Page 91 of The Spare
“Marcus?” Sloan walked slowly out of the hallway, her eyes adjusting to the light. She looked at the packed bags sitting a few feet away. Dressed only in one of my old college t-shirts, she nervously twisted the fabric between her fingers. “Is everything okay?”
I sat her down at the island beside me and broke the news. She cried for a moment at the shock, but after the immediate reaction, she showered and dressed quietly.
She remained that way on the plane. Her face was devoid of emotion while her eyes were a hurricane of them. Henry and Sloan had a difficult relationship with their parents and grandfather. Their childhoods were filled with nannies to raise them and great expectations to crush them. The only person who seemed like a true parental figure was their grandmother. There was a resentment still hanging around in both of them.
It wasn’t until we landed in New York, arrived at my place, and saw Xander waiting for us that she cried. As if she’d saved up all of her vulnerability for when he was around to take it, she wrapped her arms tightly around his torso and sobbed deeply, ripping a hole in my chest at the sound.
She didn’t mean anything by it. She was grieving. He was her best friend.
It made perfect sense, but it didn’t placate the pressure in my chest, the feeling of my heart being removed with a rusty ice pike.
* * *
After Sloan went to sleep, Xander spent the next hour telling me not to read anything into her reaction. It bothered me, but that wasn’t what weighed on me.
Xander and I sat quietly across from each other in the living room. It was almost three in the morning. We didn’t really know what to do with ourselves. I was exhausted, but sure I wouldn’t sleep. He seemed a little lost.
“I need to tell you something,” I said. If he found out on his own, it would be worse. I was already on thin ice with Xander and Henry, and I couldn’t tell Henry. Telling Sloan felt impossible.
He looked up and sat up straighter when the seriousness registered.
He was stone-faced and silent as I told him.
The board. The vote. The secret I’d been holding onto for over year.
“I get not telling Henry, for now. But you have to tell her.” Irritation laced Xander’s tone, and tension lined his shoulders. “Soon.”
“I know,” I said mostly to myself.
Xander stood and raked a tired hand down through his hair. He took a breath and grabbed his keys off the coffee table. “I mean it. Soon.” He repeated.
I nodded, and he started toward the door.
I went upstairs to try to get some sleep, knowing full well I wouldn’t.
CHAPTER46
Sloan
We got into Manhattan early in the morning. I didn’t sleep much on the flight.
I was exhausted when we got to Marcus’s place. I fell asleep almost immediately when my body hit his mattress. These were not the circumstances I thought would precede my first night in that bed.
When I woke, I could hear voices downstairs talking. Henry was here. At some point, I felt Marcus curl up next to me. He probably had set an alarm to ensure he was out of bed before anyone else came by. I pulled myself up and remembered I probably should have gone to the guest room for that exact reason.
Marcus had the foresight to move my bags there. He left some clothes out on the nightstand for me to change into.
Always a step ahead.
I smiled at the thought. The idea that those skills were used to care for me filled me with warmth.
“Hey,” Henry’s voice greeted me as I descended the stairway. “You okay?”
They were all seated on the couch around the coffee table. Marcus and Xander turned to greet me. Marcus’s gaze lingered, and his expression deflated when he realized I wouldn’t be cuddling up against him in my still sleepy state.
I shrugged and plopped down next to Xander. More than anything, I felt guilty that I didn’t feel more upset. When my grandmother passed, I remember being devastated and sobbing for hours on the couch at my parent's house. I was in my first year of law school and took an entire week away from classes to mourn.
It was the first funeral since the Sutton parents passed.
