Page 24

CHAPTER 24

JENNER

T here was nothing I hated more than fucking waiting. At least not when something was happening that I felt I should be a part of, as was the case with Camden telling her brothers about us.

First, I took care of some shit around my house, though I had a cleaning lady who came in a couple of times a week because that was one thing that I’d rather spend money than time on. I did some laundry, though she normally did that for me too.

But fuck. I was restless.

Until my phone rang and Camden’s face showed up on the screen. She laying in my bed with a satisfied glow about her. I wasn’t even sure she knew I’d taken that picture of her, but she was so damn beautiful that I had to have it come up when she called.

“Hey,” I answered.

“It’s done,” she told me, sounding cheerful enough.

“Done?”

“Yeah. I told them. They’re fine with it.”

I sighed and waited her out. There was no fucking way that she’d told her brothers we were together and their response had been, “Yeah. Cool.” Not a chance. When she didn’t say anything, I prodded. “Camden.”

She sighed. “All right. Fine. They had issues with it at first. They yelled.”

“At you ?” My anger started to grow .

“More like to me, but it’s fine. Really. The women talked them down. Silas was a bit of an asshole—”

I cut her off. “What did he say?”

It wasn’t that I hadn’t expected it from him, but fuck, I hated the idea of him being a dick to her when I hadn’t been there to set him right.

“I don’t think—”

“Camden,” I snapped, then I took a deep breath. Being an asshole to her the same way her brother had been wasn’t a good idea. “Please just tell me.”

“Fine,” she said, but something shut behind her. It sounded like a door, which meant she was moving away from the others, most likely.

“Wait. Are they all still there?”

“No,” she told me. “I’m still at Brooks’s house. Haven’t left yet. Silas left, but the rest of them are still here, as far as I know. He’ll be back to get Amity. She didn’t want to leave. I think she’s irritated with him, but he couldn’t stay here right now.”

“You should come here when you’re done there.”

“All right, but listen. Silas was just being a protective big brother. He was angry. Amity reminded him that she’s his best friend’s sister too. The women really came through for me when Silas told me I was being naive. It’s all good. I swear.”

That anger that had started burst into a flame in my chest. “‘Naive’?”

She groaned. “He said that you don’t do relationships and if I thought that had changed, I was naive. It’s fine, Jenner. It’s done. ”

There was a knock on my door that I could’ve predicted when she’d said that Silas had left. “Camden, let me call you back.”

“Why?”

“Pretty sure your brother is here.”

“Jenner—”

“I’ll call you right back.”

After ending the call, I tossed my phone onto the coffee table then went to the door. Without bothering to see who was there because I already knew, I opened it.

“What the fuck are you thinking?” His outrage was apparent as he stormed into my house.

“Do you want to be more specific as to what the fuck you’re talking about?” The door shut with a muted slam as I turned to him and folded my arms over my chest.

“You know very well what I’m talking about, Jenner.” He stepped closer. “My fucking sister? Do you not know what ‘off-limits’ means?”

I shrugged, as if I couldn’t care less what it meant. “Technically, you never told me she was off-limits.”

He threw his hands out and yelled, “I didn’t think I had to!” Those hands slapped back against his legs. “What are you playing at? Huh? Just tell me because I swear to god, if you’re using her…” Yeah, I didn’t need to hear the end of that threat.

“I’m not playing at shit, Silas.”

He rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe this.”

Cocking my head, I asked, “How do you think Jayce would react to you being with Amity ?

“Don’t even go there.”

“Why not? Jayce knew you then as well as you know me now. It’s just more years. What do you think he’d say about you fucking his sister?”

Silas started to lunge for me but caught himself and pulled back. If this got physical—which I absolutely didn’t want to happen—we’d be evenly matched. But that would fracture our friendship. Our brotherhood. Which I’d sacrifice for Camden if I had to. That didn’t mean I wanted to.

“Don’t talk about Amity like that,” he said seriously, but at least he’d brought his volume down.

“Won’t do it again. But the question still stands.”

