Page 78 of Late to Love

I see red.

Immediately, I throw my own punch. It lands exactly where I want it, on his upper cheek and grazing his eye. Fucker still doesn’t know how to protect himself in a fight.

He lunges, and I let him tackle me, needing the physicality of it like I need to fucking breathe.

We’re tangled up, landing blow after blow on each other’s ribs and anywhere else we can, when Ox and Reid’s unmistakable voices yell at us to break it up.

Reid pulls me back and Ox takes Levi, both of them in full cop mode based on the brutal grip Reid has on me. My arms are pinned behind my back, and I legitimately have no idea how he’s incapacitated me.

“Let me go,” I growl.

“Not a fucking chance,” he grunts, clearly having to work to keep his grip on me.

“What the fuck, guys?” Ox demands, his own grip on Levi just as secure.

“Let me go,” Levi says, his voice low and deadly. “I’ll give him one more punch and we’ll be good.”

I jerk at Reid’s grip and snarl a laugh. “That’s the only way you’ll make it happen, asshole. You need me held back because you can’t fucking do it yourself. Likealways.”

The words hit home, and he leaps to get closer, Ox shouting and holding him tighter.

“You need to get out of here,” Reid says in my ear. “Go upstairs and stay there. Do not come back.”

Because he assumes it’s my fault. This is my fucking place, and yet I’m the one being told to leave. Which tracks. Of course it tracks. Reid doesn’t know shit about our family dynamics and evenhesides with the twins. Every. Fucking. Time.

I twist out of his grip and lift a hand to my swelling cheek, feeling the spot just above my beard where he broke the skin. Without a word to anyone, I walk away.

Chapter29

Darcy

ILOSE COUNT of the number of people who ask where Anthony’s gone. All I can do is shrug and make up a story about him not feeling well. Which I know is a lie, because I saw everything.

He didn’t see me as he strode past the bar and yanked open the door that leads upstairs to his loft. He didn’t seem to see much of anything. When I turned to follow him, Charlotte was there, putting her hand on my arm and shaking her head, telling me to give him some time to himself.

Now that the party is over and I’m helping clean up, and his parents keep shooting questioning glances over at me as though they’re trying to decide if I’m someone important to this situation or not, I deeply regret listening to her. But I don’t want Anthony to walk down tomorrow morning and have to clean up a party he clearly wasn’t in the mood to have, and I’m the only one who knows where anything is. Harrison dipped out hours ago, and I wasn’t about to try making the part-time kids from the high school stay for the clean-up.

Which means I’m desperately wishing I’d followed Anthony the way I wanted to. Every time I pass Levi, his face seems to get more mottled with a massive bruise, and the rueful smile he shoots me as we clear the tables in the party room doesn’t really communicate that he’s sorry. When the last balloon is popped and the trash is in the dumpster outside, I make myself scarce with a last nod at Ox, who offers his trademark broad smile in return.

Is Ox not worried about the situation? Or maybe he is, but he knows that both his brothers need a cooling-off period. It makes me realize just how little I know about their family. I’d always figured the brothers were all close, but after seeing the rage and hurt on Anthony’s face as he walked away, I know I was very, very wrong.

“Anthony?” I sweep my gaze around the loft, expecting to find him shooting pool or even lifting weights in the tiny area against a far wall. I double-check my phone but no missed calls or texts from him, either. “Anthony? You here?”

Silence.

Then it hits me. I know exactly where he is.

I see him the second I reach the apex of the dunes, sitting on the sand and angled to watch the sun dip into the horizon. I watch him for a good five minutes, but he stays in position, his knees drawn up and his arms wrapped around them, brooding like the top-tier grump he likes everyone to think he is.

I know better these days. I know the shield he puts up is for everyone else. All the same, he’s got some explaining to do, because the asshole made a deliberate choice when he introduced me to his parents. He’s not hesitated to let the world know about our relationship, but the second his parents areright there, he goes mute. Then he gets in a fight with his brother?

He turns his head as I approach, then returns his gaze to the ocean.

And that’s it. I may love him, but I amdonewith being the quiet, understanding girlfriend. I gave it a solid three hours, and I’ve gotta say, it sucks. Not my vibe in the least.

So. We’re done with that approach.

Instead, I stomp forward, unscrewing the top of my very full, extra giant ice water, and pull the lid into my left hand. He doesn’t pay me any mind as I near, which is good, because it allows me to get right up on him before dumping the ice water all over his head.

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