Idiot. Goddamn sexy idiot. “When you came back in the brief moment before Ivy died, Ethan was happy. He was annoyed about Gabriel. But he was happy. All he has ever wanted was for the two of you to be working side by side. He’s always wanted to be the best older brother, so you could count on him. But the better he was, the more you resented him. And that pissed him off because he couldn’t fail for you—for the same reason you couldn’t let anyone see you’re hurt. Everyone is always watching this family, especially the Ceann Na Conairte. If he slipped up, people would think he is weak and they’d hurt you or the rest of the family. He had to be strong to protect everyone, and you hated him for being strong. He’s always been stuck in this no-win situation because of you. Add that, on top of the fact that you two have vastly different personalities, he can’t speak to you without you misunderstanding his words or thoughts. He honestly just wants your attention and company, because he’s lonely.”
“Woah! Whose side are you on? You’re my best friend, not his.” He stared at me wide-eyed. “When did you become the Ethan-whisperer?”
“You’re so childish.” I shook my head, standing up. “I know Ethan because I speak to Ethan. He even comes to hear me lecture sometimes.”
“He does what now? And why haven’t I gotten any invitations to these lectures?” He questioned as he started to stitch his own damn shoulder. The man was made out of something outside this world.
“You weren’t invited because you were in Boston,” I said, heading to the kitchen to wash my hands and get a clean towel, along with a bowl of warm water.
“Yeah, sure you would have. Then you would have made jokes about it for the rest of day and left before you had to meet family.” When I didn’t hear his reply, I turned back around worried maybe he’d passed out from blood loss or something. But instead, he was just staring at me. “What?”
“Have I always been such a shitty person to you?”
There were a great many things to hate about Wyatt Callahan, but what really irritated me was his ability to look so innocent and sincere even with blood all over his shoulder, and confessing to murder. It was sick how he’d mastered that look.
“Wyatt, you killed my father,” I reminded him. I moved to sit next to him, taking the clean towel out of the bowl of warm water.
“Your father
is Declan Callahan, and he’s alive and well,” he muttered and looked away from me, cleaning his hands in the bowl between us.
“Do you have any shame?”
“I haven’t checked recently, but I do have spicy mayo.” He lifted the burger bag for me. Because I was closer now I could smell it and... “Mr. Chi opened up just to make this for us. You shouldn’t let it go to waste. It would be rude.”
“Said the motherfucking king of rudeness,” I snapped at him, taking the damn bag away from him and throwing it back on to the table.
“King of rudeness, king of selfishness, temporary king of Chicago, I’m one hell of a guy, aren’t I?”
“At least you know who you are.” I muttered, cleaning his shoulder. I was also pretty insane, too. “If I was like everyone else in this family, I should be plotting revenge on you for what you did.”
“Do you hate me that much?” he asked, his brown-green eyes staring directly in mine. “What I did to you was wrong on its face, yes. Did I cheat you out of a choice? Yes. But if you could so easily think to kill me because I killed your biological father, shouldn’t you be able to understand me? If you can understand the need to get revenge for the people you love. If you could understand Ethan. Why can’t you understand me? Back then I remembered seeing you cry until you were red in the face about how you didn’t want to leave. I remember talking to you on the phone and listening to you pretend you were doing fine, when you weren’t. I didn’t do it because I wanted to. I didn’t do it just because I missed you, though I did very much. I did it because you weren’t happy. If you had been happy to leave, if you hadn’t sounded so sad, if you hadn’t cried as hard, maybe I would have accepted it and simply been happy my best friend was so happy. He tried to take you away from me, Helen. From all of us. In my mind, he was kidnapping you! So, I can’t apologize. I’d do it again! Sorry if that makes me a selfish bastard!”
I want to kiss him. He was so close. So, damn close, and he was saying this as if it was what I’d always wanted to hear from him.
And just like that, he got up and moved to my wine cooler. Taking a quick deep breath and saying a silent prayer that he didn’t notice my love-sick puppy dog eyes, I tried to keep my focus. “You really shouldn’t be drinking.”
“Which one of us has the medical degree? That’s right, me. And this doctor prescribes drinking with burgers!” Taking out two bottles, he glanced over my kitchen and then to me, grinning. “So who died here?”
“Shut up. You can barely cook yourself!”
He just laughed as he came back over. “Let’s eat, and you can save your anger for tomorrow.”
“It’s 11:49 pm.”
“Eleven minutes should be enough, don’t you think. Anger isn’t good for the heart, Helen.”
No, you aren’t good for the heart, Wyatt! I ignored him as I walked back to the kitchen, dumping the cleaning water and washing my hands again before grabbing wine and drinking straight from the bottle.
Damn him.
WYATT
She sat back across from me, quietly eating her fries. The silence between us bothered me. I’d hope the wine would help both of us speak honestly and get past this rough patch, but she seemed dead set on not speaking to me.
“I still can’t believe I got shot by the Governor,” I said softly, trying to fill the silence. “With the way the man was acting, you’d think he really loved his wife. He’s cheated on her so many times, I’ve lost track.”
“They were in an open relationship. It wasn’t public knowledge, but a lot of people knew.” She stuffed a few fries in her mouth.