun with you. We would ask him to hang out, do things with us, and he was always busy. Ryker was too young and Jimmy ran off to college and eventually the military, so we didn’t have him.”

“You had each other,” I suggested.

“Not the same. We always have each other,” Bastion explained. “We wanted our brother to go out chasing women, going to parties, and hitting up bars with us, especially once he was old enough,” Brix added.

“It pissed us off that he didn’t come to college with us, and that’s when we got it in our head that you were the problem.”

“And we thought it was a problem we had to solve for our brother because we thought he was missing out on life to be with you,” Brixton chimed back in. It was weird having a conversation where the twins talked because it was like one person talking, only there were really two. They just kept starting up where the other left off and it was really disconcerting.

“Okay, well, congratulations!” I told them with mock enthusiasm. “Your plan worked.”

“That’s just it,” Brix said as his eyes met mine again. Oddly enough, I could see the sorrow and regret there. “It worked, eventually, and that’s when everything fell apart.”

I scoffed. “Seems it worked out well for you two. Your brother didn’t just hang out with you, he moved in and left me in the dust.”

“He moved in and became a shell of the man he was when he was with you. We had to force him out on those dates, Opal. He wouldn’t hang out with us, barely spoke to us unless it was something about keeping the noise down, or to leave him alone. We pushed him into those dates and when we found out he wasn’t even giving any of them so much as a goodnight kiss, we pushed even further and made sure that Gabby was ready to give all the nudging he needed to get back in the saddle with another woman.”

I felt sick to my stomach at the mention of Gabby. “He made out with her, but that was it,” Bastion tacked on quickly where his brother left off. “And he got sick that night afterward. We were going to leave him alone after that, and not push anymore because it was obvious how miserable he was with the whole experience.”

“We honestly felt bad for him at that point.” Brixton added. “Had we known what you were going through, we would have done more, sooner to get the two of you back together, rather than pushing to keep you both apart. We’re so fucking sorry.”

I laughed at him then. “You’re sorry. You feel bad for making your brother miserable. So, now you want to give me a condo, and you think that makes up for everything you did?”

“No. It’s not about making up for anything or asking forgiveness for our part in everything that happened to you. It’s about taking responsibility for our actions though, and well, taking care of family. That should have been our priority from the beginning. We didn’t take very good care of Marsh. We were awful to you. Our nephew will know that one day. Please, let us do this one thing and make something better for you.”

“What does Marsh have to say about this generous gift you plan on giving me?”

Brixton and Bastion made eye contact with one another, and not for the first time, made me wonder if they were truly able to communicate telepathically. Eventually, they both admitted that their younger brother did not know they were offering up their condo.

“How do you think it would make him feel, if I accepted the condo, but didn’t accept the house he offered for us to live in?”

“Mom said you wouldn’t accept that house because there were strings attached. Marsh wanting you guys to all be a family and whatnot.”

“That’s all true,” I agreed while tapping my chin to seem deep in thought. Then, I turned a hard glare on both men, trying to figure them out. There was honestly no way to tell if they were being sincere or playing more games. Who knew? Maybe this was a gold-digger test. A little late for that, considering I already had Marsh’s baby. There was also the fact that I hadn’t asked their brother for a damn thing and had turned down his house.

Then again, there was a third possibility hanging in the wind too. They were doing this to torment me further.

“Well, if its something you’ll consider, we have our lawyer on standby to make all the necessary paperwork happen to change things over for you,” Bastion tacked on helpfully.

“So, let me get this straight…” I took the empty – mostly empty – seat on the couch and started folding laundry again. “You want to gift me the condo where your brother moved to after leaving me with nothing but a mostly bare apartment and no warning that it was about to happen?”

When Brix started to speak, I held my hand up to hush him. “The same condo where Cramer took pictures of him fooling around – maybe more – with the nurse who was working the labor and delivery department the night my son was born?”

Both of their eyes grew wide.

“I allowed you into my home and thought you were being sincere, but apparently you’re still both hell bent on making me miserable.” Angry tears fell freely from my traitorous eyes that refused to hold them back any longer.

“What did I ever do to either of you to make you hate me this much? Seriously? You said you were jealous, but all I ever did was love your brother. I never stopped him from hanging out with you. I encouraged it, even after you started saying hateful, awful things to me.”

I shook my head. “I always told him, when he wanted to stop talking to you guys for the way you treated me, that it wasn’t right and you were his brothers. I never wanted to come between you. None of you. So, what was it? What did I do?”

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