The Wager

  “Oh, I don’t know. All my grandsons possess nuts. Every last one. I made sure every one of them were males when they were born, didn’t I, Wescott?”

  “I, uh…” Wescott looked to Bets and nodded his head emphatically. “To the most dutiful of Grandmothers.” He cringed and lifted his wine glass. “Cheers.”

  “No nuts?” Jake repeated, apparently still stuck on the first jab against his manhood.

  “You heard him,” Jace said from Char’s right. “The first step is admitting you have a problem.”

  “With what?” Jake clenched his fists. “Finding my nuts? My manhood? My balls? Who the hell do you think you are?” His face had turned red.

  “Oh, he’s a senator.” Bets piped in. Not helpful.

  Someone kicked Char. It was probably meant for Bets, because seconds later she winced in pain.

  “You know what?” Jake threw down his napkin. “I’m about done with you and your attitude, Mr. Senator.”

  “Are you?” Jace said coolly as he set down his water and grinned. “That’s funny, because I was about done with you the minute I heard you were going to be in this wedding. Tell me, when was the last time you even had dinner with Travis? When was the last time you went golfing with him? Hmm? Met his friends? Any of that ring a bell, best man?” Jace gave Jake a smug grin. “You’re the brother, therefore he has to give it to you, but as far as friends go? You’re as shitty as they come.”

  “That’s it!” Jake launched himself at Jace.

  Jace backed up and then threw a punch at Jake’s face.

  “And stay the hell away from Char!” Jake landed another blow to Jace’s cheek, but Jace moved out of the way just in time for Jake to crash into the table, causing wine to spill everywhere.

  Char stood, but Grandma pushed her down into her seat and whispered. “Oh, honey, just enjoy it. Positively lovely entertainment. Let them fight.” She winked and began playing with the pearl necklace around her neck.

  “Jake!” Wescott yelled. “Stop!”

  With a curse, Travis rose from the table and marched over to where Jake had fallen and was now staggering to his feet. He caught him just as Jake lunged again for Jace.

  “Stop,” Travis said in a steely tone. “I mean it, Jake.” He pushed against Jake’s chest. “For once in your life, let it go.”

  “But—” Jake’s face twisted in agony as he looked at the shocked faces around the table. Char’s stomach clenched when his eyes pleaded with hers. What was she supposed to say? Ashamed, she looked down at her plate, and heard Jake curse and walk away.

  “So that was fun.” Kacey laughed nervously. Everyone else joined in. Jace regained his seat next to Char and straightened his tie.

  “Sorry about that.” He lifted a napkin to his bloodied lip and winced. “The guy sure can pack a punch.”

  “He trains.” Wescott poured himself another glass of wine. “Every day.”

  “Trains?” Char asked. “What do you mean, trains?”

  Bets patted Wescott on the back and gave Char a shaky grin. “Boxing, dear. He’s a boxer.”

  “Probably needs some sort of fight training considering how many women he’s scorned.” Travis said from one end of the table.

  “Enough!” Kacey yelled, pushing back from her seat.

  Holy crap, how many fights were going to break out?

  Travis’s eyes bugged out of his head and Kacey thrust her finger in his face. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but he’s your brother!” She threw her hands up in the air. “Did it ever occur to any of you to just give him a chance? I’m sorry for ruining the schedule, Grandma, but I’m done.” With that, Kacey walked off toward the house.

  Travis swallowed and looked guiltily at the table. “I’ll be right back.”

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Furious, Kacey went in search of Jake but couldn’t find him anywhere. Damn him for choosing this weekend, her wedding weekend, to suddenly find a conscience. His timing couldn’t be worse! But the look in his eyes when he’d glanced at Char, and then the rest of the family.

  It made her sick to her stomach.

  Yes, he was a jackass, but anyone with two eyes could see he was actually trying, minus that minor hiccup last night where he decided to relapse. But he’d said nothing had happened. Men with that look in their eyes didn’t lie. He was too vulnerable, already too raw to do anything.

