I glanced at my watch. “Shit. I told Crayson I would wait until closer to the end of the reception, but the time snuck up on me.” On our trip, I told my brothers that I was ready to propose to Cordelia. Hell, I was ready that day she agreed to move in with me, but since the grand opening of Wild Valley Ranch and her opening of a Red Rose office in town, I knew I had to wait until we got settled.
Now that both business ventures were going better than planned, it was the perfect time, and Crayson had come up with the idea for me to do it at his reception.
“Do you have the ring?” he asked.
“I have to go get it. I didn’t want her dancing on me and feel it in my pocket.”
“Good idea. If you head out now, I’ll make up something when the women get back.”
“Thanks, man.”
I rushed out of the reception without seeing Cordelia, and briefly gave Crayson a head nod, letting him know it was almost time. I drove my golf cart in record time, not even stopping to greet folks who were attending the wedding and had decided to walk around the property.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I could barely believe that I was finally going to propose to the woman I waited my entire life for. However, the moment I stepped into my bedroom, I knew something was off.
My lamp was on in the corner of the room, but that wasn’t the only thing wrong. I felt all the air leave my lungs as an anger I thought I’d long buried snuck up on me quicker than I could tamp that shit back down.
“What thefuckare you doing here?” My breathing was labored, but that was to be expected. I barely knew the eyes looking back at me. The stern and unwavering gaze of a person who was once described as lively and worry-free.
“Nice to see you, too. It’s been a long time.”
“A long time since what?” I asked, stepping farther into my bedroom. “A long time since you bothered to be a part of this family? Or a long time since you were forced to look in the eyes of a person who shared your same DNA?”
“Both,” he said. “But I didn’t come here to fight, Caden.”
“Then why are you here, Carter?”
“I’m here on important business,” he replied.
“Really? You want me to thank you for finally deciding to make one of your brother’s weddings? I mean, he is your triplet after all, so if you said afuck youto your other brothers, at least you could try to grace us with your presence for this one, right? Although you kinda missed the entire thing.”
My words were mocking. Unforgiving. My mind unable to wrap my head around the fact that after more than fifteen years, I was face-to-face with a man who used to be my best friend. A man who, in the past, I understood better than anyone.
We hadn’t just shared a womb. We shared what I thought was an unbreakable bond. Yet, as he stepped from the dark corner he’d been standing in and more into the light, I realized I didn’t know what to think about the person before me. He wasn’t my brother. Not anymore.
“I’m here on more serious business,” he stated.
“What could be more important than being there for your family?”
Truthfully, I didn’t even want him to answer because time had proven that we weren’t all that important to him any damn way. Yet, there was a flash of something that I caught in his eyes. A little indication that my question had triggered something. I just didn’t know what the hell that something was.
In the back of my mind, I should have been prepared for his response. When thinking about the boy I used to know, and not the hardhearted man standing before me, I should have known that the clenched jaw and tight lips meant that the only thing that could make this dead man rise from his grave was, “Serenity.”
THE END
