Double Dare

  aggravating the old back injury he’d received courtesy of Uncle Sam and a bullet that had lodged itself a little too close to his spine.

  “And you need to mind your own business,” she said, instantly dismissing the woman who’d made it her personal mission to shove Marybeth out of Darrin’s life since the moment that she’d met the youngest Bradford, who’d made her feelings clear by chucking a juice box at Marybeth’s head.

  “He is my business,” Darrin’s overprotective sister said casually as they both watched Danny pull a blushing Jodi onto his lap and kissed her cheek.

  “Shouldn’t you be hovering over Danny with the rest of your siblings?” she asked, barely stopping herself from rolling her eyes as all the Bradford boys narrowed their eyes on the small woman making their older brother smile.

  “He doesn’t need my help.”

  “And neither does Darrin,” she shot back.

  “It would appear that he does,” Kenzie murmured with a slight tilt of her head, drawing Marybeth’s attention to the left where Darrin stood among his arguing brothers, watching her. “You need to let my brother go.”

  “Oh, but I already did,” she admitted as shifted her attention to the soda bottle in her hands.

  “Doesn’t look like you tried hard enough,” Kenzie said, taking the empty bottle from her hands and tossed it in the trash barrel next to her.

  “Oh, but I did,” she said dryly as she leaned back against the bench and watched her husband laugh at something Garret said.

  “Apparently not hard enough,” Kenzie pointed out with a mocking smile.

  “Apparently not,” she agreed with a nod as she held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger, showing off the Celtic wedding band that Darrin had placed on her finger only an hour ago after he’d stopped by one of the many stores located throughout the park and purchased it along with a matching ring for himself.

  Kenzie froze seconds before her eyes narrowed suspiciously on her. “Is this a joke?”

  “No.”

  “You really married my brother?”

  “I prefer to think of it as the time that I gave into blackmail, but yes, yes I did.”

  “How long ago?”

  “A little over three weeks now.”

  “I see,” Kenzie murmured thoughtfully as she glanced over at her brothers.

  “I’m sure that you do now.”

  “Well,” Kenzie said, sighing heavily as she got to her feet, “that takes care of that I suppose.”

  “I suppose it does,” Marybeth agreed, wondering if this was going to change things between them now that she’d married Darrin.

  “Hurt my brother and I’ll break every bone in your body,” Kenzie said with a friendly smile and a wink as she sauntered off, leaving Marybeth slumping in her seat.

  Maybe not.

  *-*-*-*

  “Why exactly are we standing in this line?” he had to ask as he joined her in line for what was probably the most hated ride in the history of amusement parks.

  “I just needed a break,” she admitted with a sigh as she reached over and relieved him of the cold drink that he’d purchased for her while he did his best to block out the music playing over the sound system that still had the power to make shudder with dread even after all these years.

  “From…,” he prompted, taking back the cold soda and took a sip before he handed it back.

  Sighing heavily, she looked off. “From everything.”

  “That really narrows it down for me,” he said dryly, earning a mocking glare that had him smiling.

  “I just needed a break from the glares, looks of pity and your mother asking me if I knew any nice men that might be interested in you or Reese,” she said with a shrug as the line came to stop.

  He rubbed his hands roughly down his face. “I’m going to kill those meddling bastards.”

  “As you should,” she murmured in agreement as the line started to move again.

  For several minutes neither one of them said anything as they walked into companionable silence until finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and he had to ask.

  “What do I need to do to fix this, Marybeth?”

  She didn’t pretend to misunderstand him. “I don’t know that this can be fixed, Darrin.”

  “And why’s that?” he asked, placing his hands in his pockets to keep himself from grabbing her and shaking some sense into her.

  “You know why,” she said, sounding sad and confirming his earlier opinion that she’d been put on this earth to drive him out of his fucking mind.

  “You’re turning this whole thing into one of those seriously fucked up Lifetime movies that you’ve got my brother addicted to, you know that, don’t you?”

  “I am not!” she said, gasping in outrage as they walked around a turn and headed down a long slope.

  “Oh, but you really are,” he said, not really caring at this point if he was pissing her off, because she was certainly doing a hell of a job of pissing him off.

  “I am not!”

  “Really?” he asked, arching a mocking brow. “Then what would you call this bullshit that you’ve been putting me through?”