  “Kace…” Travis called down the hall.

  She wasn’t hidden enough in the hallway. Travis’s footsteps neared until he stopped directly behind her. “What?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Not enough.”

  “Damn it.” Travis grabbed her from behind and flipped her body around so he was pinning her against the wall. “I said I was sorry.”

  “What exactly are you sorry for? Being an ass to your brother? Telling him to stay away from the one girl he actually likes? Or constantly degrading him in front of your parents and even Jace. Hmm? Take your pick.” She tried to fight against him but Travis was too damn big. A muscle twitched in his jaw as he leaned closer. Why did he have to be so attractive? It would be so much easier to fight with him if he was ugly, or if his stutter from childhood decided to make a sudden appearance.

  “Listen.” He tilted her chin up and grinned. “I can’t help it.”

  “Worst apology ever.”

  “I’m not finished.” Travis’s eyes brightened as he kissed her softly against the mouth and pulled back. “I still have issues with him. Clearly, you can see that, Kace. I mean, he slept with you and abandoned you in college. Just last year he was actually contemplating marrying you and keeping a mistress on the side. As in, he thought it was an intelligent idea! He used you to get ahead in his job, and now, a few months later, you want me to suddenly jump on the Jake bandwagon? He hasn’t proven anything to us. You have to earn trust, and he’s learned nothing. He’s never had to.”

  Kacey sighed and bit down on her bottom lip before answering. “I get what you’re saying, but you have to trust me. I know that look on his face. I know him. He’s your brother, yes, but he was my best friend growing up. I think he’s tired of being the black sheep, but he won’t get better if he feels like he’s never being given the chance. Maybe we should let them play it out?”

  Travis cursed. “So, what? You want me to go give him a damn hug or something? And I’m sorry, but letting them play it out means that not only are we taking a risk on Jake, but if we lose—and there’s a ninety percent chance of that happening, by the way—Grandma’s going to sing at our wedding for an entire hour while people drink themselves to death.”

  Ah, Travis, so rough around the edges and protective. That was why she was marrying him. He was the most attractive man she’d ever met, and he was going to be all hers. With a sultry grin, she leaned in and nipped at his lips. “I want you to try. Please? For me?”

  “Try?” His voice was hoarse. “Try what?”

  “Try not being an ass and give him a chance.”

  He groaned against her mouth and pushed her against the wall harder, his body aligning with hers as he lifted her into his arms and gripped her body against his. “Fine. I’ll try, but if I try with him that means you have to try with Grandma.”

  “Huh?” His lips left hers as they burned a hot trail down her neck. “Grandma.

  Try to get by her tonight.”

  “Why?” Was that new? His tongue felt so good as it licked down the base of her throat that she clenched his shirt in her fists and moaned.

  “Because I want you.” Using his teeth he tugged on the front of her dress and moved his assault lower. “And I may die if I can’t have you.”

  “Don’t be such a guy.” She panted.

  “Ahem.” A voice said from the hall.

  Cursing, Travis slowly let Kacey slip back to her feet and pushed her in front of him. Coward. Grandma stood there, arms crossed, staring lasers into both of them. “Rules, both of you, like children.”

  “Wouldn’t want
my children acting that way…” Travis said behind Kacey. He just had to say something.

  Grandma’s eyes narrowed as she stomped the rest of the way toward them. Being the dutiful fiancée that she was, when Grandma stopped in front of Kacey, Kacey moved out of the way so Grandma could grab a hold of Travis’s ear and drag him down the hall.

  “Thanks a lot, Kace!” he called as Grandma led him out the front door.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  The cool night breeze blew across the Columbia River as Jake took a sip of beer. The view from the tree house had always been a family favorite. The tree house had been built with the river in mind. It was high enough to be able to see the view beyond the trees, but not too high, so that when Jake, Travis, and Kacey were little, they wouldn’t fall out and kill themselves.

  Char had been there once, maybe twice.

