Stand Close 3 (Stand Close New Adult Romance Series) (2 page)

B
ritish isn’t
the dialect you’d expect a doctor in Spain to have, so when the graying gentleman in a common lab coat addresses the four of us with a Monty Python-esque voice, surprise flickers across all of our faces. “Yes, well. The MRI produced excellent results. You’ll find Rue in no way damaged and in fact, she seems to be in good spirits, if not a little pale. Shall I take you to her?”

Jenna, grinning ear to ear, almost jumps on the guy. “YES! She’s okay? Oh thank God! Yes, take us to her!”

He gives several nervous blinks at her outburst. “Right. Good. Let’s have a look then.” A polite smile flicks his cheeks and is gone as he turns and leads the way. “What I do want to know is how this happened.”

Jenna asks, “She didn’t tell you?”

He shakes his head. “No. She didn’t want to talk about it, which is odd. I was hoping to hear it from you. Is she a good swimmer?”

I look to Jack, but he’s staring ahead, bare feet thumping against the tile. We’re all dressed for the beach, not an emergency room. Only Sean and I are wearing shoes. Not one of us gives a shit that people are looking at our bodies–especially at Jenna’s in her bikini, long hair swinging side to side.

With her eyebrows knitting tightly she answers, “We don’t know. She dove in. Jack and I…” She motions to show which of us is Jack. “...weren’t paying attention. Um, and then when we realized she’d been gone for awhile we found her... at the bottom.” Her voice lowered at the end by the sobering memory.

My muscles tighten. I’m eager to get to Rue. I can’t believe I wasn’t there when it happened. Sean and I had gone down for some food. Jack had been with us, and in the middle of us talking about nothing in particular, he’d bolted. Until I saw him performing C.P.R. on her, I’d assumed he went to the bar or back to his room for a nap or a fuck. On all our previous trips to Ibiza when we go to the pool, we go together. So why he went there on his own is a mystery, unless he went to talk to Rue and Jenna, and that doesn’t make any sense. He was trying to stay away from her, unless he wanted to cause trouble…

My eyes flit over to the back of his head, to his tight shoulders, the tension still in him, too, like it is in all of us. If he’s the cause of this, I don’t know what I’ll do. But he can’t have tried to drown her. Jenna wouldn’t have let that happen and she certainly wouldn’t lie to protect him. Plus I can’t believe I’m considering it as a possibility. But this war he has with her could have gotten out of hand. But this far?

Tired of the questions running around my head, I grit my teeth and mutter loudly, “I can’t believe I wasn’t there. If I had been there, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Jack cocks a look over his shoulder at me. Is that a defensive gleam in his eyes? “Why is that?”

Unable to hold it back anymore, I growl, “Because I haven’t been able to stop fucking staring at her, that’s why! If she’d dove in the pool like you guys said, then I would have been watching because I can’t take my fucking eyes off her, and I would have seen that she didn’t come up!”

The group comes to a halt as Jack spins around, murder on his face. The doctor is the last to see the volcano burst as Jack explodes, “What do you mean,
if she dove into the pool.
What, do you think I pushed her in?”

“Why are you so defensive, Jack? Did you?” I clench my hands into itching and ready fists.

Sean leaps between us to hold us at bay with palms pressed tight against our expanding chests. Jenna’s eyes are wide and she mumbles, “Jack didn’t push her in, Alec.” There’s so little conviction to her defense that I twist my head and look at her. She glances to Jack and I can plainly see she’s hiding something.

“What happened out there!” I yell as Sean fights me to stay calm.

“Alec! Enough. You’re acting crazy. Calm down.”

“And you!” I turn my curling lips on him. “Rue was right. Who calms down when they’re told to? What a stupid fucking thing to say. Why did you warn her against me? Is that how little you think of me?”

Whiplashed by my segue, Sean frowns. “C’mon Alec. Who are you kidding? Do you really think you’re
good
for her?”