  “Trying to make sure that you didn’t throw your life away,” she grumbled with a scowl as she quickened her step and tried to

  He rolled his eyes, not bothering to quicken his pace since there was nowhere for her go. “Yes, because marrying the woman that I’m madly in love with and want to spend the rest of my life with is throwing my life away,” he said dryly as he followed after her, noting the way that her shoulders went tense as she rounded another corner. “That bullshit line is getting old, Marybeth, so why don’t we get to the real reason why you’re willing to do something so fucked that you’re willing to risk your life, hmmm?”

  “I’m not risking my life,” she bit out, shooting him a murderous glare that said it all.

  Once again, he was right and she fucking hated it.

  “Really? Then what would you call putting off a surgery that you need so that you could take a bunch of drugs that have dangerous side effects and get off medication you need to slow down the tissue wrapping around your lungs on the off chance that you could find a doctor willing to do a procedure that doesn’t have a chance in hell of working?”

  “You don’t know that,” she snapped, but the way that she couldn’t quite meet his eyes when she turned to glare at him told him that she knew that he was right.

  Since he was on a roll and all, he decided to keep going.

  “Don’t I? I thought that we’d already covered this. How exactly are going to do this without my help?”

  “Look,” she said, “I get it. I can’t have children. I managed to accept it before and with some space, a little time and a lot of chocolate, I’ll be able to do it again,” she explained tightly just as she was forced to come to stop when they reached the loading line.

  “How many?” a college kid with a big smile asked.

  “One,” Marybeth snapped just as Darrin said, “Two.”

  Ignoring Marybeth, probably because the kid sensed that Darrin would have beat the shit out of him if he separated Darrin from Marybeth, he gestured for them to go to the last loading line.

  “You’ll never be able to accept it,” he pointed out as he got in line behind her.

  “I did it before,” she snapped back, clearly getting pissed.

  “No, you didn’t,” he said, never more sure of anything in his life.

  “And you know this how?”

  “Because I know you.”

  “Clearly that’s not the case,” she said dryly as they waited for the boat full of passengers to unload so that they could get in.

  “Really? Because I bet it is.”

  “And I bet that you don’t know what you’re talking about,” she snapped back, keeping her back to him as she tapped her foot impatiently.

  “Really? And how much are you willing to bet that I know the real reason behind this bullshit plan or yours and t
he one that you used to try and push me away.”

  “I never tried to push you away!”

  “What would you call the last six years, then?” he demanded in a whisper while they watched the boat finally come towards them and lock in place.

  “Keeping my options open in case something better came along?”

  Knowing that she was just trying to piss him off, he ignored her and decided to keep going. “You’ve never accepted it, because for some fucked up reason you think that not being able to have children somehow makes you less of a woman.”

  He’d expected her to glare at him, to argue and deny it, but what he hadn’t expected was for her to suddenly climb out of the boat just as the boat started to enter the ride, leaving him sitting there with no other choice but to suffer through “It’s a Small World.”

  Chapter 36

  “I think it’s time that we got you tested for drugs, Goose,” Jake said, sounding completely serious, which was understandable given the circumstances.

  “Uh huh, I’ll get right on that,” she promised as she skimmed her fingers across the top of the stone enclosure that stopped the baby alligators from attacking her and tearing her apart.

  “Have you told Darrin what you’re doing?”

  “It’s none of his business,” she said, darting her gaze from the baby alligator determined to climb the wall and make a snack of her hand to the man that she’d been avoiding since yesterday when she’d ditched his ass at the Small World ride.

  “He’s your husband,” Jake pointed out.

  “I want to get this over with,” she said, feeling her chest tighten as she took in the sight of Darrin sitting on the park bench, watching her with an expression that tore at her.

  “Don’t fucking do this, Goose.”

  “I don’t want him to be there when they do this, Jake,” she said, forcing herself to look away from Darrin before she did something stupid.

  “That’s not true and you know it.”

  Sighing, she returned to running her hand absently along the top of the stone wall as she walked away, needing to put a little space between her and Darrin’s knowing gaze. “Are you going to help me or what, Jake?”

  There was a slight pause before Jake said, “I’m your brother and I love you, Goose, but I’m not going to help you do this. Whatever it is that you’re running from, Goose, stop before it’s too late. Tell Darrin that they moved your surgery date up and let him come home with you.”

  “I’m not running away from anything,” she bit out as she roughly wiped at her eyes when they began to tear up.

  “Yes, you are,” the all-too familiar voice that always managed to make her feel safe and loved said as her phone was gently taken away from her.

  “Go away, Darrin,” she said weakly, fighting the urge to turn around and wrap her arms around him.