Silas bit his bottom lip between his teeth then nodded. “Yeah. I don’t think he’d be too happy.”

“Right. But you love her. Do you think he’d see that?”

“Maybe.” Jayce had at least been rational. More than either of us, so my guess was he’d have been angry at first just like Silas had been, but he would’ve seen that his sister was happy. Then he’d have threatened to beat the shit out of Silas if he hurt Amity.

It was all par for the course.

Now Silas folded his arms over his chest, but I relaxed mine. “You’ve been drowning yourself in women since high school.” He carefully didn’t say her name, though at this point, I wouldn’t give a fuck, but it had been a rule for so long that we were both used to it.

“Not since then.” A few memories flashed through my head. “OK. Maybe a little since she cheated on me, but more so once Camden told me she was in love with me when she was seventeen.” I didn’t see a reason not to be truthful with him. “I knew there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it, even though I felt the same way.”

“Fuck that.” He scoffed. “You did not love my sister five years ago.”

“I did. She was just too damn young to do anything about it then. Though I didn’t realize I did until she’d told me how she felt.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’d known I’d had some kind of feelings for her for a few months when she told me. It wasn’t until then that I could put a word to it, though. I thought loving someone was the back-and-forth shit from high school and that wasn’t how it was with Camden, so… I just didn’t realize.” Now I stepped closer to him. “But I love her, Silas, and you can hate that all you want, but I’m fucking serious about her.”

“Why were you in the woods the night she got hurt?” he asked, which I hadn’t expected.

“Come on.” I waved my fingers for him to follow me to sit in the living room. He dropped onto my couch while I sat on the chair on that end. “If we’re having this conversation, we might as well be comfortable.”

“Easier to beat your ass if we’re standing.”

I let out a loud laugh. “We know neither of us is fighting each other.”

“So answer.”

“I was there because Camden was at the party and told me how she felt. Me being a good friend and knowing she was too young, I did what I could to crush any idea of us together. I hurt her feelings. I hate that I did, but I had to. She took off. I saw her go in the woods, so I followed.”

“Why?”

“Because it was night and it’s the woods and she hates the woods at night. Then I heard her scream and I went running. You know the rest.”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Look.” I scooted to the edge of the chair and rested my elbows on my knees. “I made mistakes then. I should’ve handled it differently, but if Camden can forgive me, then you should be able to as well. I didn’t hurt her on purpose. Her feelings—yes. It was the only thing I knew to do then. But in the woods… I’ve felt guilty about that ever since. She wouldn’t have been running off if I hadn’t hurt her feelings.”

Silas ran his hand over his forehead. “I guess we have that in common too. Guilt.”

Right. Because he’d had a whole bucket of it after Jayce’s death and I’d been the one trying to convince him it hadn’t been his fault.

“All right,” he said with a sigh. “We’ll leave it here, but I’m serious, Jenner. Don’t make me hurt you—because I will. Camden is the best of all of us. These women… I don’t even know why they’d put up with us—”

“Orgasms?” I joked, but he gave me a scowl.

“Too fucking soon. ”

I snickered, but at least he didn’t try to rip my head off. “I have three brothers. Between the four of us, we’ll figure out how to dispose of your body if you hurt her.”

“I’d expect that. Fuck, I’ll help you come up with the plan before you kill me because Silas, I’m not going to hurt her. Not now that I have her.”

Silas pushed to his feet, the signal that our conversation was about to end. “I know my sister,” he said. “She’s strong, but she doesn’t handle betrayal well. She almost lost her friendship with Harlowe when she found out Harlowe was pregnant with Brooks’s baby.” He put his hand on my shoulder and looked at me with a serious gaze. “Don’t fuck this up. She’s going out on a limb for you.”

“I’m not going to.”

But there was a tiny bit of doubt in the back of my mind, too. I knew where Silas was coming from because he knew everything about me. Literally.

If Silas was saying all this, could it mean that Camden knowing how I was before—not doing relationships and seeing me with other women—would affect her more now than I realized?

I sure as fuck hoped not.