the hell? Since when did Jesse have a brother?
“No! I won’t let him stay with me. You have a bigger place than I do…Rocky just got here. Why do you think—” As if remembering me for the first time, Jesse glanced over at me sheepishly. I lifted my eyebrows in both curiosity and confusion.
Jesse gulped and continued. “I won’t let him stay with us. I don’t care if Teresa wants to kick him out, that’s her own deal…then check him into rehab!”
There was no use trying to eat anymore. I pushed away my plate and sighed. If this wasn’t the ominous sign I was wary of, then I didn’t know what was anymore.
My boyfriend’s eyes darkened. His muscular shoulders slumped over while his biceps twitched rapidly. I eyed his hand, which was clenched so tightly around his phone that the knuckles began to turn white.
“Fine, we’ll check on him while you two are gone…I don’t care that he’s staying at your place without supervision, he’s older than me!”
Okay, that was definitely a surprise.
Jesse took one final breath and muttered, “You owe me, Dad,” before hanging up the phone.
A blanket of awkward silence covered the entire room. After a few moments I cooed, “So…You have a brother.”
“No. I have a jerk that by law is called my stepbrother,” he snapped in reply. Inhaling loudly, he rubbed at his forehead and shook his head in exasperation. “I’ve gone four years without having to speak to him, and of course the first day you’re here he shows up, completely hammered, at Dad’s house.”
Remembering his conversation, I asked, “So why do you have to check on him?”
He looked at me and answered simply, “Because apparently my life sucks.”
***
So much for a fun first day together. After an awkward breakfast, Jesse and I found ourselves en route to the “new” Tyler house. Though he begged me not to go, there was no way I’d allow him to face whatever monsters he had alone. As we navigated through a bunch of backroads, Jesse gave me what I could only call the Cliff Notes version of his infamous stepbrother, Jason.
“Jason’s a jerk, plain and simple. He tried to drug me—”
“What?” I exclaimed in shock. “Why didn’t your dad do anything about it?”
“I couldn’t prove it.” He shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing but a minute worry.
“Jesse—”
“Forget I mentioned it.” He waved me off.
How the hell was I going to do that?
“Anyway, I did my best to avoid him, which wasn’t hard to do since he spent most of his time up north. I guess he graduated from college and had a great job up there.”
“So what happened?”
“Apparently the shit hit the fan—or rather his bad personality and karma caught up with him. He lost everything and when I say everything, I mean everything—fiancée, job, house, car. Now he’s in a deep pit of despair and obviously on a quest to drag everyone down with him.”
“Okay, so I still don’t know what this has to do with you,” I interjected.
He sighed, gripping the steering wheel tightly. “His mom tried to get him help for his addictions and I guess he sobered up for a while.”
“Until all this bad stuff happened to him,” I assumed.
He nodded. “So when he showed up on her doorstep lit like a candle, she didn’t want to deal with it anymore. She told him he couldn’t stay there, but seeing as he had no place to go…”
“He’s not living with us, is he?” I cried out in shock. Moving in with Jesse was already a big step enough as it was. I couldn’t imagine having to get used to living with two males.
“No, of course not.”
I sighed with relief.
“But I promised Dad I’d check up on him today. Apparently Teresa couldn’t deal with it and walked out of the house last night. Dad’s following her up to her parents’ house in Virginia, but he doesn’t trust that Jason won’t trash the place while they’re gone.”
I gulped. “Somehow I don’t feel safe in all this.”
Jesse reached out and grabbed my hand. “Hey, I said I’d take care of you, didn’t I? Trust me, everything will be fine.”
I nodded my head, but didn’t believe him. That darkness I felt loomed even closer now.
Chapter 36
Rocky
Mr. Tyler’s house was…well, wow! It was a sea foam colored, three-story house tucked away behind a covering of willow trees. My Lord, was it beautiful!
“This place is awesome,” I breathed, admiring the navy blue accents as we walked up to