Page 24 of Break

I shake my head and look over to Alex instead of answering him. “Thanks for having us over… Interesting décor you’ve set up.”

She giggles and wraps herself around James, basically crawling into his lap. “I just can’t wait for us to move into something… bigger. I’ve been house shopping. I’m looking for something more modern. Open, brighter… you know? Thishouse is so dark and dreary, old fashioned. Maybe a large pool with a guest house for when the… twins stay over or whatever.”

I blink over at James with a frown and tilt my head. “You’re not going to have rooms in the house for them?”

He clears his throat and tosses the whiskey from his glass into his mouth in one go. “We’re still debating over the living situation. I’m not planning on moving any time soon, definitely not before the girls are out of high school… I want to downsize.”He sends a sharp look to his girlfriend and she just bats her eyelashes at him.

Caroline and Alyssa are silent as they plate up with some pasta and the cheesy vegetables and don’t say a word as they start to eat. I don’t blame them.

I hum and start on my own meal. “Well, probably something you want to iron out before some ten-carat monstrosity is on her finger, hey?” Caroline snorts into her glass of juice and Alyssa’s shoulders are shaking. “Well, as soon as we’re done eating we’ll go start to pack up the rest of the girls’ rooms. No reason for having anything here if they’re obviously not welcome. What a great woman you have there.” I wink at my best friend, who is now feeling more like my damn enemy.

Who the fuck does he think he is?

Sure, Alex is gorgeous. I don’t know jack shit about her, and neither do the girls, but she looks like she comes from money. Everything about her, from her hair, to her makeup, to her clothes and heels, scream ‘money’. But even I can feel from the vibes she’s throwing out that she wants James all to herself, even the girls, his fucking little twin sisters are being pushed away. What a stand-up woman. Definitely wife material.

James stands up, the sound of the chair scraping on the hardwood floors is grating on my ears. He slams his hands down on the table, leaning forward and glaring at me. His sky-blue eyes are darkened with anger. “They will move out when they make the decision to, I don’t need you forcing them to take your side. What the fuck are you doing, Marie? You’ve lived with me since we were barely eighteen, parenting the girls right beside me for years before that, and now, what? You’re threatened by another woman coming into my life? I never even asked you to move out.”

I nod and glance over to Alex. “Did you know I lived here with the girls? Would you have moved in if I continued to live here?”

She glares at me and clears her throat. “No.”

I smile at her and blink over to James who is turning a nasty shade of red. “Exactly. I have some personal shit going on and the girls don’t deserve this. They don’t remember how our lives were, James, and they sure as fuck don’t deserve any shit like this now. They have me, just like they always have, and they should have you, too. Go ahead and ask them how they’ve been feeling lately, right here, right now. Ask them where they want to live and why. I’m not forcing them into anything. They have said what they wanted directly to me. Never have I told them or demanded them, or tried to sway them to anything else.”

I sit back in my chair and cross my arms over my chest, waiting.

He glances at the twins with a frown on his face. “What is she saying, girls?”

Alyssa shoots her brother a nasty glare. “You should know that already, and Marie is right. She hasn’t once made anydecisions for us, only letting us know that her house is our house, too. Way better than we felt since you broughtherhere, moving her in without even talking to us about it. We don’t know her, and frankly, I don’t want to. She’s said plenty of times that she wants you and the house to herself in several different ways. You must be deaf. So yeah… I agree. I’m packing up the rest of my stuff and we’ll live with Marie. The one that actually cares about and loves us. She needs us, too, anyway.”

Caroline nods and shovels her pasta into her mouth. “Good talk, bro. I’m done here.” She waves and stomps down the hall to her room and I wait for Alyssa to join her before I say anything more.

“You’re the one fucking up, James. I moved out for several reasons and would have talked to you about it if you didn’t blindside all of us with her.” I nod over to the smug bitch across from me. She’s smiling as if the drama is feeding her inner demon. Hell, it probably is. “You’re throwing away your entire family, and you better pray that we will still be here when it crashes and burns.” I stand and pack up my uneaten food. “I’m going to go help the girls pack. I’ll call Nolan to come help us move everything to Caroline’s car since he’s the closest.”

James’s gaze darkens on me again and he shakes his head. “You still fucking him? Really? You’re hurting him, Marie. He really loves you and you know it.”

I shake my head. “I haven’t touched him in a year, but we still talk. I still talk to Landon and Logan, too. Sometimes Blake and Morgan. I’m Just not recently, but I don’t just abandon people out of my life or blindside them for no reason. Just because I want nothing to do with you doesn’t mean I don’t care aboutourfriends and the team. We still watch your games athome, but I’m sure as hell not going to sit in a box with your girlfriend.” I sigh and pull out my phone to call Nolan.

It barely rings before he picks up. “Marie! Finally!”

I chuckle and shut myself into my old room, right beside Caroline’s. “Hey, we’re over at James’s house. Can you come help us out and then come over to my house to help us unload? The girls are packing up the rest of their belongings and moving in with me. Some shit is going down and we need some backup anyway.”

He groans and I hear him grab his keys. “You’ve barely talked to me for weeks, so all I’m good for is my muscles?”

I laugh and grab the empty boxes and some tape from my closet that I left here from when I moved. “I’ll talk to you about everything when I’m ready. When you come to my new house, you have to promise to keep the address to yourself… please?”

He sighs deeply and I hear his truck start up. “Fine. Why me? Why not Logan or Landon?”

“Because they’re busy with their significant others, I assumed.”

He snorts. “Landon is single again, shocker I know. I’ll give him a call if there’s anything that doesn’t fit in our vehicles. See you in a few.” We hang up and I drag the boxes to the hall and knock on the girls’ doors.

“I have boxes!” I call out and lean against the door.

Caroline opens up and smiles at me. “I really don’t have much to take, we’re leaving our furniture here, right?”

I nod and hand over some boxes and tape. “Yep. Nolan’s on the way. Just pack up the rest of your clothes, toiletries, and books. Anything else you need we’ll shop for.”

I say the same to Alyssa and I slide down against the wall and hang out in the hall as they pack.

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