Return to the Darkness - Ripley Proserpina Page 0,28

over he went at the table like it had personally offended him.

“I guess you and your dad have issues in this life, too.”

Oliver stopped what he was doing, boot above the slivers of wood. And then laughed. There was the Oliver I knew. Head thrown back, smiling. He shook his head, wiping beneath his eyes as he got ahold of himself. “Yeah. You could say that. My father is more than happy to stand in the spotlight while ignoring the rest of us, at the very least.”

“Yikes.” I found it fascinating that Mr. Chee, who had changed the future to be closer to his sons, still fucked it up. If ever the universe was telling someone something, it was telling Mr. Chee to let his sons live their lives. “I really, really need to talk to him.” I had a few choice words.

“There you are.” Oliver stepped over the broken table to stare down at me. “That look there. The one that says you’re about to throw down and for the rest of us to post up. I recognize that.”

“I haven’t changed all that much. I mean—besides not being dead.”

“That’s a pretty big one,” Aaron replied. He knelt down and began to collect the broken parts of his furniture. He stared at the pile, sighed, and dropped them back to the floor. “Fuck it. I’ll get it later. She wants us to get in touch with Colton and Thorn, too.”

Oliver froze. “Fuck that noise.”

I needed them. We needed to do this together. The only way anything worked in any of our worlds was when we figured things out together. Look at what happened when I tried to do things on my own—I spent ten years in Alaska feeling guilty. I fucked up the future—and yeah, their father had something to do with it, too—but I was the one who grabbed the stones and went off half-cocked, just wanting to get this done. I owned my shit.

“Please,” I asked. “I need all of you.”

“So you can what? Get rid of us? Replace us with the nicer, cleaner versions of ourselves?” He stared hard at me. “Why would I do that? I’m happy with my life.”

God. I sounded like the biggest asshole when he put it that way. “Are you?” I asked. He had a point. Just because these weren’t my guys, didn’t mean they weren’t living the lives they wanted to. Aaron smoked. Oliver had been to jail. They had self-determination. If this was the life they chose, the life they wanted, who was I to mess it up just so I could be happy?

I loved the versions of my guys so much. I wanted them back. But this was them, too. And if—

“I’m not.” Aaron broke off the stream my thoughts had followed. “I’m not happy. I’m passing each day, and that’s the most I can say. Oliver—can you honestly say there isn’t something missing from your life? That you don’t want more? The life she’s describing—I’m a writer! And you’re a vet who owns his own business. You wanted to do that since the time we were kids. Shit got all messed up, but what she’s talking about is a do-over. What, really, are we losing by doing that? My shitty apartment? Your parole officer?”

“Chuck’s not a bad guy,” he muttered.

“Ol—you’re wasted, and I saw the empty vodka bottle in your sink. We’re a fucking mess, brother.”

Oliver dragged his hands down his face, sighing. “You’re right.” He laughed, but there was no humor to it. “You’re right, man. If I could go back, I would.” He dropped his hands and met my gaze. “Let’s do this. Let’s find the other two assholes and have our do-over.”

I stood up a little straighter. I wasn’t fooling myself that this would be easy, but if I were sure of anything in this world, it was that I could count on the four of them. Even if none of them really knew me very well right now.

They had known me, right at that pivotal time, when everything had been about to explode. And in this one, that was exactly what happened.

I’d blown up. Well… okay. Things were going to change.

Chapter 8

The wind hit my hair, and I pulled it back behind my ears. People ran in various directions, all of them with harried expressions on their faces. One of them whispered to another, “He’s such an asshole.”

I winced, following Aaron through the door of Colton’s business while Oliver waited in the car. When