Page 98 of The Spare
“I told him why you have the board seat, and everything else,” Xander explained flatly at my surprise. “And before you ask, she’s at Henry’s place. You can fill Henry in onthosedetails.”
Xander walked past into the entryway, leaving Henry looking down at the steps with indecision.
I opened the door wider and stepped out of the way. Henry silently passed over the threshold and followed Xander. He and Xander took seats at the dining table. I poured the three of us glasses of whiskey and joined them.
We sat in silence.
Years of friendship with Henry, countless arguments, occasional physical altercations, we’d endured it all.
“Do we have anything we’d like to say to one another?” After another few silent minutes, Xander’s patronizing tone filled the room. He folded his hands on the table neatly, looking at me and then at Henry, like a disappointed parent.
Silence.
“Really? Nothing?” He pressed on. “I got pulled out of bed for this?”
“Thanks for locking the door this time. I didn’t want to walk in on whoever you wereentertainingnext.” Henry’s fingers gripped the glass tightly.
Xander wiped his hand down his face.
The accusation was fair. He had no reason to believe I would treat Sloan differently than the other women I’d dated. He ignored the fact that he was my best friend and I’d never risk that on something fleeting. Although, how could he believe anything I said, given what just happened.
“I would never do that to her.” I assured him.
“Because you’re a changed man?” he scoffed with a mocking laugh. “Does Sloan know that you’ve done all the same shit the tabloids publish about me?”
She did. I never explicitly told her about those days, but we’d circled the subject before. She had her wild streak, and I had mine. His concern for her was expected. The secrecy was the problem. And the fact that Xander knew while he was in the dark didn’t help.
“Fuck,” Henry continued. “She’s my little sister. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“It’s not something fleeting. It’s a relationship, a real one,” I snapped. “We should have told you sooner.”
“Yeah, you should have.” His tone lost some of its sharpness. “I guess it was better I walked in on an argument than…” Henry stopped himself when he realized where he was going, and shivered in disgust.
“Look,” I said when the room quieted again. “I’m in love with her.”
Henry’s brows furrowed. “What?”
“I have been for a while.”
“So…” He leaned his head on his hand. “What does all this mean? You want to date her? Youaredating her?” Henry looked to Xander. “Xander didn’t tell me anything about the Sloan stuff.”
“I want everything with her. Date her, marry her, have a life and kids with her.” Despite the confession, my chest felt heavier. “I don’t know how long it’ll take for her to forgive me for this mess, but I’m not going to stop trying until she does.”
Henry went silent again, longer this time.
“She’ll forgive you.” He finally broke the tension. “She doesn’t want the company. She was angry.” Henry shifted uncomfortably. “Just don’t fuck it up.” His warning sounded more like a question. “What do we do if you guys fall out?”
“We won’t.” I didn’t have an actual plan for that scenario. Whatever happened with Sloan, I’d fix it. There wasn’t a single thing I wouldn’t do to make her happy. Not a single line I wouldn’t cross to keep her that way. “Anything I mess up, I’ll fix.”
He nodded and raked a hand through his hair. “About everything else...”
“I should have told you.”
“Yeah,” Henry snapped. “I didn’t need to figure it out on my own, and then have Xander and Sloan fill in the missing pieces. It’s something my best friend should have told me himself.”
“I know.”
After a long pause, he downed the last of the whiskey in his glass. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