  He’d been eight when he met her for the first time. She walked right up to him and punched him in the nose. When the bleeding stopped two hours later, he asked why she did it.

  Her answer?

  He’d been staring at her funny.

  Angry, he’d yelled at her and told her if she wasn’t so ugly he wouldn’t stare so hard. She’d cried—and so began their tumultuous relationship throughout elementary school.

  In middle school things had changed. She’d started turning into a really pretty girl, a pretty girl that still wanted nothing to do with him.

  Until sixth grade. He’d written a note to her during study hall and asked her to hang out during break.

  They were inseparable after that. It had been about a damn Twinkie. The Hostess kind that you knew would probably survive a nuclear holocaust if need be. Seriously, that would be the one food that aliens would find millions of years from now. No mold. Just as yellow as ever.

  He’d always hated Twinkies, but that day, he’d decided to take it. He never told her he hated them. He just pretended to save them for later, all the while watching her eat hers. She’d been so pretty. Her hair was a lot darker than it was now. More black then chestnut.

  Her eyes had been such a pretty contrast to her dark hair that he’d found himself staring at her again. This time she didn’t punch him; she just blushed and looked away.

  In that moment he knew the crush was bad. He was even embarrassed to tell Kacey, who at the time was his best friend in the world. Forget telling Travis; Travis hated everyone and Jake had always felt like he was being compared to Travis as a child. So he kept it to himself.

  As well as his collection of Twinkies.

  All in the tree house.

  He laughed at the memory, wondering if anyone had ever found those damn things and wondered why the hell he stocked them like a half-starved squirrel.

  Looking back, he couldn’t remember what had caused the animosity as well as the divide between him and Char. Freshman year she’d just stopped talking to him. He’d even bought her a box of Twinkies and put it in her locker with a note.

  He knew she’d got it because he watched her smile as she read the note and opened the box. But that was also the first day of high school. And high school had been his peak. It was hard to talk to her when she made herself so damn unavailable. As for the rest of the girls, they were ridiculously available, so he took advantage. Char turned into an acquaintance after high school, and then a one-night stand, and now… now she was just… a complicated hot mess.

  A mess he wanted to jump into and fix.

  Only he was somehow the cause of it. The smart thing, the right thing, to do would be to ask what had happened. But the past was the past; he needed to move forward. When had his life turned into something he was no longer proud of? He’d been given everything and somehow he’d screwed it up. His own brother didn’t even want him as his best man! How had he not seen that?

  He hadn’t seen anything.

  Not the fact that his father looked twenty years older than last time he saw him, or that his mother was pretending everything was okay with Grandma, when he’d seen Grandma hacking up a lung in the bathroom before dinner.

  A sharp pang hit him square in the chest. What the hell was he doing with his life?

  Stomach in knots, he reached for his second beer in the last fifteen minutes. A seagull landed on the roof of the tree house and stared at him. He lifted his bottle in salute and winced.

  This was his future.

  Beer, seagulls, a tree house.

  The seagull made a noise that sounded a hell of a lot like heckling.

  Great, so he was losing his mind, too.

  A figure walked away from the house and made its way closer to him. Ignoring it, he finished his beer and popped open another one.

  The sound of someone climbing the ladder made his stomach clench even more. If it was Travis or Jace, he couldn’t be held responsible for his actions. Not at all.

  The hatch opened and Char popped through, beautiful black dress and all.

  “Jake!”

  He readied himself for the full force of what her beauty did to him, what that dress did to him, what those damn crystal eyes made him feel.

  “Yeah?” Wow, he needed to work on his acting skills. His voice sounded so strained it was ridiculous.

  “You doing okay?” Char lifted herself the rest of the way up and moved to take a seat beside him.

  “Of course.” He shrugged. “I just needed to get away.” Play it cool, keep it simple. He shrugged again. Maybe that was too much shrugging. His shoulder seriously lifted as if to do it one more time. Okay, forget acting lessons, just more alcohol. He took a long sip and looked away, like a pubescent kid in junior high.