  “Not until you answer my question,” he said as he reached around her and handed her the phone.

  “Which is?”

  “Do you love me enough to stop pushing me away?”

  “I’m not-” she began to argue the same bullshit that she’d been feeding him for years, but he apparently had enough.

  “Stop playing this fucking game with me, Marybeth.”

  She shook her head, refusing to say another word.

  “Then I’m done, Marybeth. I am so fucking done it’s not even funny. I love you too much to stand around any longer while you play the martyr. You let the simple fact that you can’t have children dictate our lives. You can’t have children. Get the fuck over it, because I have. Children are a blessing, not a guarantee and as much as I would have loved to have them, I’ve always wanted you more, but you’re so fucking blinded by your own self-pity that you refuse to see that. I’m done playing these hot and cold games with you. I’m done begging you to stay in my life, Marybeth. I’m just fucking done.”

  *-*-*-*

  He’d wasted six years waiting for her.

  Six. Fucking. Years!

  No matter what he said or what he did, she was never going to let this bullshit go and he was tired of trying to convince her to stay with him. He shouldn’t have to beg a woman to be with him and the fact that he had to do it with the woman that he loved made him feel like pure shit.

  “Don’t walk away from me!” Marybeth yelled, chasing after him as he stormed out of the reptile farm and headed towards the line of taxis that would take him away from her and the bullshit that she put him through. “We’re going to finish this once and for all!”

  “We’re done!” he snapped, not even bothering to look back when he said it, which he paid for seconds later when the little brat slammed into him, taking him down to the ground, hard.

  “No, we’re not,” she snapped, trying to get him in a headlock, but unfortunately for her, she grew up with only one brother, a brother that was absolutely terrified of what Darrin would do to him if he ever laid a fucking finger on her so she had absolutely no idea what she was doing. He easily escaped her hold, rolled onto her back, grabbed her by her hips and moved to set her aside when she did the unthinkable.

  “Mother fucker!” Darrin shouted in surprise and agony when she reached down and twisted his poor defenseless nipples through his shirt.

  “We’re going to finish this, right here, right now, Darrin, because as much as you hate the bullshit that I’ve been putting you through, I hate it more. I hate the fact that I can’t give you what you need and what you deserve. I hate the fact that no matter how many pills and shots that I take or no matter how many surgeries that I’ve had, I’m still broken. I hate it. I hate that I will never hold your baby,” she bit out bitterly angrily.

  “Baby, I-” he started to say, but she wasn’t done yet.

  “I hate that I can’t see a baby without feeling like my heart is about to break. I hate this. I hate this whole fucking situation, but I hate even more that I’m not good enough for you and I never will be!” she snapped, releasing her hold on his nipples so that she could get to her feet as she glared down at him. “You were right. Is that what you wanted to hear? That as long as I didn’t have to face the truth a small part of me could go on pretending that there was still hope? That once I allowed myself something real with you that reality would come crashing down on me and there would be nowhere for me to run? In a matter of days I’ll never be able to delude myself into thinking that I’m whole again. Is that what you wanted to hear? Congratulations, Darrin,” she said tightly as she stepped away from him, “it must be wonderful knowing that you were right.”

  With that she stormed off, leaving him realizing just how badly he’d fucked up by pushing her into this. He’d been patient with her for six long years, because he’d known that rushing her was a mistake.

  So then why had he fucked this up so badly?

  Because once he’d found out the real reason why she didn’t want to be with him, he’d been scared out of his fucking mind that she was going to leave him.

  Now…

  Now he had absolutely no fucking idea what he should do.

  *-*-*-*

  Later that night…

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he said as he stared down at the phone in his hand.

  “I can’t believe you won’t shut up and let me get some sleep,” Arik bitched as he rolled over onto his stomach and pulled a pillow over his head.

  “How is this supportive?” he demanded as he tried to come up with a reason not to make this call, but after spending the last eighteen hours wracking his brain, trying to figure out how to fix this, he was finally ready to accept the fact that he was in way over his head with this one.

  “You’ve kept me up all night with your bitching and whining! So make the fucking call so I can get some sleep!” Arik snarled, blindly throwing the pillow at him as he climbed off the bed and stormed off towards the bathroom where he slammed the door behind him.

  Knowing that it was only a matter of minutes before his brother had enough of his bullshit and tossed him
out, Darrin scrolled through his contact list and did the unthinkable.

  “What do you want?” Trevor snapped as soon as he answered the phone.