“You fucking little…”

“STOP STOP!! Bloody hell!” The doctor waves his arms in the middle of us like some white-jacketed Frankenstein. “I’ll have to ask you all to leave if you don’t get ahold of yourselves. Now!!”

At the threat of expulsion, we switch gears instantly, relaxing our stances and eyeing each other as we back down. “We’re fine,” I say, as controlled as I can muster. Jenna exhales and shakes her head, the show of testosterone boggling her mind.

Jack nods, giving me one last gritty glance. “Sorry. We’re fine.”

Sean says nothing, the adrenaline still racing through his normally quiet system.

Jenna hurriedly adds in a soothing voice, stepping forward. “We were just scared for her. It was a pretty awful thing to see. Please, let us see her. The boys will behave. Won’t you boys?” We all jerk our chins down and up once.

Reticent, the doctor purses his lips and thinks on it. He sighs. “Trauma. It can do your head in. She’s just up here in Room 178 on the left. But another outburst and I will call security.”

Sean, Jack and I each affirm acknowledgement with noises, trudging forward.

Almost thrown out, now I’ve got two things to beat myself up over. I don’t know what got into me. He saved her life, not the other way around. And when she took in that first coughing breath, he was different. The rage that’s been behind his eyes ever since the news, had vanished. When he held her, those were real tear in his eyes, not just the water dripping from his hair. I bet the rush of fear brought a lot of that on. It would be a terrifying charge to the system for anyone… but still. He said he was sorry. Why did he say that?

If I had been by that pool, this never would have happened.

As we turn the sharp corner to enter her room, Rue looks away from the T.V. screen and sits up straighter, greeting us all with a sheepish smile. The ache in my chest happens again. The best way I can describe it is it’s like my heart wants to tear out of my chest so it can touch her. Her eyes land on me, but Jenna climbs on the bed and rips her attention away from me. She smiles at her best friend and receives a bear hug, laughing hoarsely.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

Jack steps to the end and Sean goes around to the other side. I hang back a couple steps, in between Jenna and Jack. This isn’t my place in the hierarchy of this moment. Not as far as my two best friends are concerned, a fact I’m all too aware of. Fuck, I hate this.

Jenna places her hand lovingly on Rue’s pale cheek. “You lost your tan. Dumb move.”

Rue smiles. “I’m sorry.”

Jenna shakes her head, her voice stolen by emotion as she takes Rue into her arms for a heartfelt embrace. Rue hugs her back, looking at me over her friend’s shoulder. Her eyes close and she buries her face in the long dark hair. “Don’t ever do that again,” Jenna chokes.

“I won’t,” Rue whispers quietly.

The three of us guys search out objects to focus on, swallowing the lumps that are growing like wet sponges in our throats.

I inhale to shake it off to ask, “So, you’re okay?” shoving my hands in the pockets of my long swim trunks, the hem bowing to touch above my knee. Rue nods and glances to Jack. They stare at each other for a second, an understanding passing between them that doesn’t escape my or Sean’s notice. Remembering what the doctor said about us getting thrown out, I attempt to keep my mouth shut, and succeed for all of two seconds. “So, what happened?”

Jenna scoots to sit next to Rue. “Rue, you should know they just…”

“No, Jenna, it’s okay. I’ve got it,” she assures Jenna as she intertwines their fingers together.

But Jack cuts her off. “She dove into the bottom and…”

Rue finishes for him what she thought he was going to say, “And I didn’t want to come back up. I wanted stay there. It was stupid.”

Stunned, my hands rip out of my pockets and I take a step forward. “What?”

“What?!” Sean parrots me in shocked confusion.

Jenna stares at her best friend and I can see from her expression that she suspected this. I can’t fucking believe it. Why would Rue want to kill herself? The idea is absurd and disturbing on so many levels that I can’t think straight. “Why, Rue?” she asks softly.

