Page 38 of The Fling (Close Quarters 2)

Drew cranes her head up and she’s a mess—mottled cheeks, black makeup smudged around her eyes, a dot of blood on her lip where she must have bitten down too hard.

“She always wanted to get married,” she continues. “But her first fiancé didn’t work out and she left him at the altar—and I’m worried that she thinks because that happened before, she can’t do it again. That she can’t walk away.”

“You can always walk away.”

People do it all the time, these days. Hell, it’s the reason I barely date—because if I did, I’d want long-term and I know that isn’t the way most people operate. Sometimes there’s a good reason—like in Presley’s case—but sometimes it’s pure selfishness, like what happened with my brother’s wife.

“What would you do?” Drew’s voice wobbles. I’m getting a glimpse of her without her armour now. And the soft, raw vulnerability beneath.

“I’ve been in your exact situation before,” I admit. I guide her down to the couch and pull her against my side. She swings her legs over my lap and rests her head on my shoulder like we’ve been doing this forever. “My brother was married to a woman who treated him and their daughter like crap. Things started to go bad after Zoe was diagnosed with a rare disease. My brother’s wife couldn’t cope. She started drinking and partying, and forcing my brother to shoulder all the burden on his own. So I spoke up.”

“What did you say?”

“I pulled her aside one night and said that she needed to think about how her behaviour was impacting her husband and her child.”

Drew’s eyes are wide, red-rimmed. There’s not a hint of her defensiveness now, not a shadow of her walls. “And?”

“She walked out on her family and we haven’t seen her since.”

Drew gasps. “She just...left? That’s horrible.”

“It’s been really hard on Gabe, trying to work while taking care of Zoe’s increasing needs. I help them out as best I can.” There’s a lump in my throat. Inevertalk about this...with anyone. It’s not in my nature to open myself up. Especially given my parents’ marriage ended the same as Gabe’s—my father was saddled with two rambunctious boys after my mother decided she’d prefer to party than deal with her needy children.

He would never understand why Gabe had married a replica of their mother.

“I think you might be a good person under all that frowning.” Drew is calming down, and her teasing tone is back. I shoot her an exaggerated frown and she rewards me with a watery laugh. “Do you feel guilty for having that conversation with her?” she asks quietly.

“Yes.”

She nods. “I don’t know what to do about Presley.”

“Lay it all out, but ultimately it’s her decision.”

“If you had to do it over, would you still have had that conversation with your sister-in-law?”

Was it better for Zoe to have no mother at all than to have one who flitted in and out, paying attention only when she felt like it? I had a mother like that until I was fourteen. I know how much it hurts to see the look of disdain in a parent’s eyes. I knew she couldn’t stand being a mother, couldn’t stand the weight of her responsibilities around her neck.

“Yes, I would still say it all.” I sigh. “A leopard doesn’t change their spots.”

Drew makes ahmmnoise. “You don’t think people can change?”

“Not fundamentally, no.” My mother never changed a damn bit until the day she died from an overdose. It made me driven. Made my goals crystallise. Made my understanding of the world and people so sharp it kept me at a distance from almost everyone but my brother and niece. “I think at some point we become set.”

“Like concrete?”

I laugh. “Yeah, like concrete.”

Silence descends over us and we’re lost, but together. Lost in our thoughts, lost in the past. I keep my arm tight around her as if it might stop her running away.

“I don’t like people seeing me cry,” she says eventually. “It makes me feel weak.”

“You’re not weak.”

“You don’t think so?”

“Not even a little bit.”

I turn and brush the hair from her face, staring into her beautiful silvery-blue eyes. Her lashes are spiky and stuck together, her skin is ruddy, and she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Because there’s something genuine about her—something that if I’m not careful, I’ll fall for.

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