“You’re really leaving tonight then?” I sunk into a seat on the couch.
He nodded. “But I don’t exactly like the idea of you staying here by yourself either.” He perked up. “I can just have Marshall stay over.”
I furrowed my brows at him, my heart automatically going into overdrive. “What? No.”
“Why not? He’d be perfect for keeping an eye on you. And you won’t bother each other too much, right? It’ll be fun.”
I crossed my arms. “How are you so sure that Marshall will even be okay with that?”
He waved me off and got to his feet. “He stays over here all the time when I’m too drunk to remember my name. I’m sure he won’t mind staying over for one week.” Before I could protest, he was already moving toward the door. “C’mon, we’re gonna have to wake him up.”
It was only then that I realized how late it truly was. I knew the flight would be landing after ten, but I’d completely underestimated how long the drive to Zane’s house would have been.
It wasn’t a surprise that Zane was still up though. Because of the difference in time zones between him and Amelia, I knew that he went to sleep at some pretty early hours.
I wanted to get off the couch and go over to Marshall’s with Zane, but I couldn’t bring my feet to move, so I sunk further in.
An entire week of sharing a house with Marshall and not betraying what I felt for him? It seemed almost impossible. But the thought of booking another flight at this late hour to get back to my apartment was already exhausting. And I couldn’t go to stay with my parents, so I would have to stay here for the time being.
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew that my medical residency was the only reason that I hadn’t touched a bottle while I was in Connecticut. If I was here, in the open, with no one to hold me accountable, I didn’t know how I would resist. It was one of the reasons why I’d decided to leave my apartment and come see Zane in the first place. I needed someone to hold me accountable, or at least someone to make sure that I didn’t slip into old habits yet again. If I hadn’t come here, then I wasn’t sure that my self-restraint was enough to hold me back.
I heard two male voices bounding up the walkway and prepared myself for the onslaught of emotions that I knew would flood me the moment that Marshall Kendrick walked through those doors.
I stood and turned in time to meet them.
No amount of time could’ve prepared me for what I saw.
My eyes locked with Marshall’s as he entered through the doors first. And he was angry.
Chapter Two
Marshall
Trisha was as beautiful as the day that she left this town with my heart in her hands. I wanted to say that she’d changed. A part of me wanted her residency to weigh on her so much that she started looking terrible. I selfishly didn’t want her to be looking anything close to beautiful the next time that I saw her. But the world didn’t work like that, and it was really unfair.
Her dirty-blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail that told me of the long flight and ride she’d had to get back to this small town. Her small, chubby body was still tight in all the right places and soft in others. And those eyes—Christ, the eyes that would kill me if I let them. Gunmetal blue and shaped just like her brother’s. She was a dream come true.
But if I let her see that, then I made myself vulnerable to the same pain that she inflicted once before.
I crossed my arms over my bare chest. I’d been in the middle of giving some random girl that I’d met at the bar down the road the most intense orgasm of her life when Zane had interrupted. I didn’t want to send the girl home, especially given what we’d been doing, but the moment that I heard that Trisha was back in town, nothing else mattered but the revenge that I knew I had to get.
“Once again,” I said, “I’m left to babysit.” I spoke to Zane but kept my eyes on Trisha. We were only two years apart, but when she was younger and their parents still lived in Cedar Cove, I’d been the one that would babysit her while they were at work.
We’d been friends back then. We weren’t anymore. Well, not to her knowledge, at least.
Her brows furrowed. “Um, hi, Marshall. It’s great to see you again too, what’s with the attitude?”
I tossed my gaze to Zane who was checking the time on his phone. “Just a week, Beckett. Nothing more.”
Zane rolled his eyes and pushed his phone into his back pocket. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I owe you one.”
“You owe me several,” I replied.
He went over to his sister and gave his goodbyes. I turned my attention out the open door at the silent road behind it.
A week in the same house as Trisha Beckett would kill me. I just knew it. But I had to get back at her for what she did before she left. I promised myself that I wouldn’t rest until I did.
Zane’s large hand came down on my shoulder as he went to move past me at the door. I slid back to make his trek easier and bumped into Trisha. The familiar electricity that slid up my veins at the small contact alone was enough to make me question my motives.