Go Away, Darling - Alexis Anne Page 0,23

burden on his shoulders. “You’re married to your work, Ben hides in his cabin, and I . . . ”

He stopped talking mid sentence so I prompted him like a good little brother. “And you are an asshole.”

He glared at me. “Shut up.” Then he frowned. “I mean, I am. I am an asshole. And I can’t seem to get shit right with Lucy.”

Lucy was Scott’s long time girlfriend. She put up with his assholeness, so I considered her a saint. “And you think it's some silly prophecy from our lighting strike instead of, I don’t know, your inability to be less of an asshole?” Maybe the fame had gone to his pretty little head? Because by his logic, my new potential relationship with Olivia was already doomed to fail.

And I was not okay with that.

I remembered Mom and Dad shushing Grandma Kaine and telling her to stop bringing her prophecy up around us kids. Mom and Dad believed firmly that words became reality, so why put that on us? But she didn’t agree. She said the lightning strike was a sign and, combined with her cards, the universe was clear. The old had to be new again before this cycle was complete.

Whatever the hell that meant.

“I’m working on it, okay?” Scott sighed. “But I swear the universe is conspiring against me. We’re good. Solid. I love Lucy and I know she loves me, but every fucking time I start to think I should ask her to marry me, something happens. A shoe drops.”

“What kind of shoe?”

He flinched. “Usually pictures of my good old days. Occasionally a girl I used to party with wanting to sell a story. Stuff like that.”

As was typical, Scott was talking to me about his past. I think he felt safer with me than Ben. We both saw Ben as the older, wiser brother we didn’t want to disappoint, and as a result we avoided confessing our worst sins to him. Ben knew Scott partied hard during his early Hollywood years but he didn’t know the details.

I, unfortunately, did.

“There can’t be much else to hide,” I said. “The stories have been going around for years. Besides, Lucy doesn’t care.” She probably knew more than I did because of who she was. Before she ever met Scott she was a talent agent. If anyone knew all the dirt in the industry, it was her.

“I care. And I refuse to be the black stain on her life.”

“Got news for you buddy, she’s with you no matter what. You might as well get over yourself and marry her already.”

He shook his head and looked away.

It made me sad for him. He was a good guy who made bad choices when he was young. Almost everyone did something stupid. The difference here was that Scott was already rich and famous when he made his choices. He got pulled in deeper by people who wanted to exploit his position, use his deeds as leverage.

These were all in the past and he’d pulled his life together. To me—and to Lucy—his past didn’t matter. It was the man he became that mattered. But Scott refused to see it that way and was punishing himself. I’d let him do it forever if he wasn’t taking Lucy down with him.

“How about this.” I knew my brother. Knew he liked definitions and goals. “If you go a year without any more drama you let it go. Propose to that woman who loves you and give her the life she deserves.”

That got his attention. “A year?”

“A year. At some point enough time will have passed that even you will have to admit it’s time to move on. Pick a time. Any time.”

“A year,” he said again slowly. “You’re pretty smart for a little brother.” Then he smacked me on the shoulder, put me in a headlock, and gave me a noogie.

“Stop it you jerk!” I elbowed him in the ribs and twisted away.

Before I could take him to the ground he dumped a bowl of sunflower seeds down my shirt. Some of them made it into my boxers.

“What the hell?” I howled, ducking away and shaking the seeds out.

“Gotcha!”

“You son of a bitch.” We had a war going back to my first game for the Mantas. My brothers came to support me, cheer me on, fill my bag, shoes, and locker with sunflower seeds. In retaliation for their “support” I rigged a sunflower seed shower in Scott’s condo and filled Ben’s favorite toolbox with seeds.

And the