I glare at him and he winks. Willow smacks his shoulder.
This is not going well.
Kent will not look to his left, no matter how much I know he wants to. Under the table his hands tremble. I let my anger go and grab his hand and run my thumb across the back of it soothingly. He relaxes some, shoving food into his mouth with his left hand.
“What are you going to do?” Brent tries to salvage the conversation. “I can get you a job at Bid&Buy.”
My eyes widen. “Um, thank you, but I was thinking about going to school.”
“For?”
“Willow, what the fuck?” Kent roars, snapping. The man just snaps. He drops my hand and his fork, exploding out of his seat. “You let this dipshit knock you up?”
Willow looks at him and their eyes connect. Scott stands up too.
“Here we go,” Vance mumbles.
“Why him, Will?” Kent demands. “Why not someone else? Why my brother? Why my best friend?”
Kent Nicholson cracks.
He runs at his brother but Scott is waiting for him. Willow screams and pushes away from the table as the two of them hit the floor like angry bricks. Fists and insults fly. I don’t get up. Kent and Scott go at it like wolves, smashing their fists into each other’s faces with power and force. Brent eventually breaks them up, grabbing Kent around his neck and pulling him off his brother. Scott scrambles to his feet, wounded and enraged. Kent huffs and puffs with blood dripping down his chin.
“You should be happy for me. I’m going to be a father.” At the base of Scott’s words I hear real hurt.
“Congratulations!” Kent spits blood on Scott’s shoes. “Are you’re going to tell them I fucked their mom first?”
My eyes close in misery when Scott’s fist smashes against Kent’s face. It makes a terrible sound, and Kent’s lucky Brent is holding him up, or he would’ve hit the ground.
I get up and go to him, sidestepping Willow in the process. This is her fault. I can’t even look at her. Everything she’s done so far has led up to this. Kent can barely stand up straight and he is wounded in a way I’ve never seen. She broke my man and now I have to put him back together again.
Scott’s chests puffs in and out, fists clenched, ready for round two. “You went too far, Kent.”
“I’ve got him,” I promise Brent.
“You sure?”
“Nothing I haven’t seen before.” I duck under Kent’s arm and support most of his weight. “Let’s go.”
“Rain,” he whispers. “I love you.”
I don’t know where we’re going. I just know we need to get out of this house before round two starts. We leave out a side door that empties onto a plush green lawn. The view of the bay backdrops the yard like a painting as I drop Kent onto a lounge chair near the pool. The backyard looks like an oasis. It’s blue and green, lush and alive, and yet I can’t stop staring at the blood on Kent’s mouth. I know how it got there. It wasn’t because of me this time, and as ridiculous as it seems, it’s red like Willow’s lipstick.
“You love me?” I demand, screaming in his face. “You love me but you fight over another girl? What kind of shit is that? When we get back to Jacksonville, we’re done.”
“No, we’re not.” He takes his shirt off and holds it to his bloody mouth. His words are muffled. “We’re never done.”
“We’re done,” I insist, near tears. “How can you ask me to marry you because your brother’s marrying your ex? Is this some sick competition? Because if it is, I want no part in it.”
His eyes flash. “They’re getting married?”
“You didn’t know?” His expression is full of shock and betrayal. “You didn’t know.”
He closes his eyes and lies back on the lounge chair. “No, I didn’t know. Ahh, this hurts.” He takes his shirt away with shaking hands and stares at the blood on his mouth. “I lasted longer than summer. I coldcocked him then.”
I am near that place again with him. The one when I need a drink and to run. I start pacing, absolutely livid with the man I love. “He looks just like you.”
“Yeah,” he grumbles sarcastically. “I’ve noticed the resemblance.”
“Whose mouth is smart now?” I bite.
“You want to know the worst part? The part that kills me the most out of all of this?” He sits up and looks at me,