“I haven’t seen your dad yet,” Uncle Craig says, disengaging himself from Lara so he can step closer to me. “Is he all right?”
Unease washes over me, making me tilt my head. “Why wouldn’t he be all right?”
“I don’t know,” he says slowly. “Shit hasn’t been right between him and Diane for a while.”
“Why do you say that?” It hasn’t been any worse than normal.
“She calls me sometimes and complains.” Craig smiles. “I’m the little brother, always there for my sister-in-law. You’ll find out what that’s like someday, when you’ve got Park’s future wife whining at you about how awful her husband is.”
I say nothing. I hope to hell I never deal with something like that.
“You and me, we’re a lot alike, you know,” Craig continues. “We’re both the younger brothers in the family. The ones born with all the money but hardly any responsibility. We can do whatever the hell we want, and no one is trying to hold us down.”
“I’m not like that,” I immediately say, sounding like a bratty little kid.
“Really? Then tell me what you’re going to do once you graduate college.” When I don’t respond right away, he’s pointing both index fingers at me, laughing like he just told the best joke. “See, you don’t know. And what’s so great is that you don’t have to know. You can travel the world, you can fuck a thousand women, you can backpack through the woods in the middle of fucking nowhere and no one is going to give a shit. You can do whatever the hell you want, no questions asked.”
“You make me sound like an irresponsible fuck,” I mutter, annoyed with his assessment. Annoyed further by him saying we’re alike.
We’re not. We can’t be.
Craig raises his brows. “You said it, not me.”
My phone buzzes, and I check it to see a text from Jensen.
Are you okay?
“Already pussy-whipped by the girlfriend, I take it?” He laughs again, then takes a sip from his drink. “Don’t ever let them trap you, Rhett. No pussy is worth millions, I don’t care what they tell you.”
“Hey.” Lara slaps Craig’s arm with her sparkly little purse. “Don’t be rude.”
“Oh, you’re different, baby.” Craig grabs hold of
his date, his hands settling on her curvy ass and giving it a squeeze. “Your pussy rocks my world.”
“Don’t you ever forget it,” she says, tilting her head back in preparation for his kiss.
Craig leans down, his gaze meeting mine. He winks at me just before he devours his girlfriend right in the middle of this party.
He’s worse than the teenagers surrounding us.
Disgusted, I turn away, tapping out a quick response to Jensen before I start walking. I make my way through the yard on the side of the house, my mind full of conflicting thoughts, all of them about my uncle Craig.
He’s a jackass. There’s no other way around it. But is he an attempted rapist?
According to Jensen, that’s a yes.
But is she lying? She’s done it before.
And she might be doing it again.
Jensen
Relief floods me when I see Rhett striding toward the car, his expression determined, his mouth thin. I hit the button and unlock the car, dipping my head when he opens the door, fear making me shake. Why I’m scared, I don’t know. Is it because of Greg? Or is it Rhett that scares me?
I’m not sure.
The men in my life have never really cared. Oh, Daddy told me he loved him, and I know he did, in his way. But he didn’t show it very well. He was too selfish, too wrapped up in his pain over what my bitch of a mother did to him. She ruined him, and with that, she ruined me. I’m rotten. Like a bad piece of fruit. Still shiny on the outside but totally disgusting within.