Rori was obviously missing the full story. The macho show she’d just witnessed had nothing to do with any jealousy Luke might have had for Kris dating someone, and everything to do with the man she was dating. There was clearly history here, and Rori was out of the loop.
But that didn’t answer the question as to why was Kris dating a guy who was very clearly a jerk.
“I need to throw something—hit something,” Luke said, charging through his front door.
“How about talking?” Rori offered. “Who is Caleb?”
He spun on her, making her flinch. “Caleb? He’s an unrepentant asshole, that’s what he is! He teased me all the way through school and made sure every other jock did the same. If it weren’t for him I would have been on the varsity basketball team, but nooo. He had to get me kicked off of every team.”
“Oh, c’mon,” Kris said, appearing in the doorway. “It’s not like you didn’t make it easy for him.”
“Not helping,” Mike warned, stepping in front of her and looking Luke in the eye. “Look, man, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but I figured it wasn’t my place.”
Luke stabbed a finger at him. “I’ll deal with you later.”
“Excuse me?” Kris said, stepping forward. “You’re going to ‘deal’ with my brother because he respected my wishes to tell you about Caleb myself?”
Luke covered the distance to her. “And when were you planning to do that?”
“Oh, maybe when we were both in the same room and not surrounded by my family. I haven’t seen you since last night, Luke. It’s not like I passed up on any opportunities. Last night just didn’t feel right.”
“As opposed to tonight where I have the joy of seeing him getting under your bra?” Luke snarled.
“You didn’t knock!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Mike said, stepping between them. “This isn’t solving anything.”
Rori was relieved when Luke took the cue and backed off, pacing away. “I don’t approve, Kris. I never will.”
“Why? Because he’s the one person you’ve ever met that’s called you out on your shit?” Kris said. “You’re the one who started the feud between you two, Luke. At least own that.”
He spun and faced her. “So, what? He gets to torture me for the rest of my life? And somehow that’s fair?”
“Well, you’ve never apologized,” Kris pointed out. “He’s over it all now, but you could have saved yourself a whole lot of grief if you’d just apologized back when you both were twelve.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Rori said. “But can someone explain to me what is going on?”
“Your fiancé still hasn’t learned to take responsibility for his actions, that’s what,” Kris snapped.
“Oh, and Caleb has?” Luke shot back. “I don’t see him confessing to stealing my jerseys, or planting porn in my locker, or slashing my tires on prom night.”
“I’m not saying he was right to do those things,” Kris said. “I’m just saying that now, years later, he can confess that he was wrong to do what he did. Can you, Luke? Can you finally confess that you were wrong, too?”
Luke rolled his eyes. “What? All this comes down to the snow mobile incident that happened in the sixth grade? It was an accident and his family insurance.”
Kris shook her head. “No, you were being reckless, Luke. Admit it. You took the machine off a jump and hit a tree when you knew that one of the conditions of riding the snow mobiles was to stay in the flat areas. Then you lied about who was driving the thing, blamed it on Caleb, and got him grounded until he could pay the deductable himself!”
Rori bit her lip, suddenly feeling a little less defensive on Luke’s behalf. He’d screwed up, no doubt about it.
“And guess what?” Luke snapped. “I’ve been paying for that mistake ever since, okay? It wasn’t like Caleb suffered like Mother Teresa. That asshole shot me with bee-bee guns, stole my clothes and abandoned me places, and did a million other things nice people don’t do. He’s not for you, Kris. He’s bad news. Case in point, what kind of jerk undoes your shirt on your mom’s couch with your parents twenty feet away.”
“They were in bed.”
“Not the point,” Luke replied. “He doesn’t know how to respect people, Kris. He respects money, that’s it. And he knows you don’t have any, so he doesn’t respect you. He’ll mentally buy you, use you, then walk away.”
With all the accusations flying around, Rori wasn’t quite