Rue shrugs a little. “I don’t know. It’s not like I planned it. I didn’t. It’s just… the water felt so safe–so removed from everything that’s been going on. It’s been so much to take and I thought I was handling it. But I guess I wasn’t.” She gets quiet and we all wait. She touches the thin blanket lying over her legs and shakes her head. “When I saw those magazines and those awful things they were saying about me, it tipped me over I guess. I just wanted to make it all go away. When I was down there… I tried to swim up when I realized what was happening but it was too late… and I couldn’t.” Fresh tears fall down her cheeks. Jenna’s, too.

But there are no tears for me. A building anger grows as the pieces fall into place. Slowly I focus on Jack, remembering the magazines we spotted on the way to lunch. We’d stopped and taken a look, the three of us. I’d known he was angry. We all were. But it never occurred to me that he would go, buy them all and bring them to shove in her face. “You didn’t,” I growl at him.

Jack’s guilt has him quiet. “Look, Alec…”

“You fucking asshole!” I step over and, unencumbered by Sean this time, I punch Jack hard in the face, breaking his nose.

I swore I would protect her. I promised I wouldn’t let him hurt her. That she wasn’t alone. That I would be there for her. And I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there at the time she needed me most. I would never have let Jack show her that shit. And if he had showed her before I could stop him, I would have carried her away as soon as I saw what he’d done, if only I’d been there.

He yells out at the pain, blood squirting from the split in his nose. I punch him again. Rue yells at me to stop, but I can’t. In a rage, he wrestles me to the ground and hits me twice, but I easily turn him over and take control of the fight, white-hot fury blurring my sanity into oblivion. As I reach back to throw another, Sean grabs both my arms and pulls me backward. I’m twisting, my legs trying to gain purchase as I shout, “Let me go! Let me go, Sean!”

Jack scrambles up, his hand on his nose, blood dripping down both. “What the fuck is wrong with you?! You can drop the act.”

“Let me go, Sean!” I yank my arms hard and Sean loses his grip. Pulling myself up to stand, I don’t know what he’s talking about.

“You don’t have to act like you like her anymore, Alec. What I asked you to do…act like you were into her… you can knock it off now,” he growls, green eyes flashing.

I gulp, stunned that he would stoop this low. My pause is just enough time to let Rue cry out. “What?” Her voice sounds so raw, I’m dying as I turn around with my hands reaching out.

“No, Rue…”

“Oh my God,” she whispers, her horrified face trained on me.

“No, Rue. He asked me to do that. But I didn’t do those things with you because of that.”

Her hand goes up to her throat and she lets out a strangled sound that brings Jenna to attention immediately. “You guys are not helping! Can’t you just be good people for once?”

The room goes silent.

My whole body aches from what she’s thinking. I have to make it right. “Rue, no. I wasn’t doing what he said. Last night, you know it wasn’t an act. I didn’t do those things with you because of what Jack asked me to do. You were in my room because I wanted you to be there. Come on! Think of how I looked at you this morning? Do you think I could have faked that?” I stop and look at Sean, realizing at the exact second he figures it out, too, that I lied to him about Maya being the one I spent the night with. I groan, “Fuck. Sean…”

His lips curl, and he looks from me to Jack, and back to me again. Disgust doesn’t begin to cover how to describe his expression.

“Leave,” Rue whispers, not believing me. Insecurity and exhaustion has twisted her and all I want to do is make her feel better, help her heal, but convince her, too. These desires are at war in me and I glare around the room, feeling very much ganged up on.

“I’m leaving. But not because this is the truth and I’m guilty. I’m leaving because I care about you, and I want you to get better.” Turning on my heel, I walk out, just as our confused doctor approaches me, looking at my bloodied fist. “You’ve got a new patient,” I mumble and walk past him without another word.

T
he doctor inspects
Jack’s nose and declares it as broken, which is an eye-roller all around. Grim and drained, Jack lets him sew up the cut across the bridge. There are five stitches and the doctor assures him it won’t scar, but Jack doesn’t seem to care about that. I think he’s angrier at the scar potential on his friendship.

