Blessed Fate (25 page)

"We need to talk," I said quietly, not wanting everyone to be privy to our issues if they weren't already.

"I'm trying to enjoy some time with my brothers, Colt. What's so important that it couldn't wait?" Her arms were crossed tightly against her body, it was obvious she would rather I not be there.
Fuck.

"Rain, you're killing me. Can we please go outside and talk?" I motioned to the front door, needing to give us some privacy and knowing we wouldn't get any if we stayed inside. One way or the other, the head games needed to end. If nothing else, we needed to have the fight we couldn't have in front of everyone, so we could get on with our working relationship and not affect the lives of everyone else.

"This really isn't a good time. Why did you come all the way out here? I told you to stay."

"Please, baby. There's never a good time to talk to you. You won't talk around the guys. Now, you won't talk here, where no one can hear—"

As if hearing myself practically begging her to talk to me wasn't bad enough, I made the mistake of looking up when I heard the sliding door at the back of the house open and then close. I expected it to be one of Rain's brothers coming to make sure everything was okay. Imagine my surprise when it was none other than Garrett, the same friend she had gone out with three times the last time she was home, and now, here he was the same night she got back to town. The pounding in my ears was deafening as my blood pressure rose.

My jaw clenched so tightly I could barely speak. "Guess I know why you didn't want me here. So much for nothing going on, huh?"

"Fuck you, it's not like that," she screeched as she started pacing back and forth in the small space. "I told you before, he's a friend. That's it."

"Yeah, a friend who you're here drinking with. A friend you went out with several times the last time you were here. A friend you've admitted had feelings for you." I tried to steady my breath, to tamp down the bitterness I felt seeing Garrett in her house.

She shook her head furiously before finally responding. "And you really wonder why things didn't work? He's. A. Friend. Take a look at my life. The closest thing I have to a female friend is Angie and I barely know her. I get along better with guys. Whether you like it or not, that's a fact of life."

"I should go." I reached behind me to open the front door, but Rain grabbed my other hand, stopping me in my tracks.

"Come on. Have a beer with us. Who knows, you might even realize he's not a threat to you." For the first time in a week, I felt like there was a reason to have hope. If she didn't want things to work out with us, she wouldn't have given a damn whether I saw Garrett Fucking Dietrich as a threat or not. "You need to realize the only threat to us right now is you. You've known me long enough to know I don't do jealousy."

I buried both hands in my pockets as I studied the floor beneath me. "You're right, but you've known me long enough to know I don't do girlfriends. You need to cut me a little slack here."

Her voice lacked the hard edge I had been afraid would be permanent when she spoke to me. "No, I can't do that, but let's not talk about that tonight. It'd be an understatement to say I've had too much to drink for heavy discussions."

I didn't care that, once again, we weren't talking about our issues. She had cracked open the door to discussion, and I had to respect her reason for not wanting to talk. She motioned for me to head out back while she went to the restroom. I tried to ignore the fact that I knew that was the direction Garrett had gone. She couldn't do jealousy, so I needed to find a way to bury those feelings.

Mike looked confused when I walked through the back door but didn't mention anything. His inquisitive eyes seared my skin as he tried to work something out in his head. I tried to ignore the fact that it was highly unlikely that Rain hadn't mentioned anything over the course of three hours in the car.

Matt handed me a beer, and I took a seat on the small loveseat across from them. Garrett gave me a dirty look when he rejoined the group, but he didn't say a word. When Rain came out, she sat next to me on the loveseat, but there was an uncomfortable distance between us as we tried to crawl into our respective ends of the furniture.

Within thirty minutes, Garrett and Matt had both excused themselves with half-hearted excuses, leaving Mike, Rain and me sitting on the deck. Not so coincidentally, that's when a stifling silence fell over the clear night.

When no one else was talking, Mike leaned in to us. "Why did I drive six hours today if he was going to come out here?"

"Because she's pissed at me," I admitted. Granted, if Rain hadn't mentioned anything, it really wasn't my place to, but I was a desperate man. The little bit of my brain that was working figured Mike might be the one person who could help me get through to her that I was truly remorseful and prayed like hell she'd give me one more chance.

Mike leaned back in his chair, propping his ankle over the opposite knee. "What did you do?" He laughed. Rain's temper was no secret, and I figured either he had probably been on the receiving end, or he had seen it enough to know how to best deal with it.

"Well..." I paused, really not wanting to tell him what a dumbass his sister was dating, or had been dating until that one drunken night. "Don't get me wrong, she has every right to be upset, but damn Mike, your sister holds a grudge better than just about anyone I know."

"Hey, remember me?" She sounded like a petulant child, and I had to resist the urge to laugh. "I'm right fucking here. And Mike, you don't want to know
why
I'm pissed at him."

Both of us turned, giving Rain our undivided attention. Mike, more than likely, wanting to know what I had done, and me waiting to see how much she was going to go into.

"He seems to think I'm screwing Dietrich. He thought that tonight, too. Oh, but not just Garrett, he accused me of fucking Jon, too." Well, that pretty much summed up the extent of everything. So much for hoping I would get her brothers' blessing any time before Hell froze over.

