Page 52 of Anger Bang
“Contracts have been signed,” Dex said when he turned back around. “Funds exchanged. My agent called today because he heard a distributor is interested in my movie. Plus the TV show has been renewed for another season. Jackie and I are getting everything we want.”
“Not everything,” Kade said, pointing out the obvious that his brother was missing even though it was slapping him across the face.
“No one getseverything, at least not in the real world,” Dex said. “When the cameras are off, you have to be happy with the scraps.”
That was fucking bleak coming from his younger brother. “Holy shit, you sound like Dad.”
Dex toyed with a wedding napkin someone had left on the table, twisting it up and shredding it into small strips. “Even an asshole wrong clock is right twice a day.”
“You can’t go through with the wedding,” he said loud enough to get a glare from his little brother. Kade punched down his frustration at having to watch the one person who’d always been there for him make a life-altering mistake. “Then you really will be like Dad. He never loved Mom. If he had, he wouldn’t have treated her like he did.”
One of Dex’s eyebrows shot up. “Almost sounds like you’re sticking up for her.”
“I’m not, I just…” Kade’s voice died away as he tried to figure out what in the fuck he wanted to say. “Someone pointed out that maybe it wouldn’t hurt to see things from her perspective, to consider the extenuating circumstances.”
“Like our dick of a dad?” Dex scoffed.
Now it was Kade’s turn to shrug. “Something like that.”
His brother wasn’t wrong. Their dad was a piece of work, always looking out for himself first, warning the boys not to do anything that would reflect badly on him, and reminding them that no matter what they did, it wouldn’t be enough. All of that, and no one would have believed it from the outside. Their dad had been the ultimate diplomat, office buddy, and golf partner to them. The man was a borderline narcissist and probably the reason why Kade was obsessed about the real person people were behind the facades.
“You know, I remember when she left,” Dex said, continuing to tear up the napkin into smaller and smaller pieces. “I was out in the side yard, and I saw the cars pull up. These huge dudes got out, hustled inside the front doors, and then a few minutes later came out flanking Mom on both sides. She didn’t fight it, but she was crying. I called out to her, and she turned around. Her mascara had run down her face, and she had that glassy look of being three-quarters of a wine bottle in, but she smiled at me, and it was like the sun coming out after a thunderstorm.”
Kade remembered that smile. He could picture it now without even trying, and for half a second his entire chest was filled with bright hope. That smile had been the bane of his existence. It was the one that made all the promises that this time would be different. It never was.
“Then one of the guys grabbed her by the elbow and whirled her around, strong-arming her forward,” his brother went on, the vein in his temple pulsing as he decimated the napkin. “I yelled out for her to stop, but she just looked at me over her shoulder, her eyes all watery. I started to run toward her, but Dad appeared out of nowhere, it seemed, and grabbed me by the back of the shirt. By the time I looked back toward Mom, the car was pulling out of the drive.”
It hadn’t happened that way for Kade. He’d come home from a friend’s house, and their mom was just gone. For years, he thought he’d gotten the short end of that stick. Looking at his brother, though, he wasn’t so sure anymore. Fuck.
Nowhewanted a damn drink or to kick his father or to give his brother a giant fucking hug that would make everything all right. None of that was possible, though, not with him not drinking, their dad being dead, and the camera crew looking for any sign of emotions they could wring dry for ratings.
So instead, Kade reached out and did that awkward man-to-man shoulder-pat thing. “I never knew that.”
Dex gave a dry chuckle empty of humor. “Well, kinda hard for you to know when I stopped talking.”
“Christ.” Kade closed his eyes and let his head fall back and hit the wall with a thud that felt better than the dread filling him up. He thought he’d protected Dex better than that. He hadn’t. “So what are you going to do?”
“Marry Jackie,” Dex said without hesitation or enthusiasm.
“Whatever they’re paying you to be with her,” Kade said, wishing like hell he could just snap his fingers and fix this for his brother, “I’m not sure it’s worth it.”
Dex gave him a twisted, sad smile—the same one their mom had given him at lunch.
“Yo Dex,” one of the groomsmen hollered. “Time for another round of shots!”
Dex grimaced. “I really could have done without the whole alcohol sponsorship deal.”
That explained why in addition to stirring up trouble, the production team was so hell-bent on having them drink all the time.
“How much did you spot the bartender to sneak you Dr Pepper shots?” Kade asked.
“Front row seats whenever the Ice Knights play Denver for the next season,” Dex said. “You coming?”
To go pretend to do shots with a bunch of knuckleheads and argue hockey? That sounded about as much fun as dunking his head in honey and then laying down on an anthill.
“Nah.” Kade shook his head. “I wanna change my shirt.”
“How much does that have to do with the fact that the bachelorette party should be breaking up about now?” his brother asked with a knowing grin.