Jenna’s sitting on the end of the bed, watching with a pained, empathetic wince every time the needle slides into Jack’s flesh. Sean’s got his arms crossed against his chest, and every now and again he huffs a sigh through his nostrils. When the doctor leaves and tells me I’m free to go home, too, the only word I can hear is
home
.

I don’t know what to make of what happened with Alec. Dignity and pride are keeping my tear ducts at bay. I keep hearing
I’m leaving because I care about you
over and over, wishing I believed him and not knowing what to think. There was a moment by the pool when Jack apologized to me, I was so bleary-minded, but it felt like we’d tore down the wall so painstakingly built between us. But that Jack would set Alec on me like some beast he could rule, with the express intent to cause me pain, it’s brought that wall back up and added a few more thousand bricks.

I just want to go back to the way things were. I want to go home. I want to put my dreams of a family behind me. Most of all, I want my heart to stop bleeding.

The doctor leaves the room and Jack stands up from the chair, exasperated. I watch him without expression, blankly wondering why he saved my life if he wants to mangle me at every turn.

Before they have a chance to speak, I push the blankets off and say, “I’m going to take a plane home with Jenna as soon as we get to the hotel.”

Jack blinks, his existing frown digging deeper in above the purple bruising. “You mean a commercial jet?”

“Perceptive,” I mutter sardonically. “Yes. I want to fly home on my own. With Jenna, I mean. Is that okay, Jenna?”

“Of course!” She warily looks at the brothers, awaiting their reaction.

Sean’s solemn gaze falls to the floor, and he shakes his head, mumbling, “I wish I knew how to make this all go away.”

“Yeah. That’s pretty clear. So let me help you.” I throw my feet over the side and rise up, my body very tired and weak.

“That’s not what I meant, Rue…”

My hand flies up to the stop position. “Look. This whole thing–us pretending like we’re a family or that we have to try to be one? It was dynamite begging for a match.” I glance to Jack, expecting to see relief, agreement, or his usual disgust. But he’s watching me without any of those and it’s very disarming. I have to tear my eyes away to keep my mind clear. “It’s not working out. It’s not meant to be, I guess. We were pushing…”

Jenna who is often able to finish my sentences, says, “A square peg into a round hole.”

“Exactly.” She walks with me to the door. I turn and shrug, meeting the eyes of both of my half-brothers one after the other. “I’m sorry, but that’s what we’ve been doing. So let’s just go about our lives and forget we ever knew each other.”

Jack and Sean are silent. I think before my little pool incident, Sean might have argued with me, tried to get me to give it one last try. I could be wrong; maybe he wouldn’t have. But when we were dancing at Space Ibiza, we had a really good time and it seemed we’d pushed away the discomfort of New York. But now, what’s he going to say? That this is a match made in heaven? No sane person would ever argue that in a million years.

Meeting the eyes of my nemesis, I say, with more humor than I’m really feeling, “You won, Jack, just like you wanted. I surrender.” Giving them one last sad smile, I turn and leave with Jenna.

“Cab back to the hotel?” she asks, padding next to me.

“Yeah. No more limos for me.” Whispering softly, I ask, “Are they behind us?”

She waits a second to glance back. “Nope. I guess they’re giving you the space you want.” She weaves her arm through mine. “Do you really want that space, Ruefus?”

If she’d asked me that yesterday, I would have said no. Or even earlier this morning when she laid it out there for me that I don’t have a family; I would have said no then, too. But now? I want space very, very badly.

Floating on the bottom of that pool… letting my life slip away from me… was something I never thought I’d do. It was a wake up call that I’d bit off more than I could chew. I’d been trying to be strong, fooling myself that I was able to go toe-to-toe with Jack Stone, but I’m just not that hard a person. I’m soft on the inside, a fact I don’t like to have pointed out to me. But pointed out, it is.

“I need the space, Jenna. I don’t have a choice.”