Luscious - Lexi Blake Page 0,2
pretty sure he was getting Adam’s “dumbass said what” face. “Did the IED blow up your IQ? We share a wife. We’ve shared women for years. It was what we were doing that got us kicked out of the Army. We were discovered with a superior officer between us. A female superior, who also happened to have caught the eye of a general. The general had not taken kindly to the infraction. Dad is the one who told you I was gay. Here’s a surprise. Dad lies.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being gay. It’s natural.” He’d briefly tried that argument with his father and Alan, but Elise had shut him down. She’d wanted a house off base and the only way to get it was with help from dear old Dad. Macon had tried to convince her to tough it out, but she’d cried and cried and he’d sold his brother out in the end because it was easier to let Adam go than to fight it out with everyone else.
He’d been a fucking coward.
“It’s not considered natural in our family, but I’m glad you see it that way. You always did have a mind of your own.” Adam finally cleared off a space on the coffee table and sat down in front of Macon. “You called to let me know the important stuff. You called to let me know Dad was sick. How much trouble did you get in for doing that?”
“It doesn’t matter. The bastard keeps holding on. His remission seems to be long term.” The last conversation he’d had with his father, the old man had told him to suck it up, of course Elise preferred Alan. Alan was more of a man than Macon was.
He hadn’t talked to his family since then.
“You risked a lot to call me, but you didn’t bother to give me a ring about nearly dying? Oh, there was the drunk dial of two nights ago that brought me here, but I could have used a sober heads-up. You’re lucky I kept the same cell number all these years.”
Shit. He’d done that? Embarrassment flashed through his system. “Fuck. I didn’t realize I’d called. I kind of lost track of the phone. I shouldn’t have called you at all.”
“Yeah, you should have. You should have called me while you were at Ramstein. You should have called me when you got home and realized your wife was fucking big brother and they had both screwed you over. What the hell are you doing in this rat hole?”
He’d forgotten that Adam could play the fatherly role from time to time. “I can’t afford anything else. Dad cut me off and my Army severance isn’t much. Elise stayed married to me long enough to take half the insurance settlement I got on my leg.” TSGLI paid out a hundred grand for traumatic injuries. Elise had taken fifty thousand and then also shared her maxed out credit card bills with him. She was a giver.
“How are you getting to rehab?”
“Bus.” He was still wobbly on the damn prosthetic. He’d fallen more than once and the humiliation always burned through him.
Adam sighed. “You’re coming home with me. What of this crap do I need to pack? And where’s your damn leg? Shouldn’t it be close to you?”
His brother got up and started walking around the apartment, poking into everything. Macon was ashamed of how messy he’d let the place get. He’d been taught to be neat, that everything had a place. “Adam, I can’t go with you.”
Adam turned. “Why not?”
He couldn’t think of a single reason why. Not one. He hated his life. He didn’t have a family anymore.
He could have a fresh start. Maybe in Dallas he wouldn’t sit around and drink all day. Maybe if he wasn’t constantly reminded of everything he’d lost, he could build something new. Did he even want that?
Adam came to stand in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder. It was the first time he’d been connected to his brother in years. “That old life is gone, Macon. Unless you want to try to win her back…”
“Not in a million years. I can’t stand the thought of that woman. Or Alan. Or…god, I hate them all, Adam. I fucking hate them all. It eats me up inside until I don’t want to do anything but remember how much I hate them.”
“Then come to Dallas and we’ll start over. I have a son. I promise you can’t be around him and