Rain started to jump up from her seat, so I reached for her arm and pulled her back down. I hated putting her brother in the middle of this, but she was the one who threw the door wide open in front of him.

"I was fucking drunk, Rain. How many times do I have to apologize? I was a jealous, miserable prick. I was wrong. I'm sorry." I leaned forward, tugging at my long blond hair, pissed off that we were, once again, rehashing the same fight.

"Yeah, and most drunks I know are their most honest with a little bit of liquid courage." She curled into a ball at her end of the loveseat, her voice suddenly small. Now that she was showing an emotion other than rage, I felt like we really were making progress.

I looked over at her brother, noticing that he seemed to be enjoying the live show in front of him. I supposed it was amusing from the outside looking in, but I was tempted to slap the smirk off his face. This was one of the most serious situations I had ever found myself in, and he was fucking smirking at me.
Cocky bastard.

"Okay, you two," Mike interrupted about the same time I realized we weren't going to resolve anything. "Colton, my sister is drunk right now. So, given the fact that your problems all started because one of you shot off while under the influence, I think it's time to table this conversation. Why don't you come to my place for the night, and you two can talk tomorrow. If I have to, I'll sit here and mediate because you're both in the wrong."

I stood to grab my bag and follow Mike to his place when Rain reached out and stopped me again. "No, he can stay here." Her voice sounded unsure. I looked at her, and she squeezed my hand, reassuring me that it would be okay.

Mike hugged his sister tight, whispered something in her ear and then motioned for me to follow him. As much as I wanted to stay, I wasn't about to do anything to further jeopardize Mike's seeming acceptance of me.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, burying her face in my chest. It was the first real physical contact we'd had since before our fight, and it did nothing to help me walk out the door. I wanted to sit there taking in the combination of strawberries and vanilla that I loved. "I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow. Leave the bike here."

"I'm fine," I huffed. Secretly, I loved the fact that she was bossing me around like old times. Even if it was because we had both been drinking, it meant there was something still there.

"Should I call Jon?" She threatened, and I knew she meant it. Jon had zero tolerance when it came to anyone riding a motorcycle after drinking ever since his brother dumped his bike. James was crazy smart, but he had never been the same and still had short-term memory loss because of his mistake.

"Whatever." I shook my head as I followed Mike to his car. "Might want to be careful, people might start to think you care."

"Goodnight, Colton." When I reached Mike's car, I looked back to the house to see Rain watching us go. I made a mental note to thank everyone who pushed me to follow her here.

I wasn't expecting Rain to rush to meet me when Mike dropped me off the morning after our near reconciliation, but I had been hoping she would have been a little happier to see me. The walls weren't fully back in place, but she was definitely more guarded when she was sober.

We spent most of the rainy day hanging out in the rec room watching TV. With the exception of our first night in Florida, it was the first time we were Colton and Maddie. And yes, I had reached the point where I saw a difference between the two sides of the woman I loved and thought of her almost like two different people. She would probably have my balls if I ever admitted it to her, but there were times I liked Maddie more than Rain; she was soft and friendly where Rain worked hard to be cold and edgy.

The next day was much of the same, sitting around the house doing absolutely nothing. I have never been good at doing nothing. Of course, doing nothing was made a bit more bearable by the fact that I spent the day with Rain sprawled across my lap on the sectional sofa.

"So, I was thinking..." I looked down to make sure she was still awake. One of Rain's favorite pastimes was napping, which worked well for me seeing as one of mine was watching her sleep. She turned her head so she was looking up at me, so I continued. "Why not invite Garrett over for dinner?"

"Um, okay..." Her eyebrows scrunched together as if she was waiting for the punch line. Granted, I hadn't been the world's biggest fan of Garrett Dietrich, but if it helped get things back on track for us, I was willing to do just about anything.

"I just thought it might be good to get to know him a bit. You don't want me to be jealous of him, so what better way to take care of that than to spend some time with him?" The words coming out of my mouth weren't exactly the ones I wanted to say, but I was getting used to that.

"Somehow, I don't think it really matters if you know the guy or not. I figured you and Jon knew each other pretty well, and you got jealous of him." She may have had a point, but it pissed me off that we were back to the beginning of all the shit.

"You've got to be kidding me. I thought we were past that. I'm a dick when I drink. When I drink as much as I did that night, I'm a major —"

She poked me in the ribs. "Relax! I was giving you shit. You know, it's that thing we used to do all the time." I took a deep breath, thankful that she wasn't being serious but agitated that she had picked that particular hot button to push.

Instead of the three of us getting together for a casual dinner, Rain turned it into a family affair. Mike, being the only one who knew everything that was going on, seemed particularly interested in every move I made. It didn't help that he and Garrett worked together, meaning he had even more of a reason to side with the hometown boy should anything go wrong.

Both of Rain's brothers took off shortly after their dad called it a night, leaving the three of us alone on the deck. Garrett's body language told me he had heard all about my temporary insanity; he seemed less than thrilled to having me around.

"Guys, I'm going to head up to bed. Tomorrow's going to be a long day." She leaned over to give me a quick hug. "Be nice," she whispered in my ear before going into the house.