Headlines (Prime Time #3) - Ella Frank Page 0,5

my life I had no idea what Bailey would or wouldn’t do in this circumstance. I’d known he was going to be hurt, even angry, but I’d had no idea he would cut me off cold turkey and seem happy to leave it that way…forever.

“I’m thinking nothing,” Sean continued, still talking about the youngest of his brothers. “You know, since he hasn’t turned up to give me holy hell yet. But come on, Xander. Bailey’s all but blocked us out of his life, and that’s not gonna fly anymore. We’ll go over tomorrow.”

I screwed up my nose at that. “I think maybe you should go talk to him. If we both show up, he might feel ganged up on. Plus, I’m the last person he wants to see. You’re family—”

“So are you.”

“Not technically.”

“I’m going to fix this.”

I tried for a smile, but I knew Sean could see right through it.

“You just need to have a little faith.”

“I do. I just… I don’t know that we can ever come back from this.”

“You can. I know you can.”

I reached for my glass and took a sip of the wine. The hole in my heart that Bailey had left behind ached the way it always did when I remembered the betrayal in his blue eyes.

“Hey,” Sean said. “I’m going to go see him and we’ll work this out.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay.” He winked at me and then dug back into his pasta, but the rest of the meal we ate in silence, our minds clearly on what would or wouldn’t happen tomorrow.

3

Sean

THE RUMBLE OF thunder didn’t bode well for the day ahead as I pulled my car to a stop at a red light. It was just turning ten on Saturday morning, and courtesy of the hot-as-hell day before, a wicked thunderstorm had rolled in to greet the weekend.

It was kind of fitting, really, considering where I was and what I was on my way to do. But there was no turning back now. I’d made my decision and I would see this through, no matter how twisted up my gut was over it.

Just like last night, Xander had declined my invitation to join me in tracking down Bailey this morning, and while I understood his reasoning, somewhere in the back of my mind was a niggling feeling of doubt. One that I did my best to squash whenever it snuck up on me.

I wasn’t stupid. I knew the history between the two of them was strong and I was the outsider here. But I also knew how Xander was with me. I knew the way he melted at my touch, the way he smiled when I walked in the front door, and I knew that nothing other than the real deal would’ve ever made him risk his relationship with Bailey.

Xander was hurting over this, just as I was. The hole Bailey had left was a gaping one neither of us could fix for the other. Which was exactly why I was here, turning onto Bailey’s street and crawling back to my childhood home like some dog with my tail tucked between my legs.

My first instinct after everything had gone down between the three of us had been to chase Bailey down and tell him to pull his fucking head in. After all, if I had to accept Boudreaux in my life, the least he could do was try to wrap his head around Xander being in mine.

But after talking it over with Xander, I realized there was much more than just anger riding Bailey. There was a deep sense of betrayal by his brother and his best friend. Yeah, I’d sure made of a mess of this, hadn’t I?

I pulled the SUV over to the curb, figuring a sneak attack might be the way to go. But five minutes after removing my keys, I found myself still seated behind the wheel.

Fuck, I felt like I was going to be sick.

As a teenager I’d been the poster child of what not to be like for Bailey and Kieran. I’d been told over and over again I wasn’t going to amount to anything. That Bailey was the good son, Kieran the brave, and me? I was just the bad seed.

But that was bullshit. I knew that now. I’d been dealing with a closeted drunk who took his anger out on the only person who knew his secret, the person who reminded him most of himself. I’d come close to proving him right at the beginning