  “You don’t look fine,” Char said softly.

  His eyes flickered back to hers before he licked his lips and pointed to the Columbia river. “Did you know that at its deepest, the river can be over twelve hundred feet?”

  “That’s um, inter—”

  “And.” Jake cleared his throat. “Native Americans believe that a fight between two brothers caused the eruption of Mount St. Helens. You see, they were both in love with the same girl, but when she couldn’t choose, they became angry. Fighting broke out, villages were destroyed, and the father, angry that his sons could not put family ahead of their love for the girl, turned them into mountains.”

  Char smiled and looked out at the river. “Which ones?”

  “The first son was turned into Mount Hood, with his head lifted in pride toward the sky.” Jake pointed toward Mount Hood. You could see it from here on a clear day, and lucky for them it wasn’t too dark yet. “The other brother was turned into Mount Adams, with his face down toward where his lover fell.”

  Char was silent while she looked toward Mount Adams. “What about the girl? What happened to her?”

  “She blew up.”

  At Char’s sharp intake of breath, Jake laughed, feeling better than he had all day. “No, seriously. Legend says she was turned into Mount St. Helens.”

  “So…” Char leaned back on her hands and tilted her head. “You’re telling me two brothers wanted her, she couldn’t chose, and in the end everyone suffered and then she died?”

  Yeah, probably not the best story to tell Char at the moment, but he was grasping at straws, trying to keep her from asking him the obvious: what was wrong, and have him blurt his feelings.

  “I think I know why you like the story,” she said.

  Surprised, Jake snorted. “What? It’s just a story.”

  “No.” Char pointed toward the river. “The whole ‘this is how deep the Columbia River is’ fact lesson was just you avoiding pouring out your feelings. The story, however, is your way of doing it.”

  “Excuse me?” Since when did she become a shrink?

  Char reached for a beer. “Would you have fought for the girl? For your lover, or would you have given up?”

  Jake was silent. His eyes flickered to the two mountains in the distance. “I would have done what was easy.”

  “And what’s that?”

  He shrugge
d, Good God, what was with his shrugging! “I would have walked away.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s what I do, Char. I walk away. I take the easy route. Is that what you want to hear? You want me to tell you that I’m different? That I’m the good guy? The guy that fights for what he wants? Well, I don’t fight for shit. I don’t have to, I’ve never had to.”

  Char silently drank her beer, but her hand was shaking as she lifted it to her lips. He sighed and looked away. “I’m not that guy.”

  “Says who?” her voice was pleading.

  Jake shook his head and looked back toward the house. Laughter floated out of the backyard. “Everybody.”

  “Even Grandma?”

  “Fine, I have one fan.” Jake cursed.

  “Two.” Suddenly Char’s beer was in front of him; she clinked her bottle against his and smiled. “You have two fans.”

  Jake laughed. “Says the girl who’s threatened my life how many times in the past week?”

  “Hey.” Char didn’t scoot away; instead, she leaned against him. “Fertility dance partners stick together.”

  “Right. Apparently I need all the help I can get, you know, since my self-esteem is so low from the extra small condoms.”

  “Who am I to judge?” Char winked. “I’m hitting the bottle and clearly I have a drinking problem.”

  They fell into easy laughter, until the wind changed and Jake was able to smell her flowery perfume. He tensed, as if she could sense it too, and she lifted her head and leaned in.

  “Char!” Jace called from the ground. “You up there? I can’t see you! It’s time for dessert!”

  “I know.” Her eyes never left Jake’s.

  “Pity,” Jake whispered, cupping her chin. “I was just getting ready to have my dessert early.”

  “Most people have to work harder for such a benefit.”

  He swallowed and looked down at her plump lips. “I promise I will.”

  “Don’t be a mountain.”

  “Huh?” He pulled back.

  Char rose to her feet. “Don’t give up; don’t be a mountain.”

  “So what am I supposed to be?”