Page 88 of Summer Affair
“I had a great teacher.”
He kissed her nose and she flung her arms around his neck, giving him the kind of hug that nearly brought him to his knees. After another kiss to her cheek, he set her on her feet.
“Hey, Tiny,” Gage said, “why don’t you go find Mommy.”
Every uncle pointed to their cheek and Kylie kissed each one, then twirled out of the room. He could hear Darcy in the distance, praising her little girl. Clay looked back at his brothers and not a one had a smile like a moment ago.
The air had changed; the energy of the room shifted. It was tenser, a charged silence. Then Josh patted the seat of the empty chair as if Clay didn’t know which was his.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“It’s called an intervention,” Owen said, folding his arms across his chest.
“While this Oprah moment sounds fun, I’ve got things under control,” he lied. He had jack-shit under control.
Owen snorted, but the other three brothers shook their heads in disappointment. As if Clay wasn’t already disappointed in himself. “Whatever you want to say I already know, and I don’t feel like having some kind of kumbaya moment.”
“If you already knew it, then you wouldn’t be living at a hotel instead of in the house I rented you,” Gage said. “Which, by the way, you still owe me for.”
“Take it out of my signing bonus,” Clay said.
Gage kicked out the chair. “Sit.”
And even though Clay had twenty pounds on all his brothers—except Owen—and knew he could still have pummeled any one of them, he sat. Because he didn’t know what else to do. Didn’t know how to undo the things he’d said or the things he’d done. He just didn’t know.
Rhett pulled a beer from the bar fridge and handed it to Clay, then held up his own bottle and the other brothers clinked tops. When Clay didn’t immediately put his up, Gage lifted a brow, letting him know that he had his back—idiot or not.
They all took a long pull.
“Now, you want to tell us what went down with Jillian?” Gage asked.
Clay shrugged and even that hurt. “Bottom line, I live in Seattle, she lives here. I overstepped, big time, and blew it. End of story.”
Josh studied him, seeing way too much. “I don’t think you want it to be the end. And from what she told my wife, neither does Jillian.”
“She talked to Piper?” He wasn’t surprised that Jillian had spoken to her friends. He was surprised that his brothers thought what she’d said was important enough to call this little intervention to order. Because if it was important to her, then maybe he had a chance after all.
“She showed up at my house in the middle of the night, drunk and crying like someone ripped her heart right out,” Gage said. “Know of anyone who might be responsible?”
Clay swallowed and pressed his palm to his forehead to stop any embarrassing emotions from filling his eyes. He’d made her cry. From morning until midnight, he’d made her cry.
“She told me upfront what she could and couldn’t give. What she needed from me. I didn’t listen.”
“Then go back and ask her to repeat, very slowly, exactly what she needs from you to feel safe,” Josh said.
“It isn’t that easy.” If it were, he’d have been on her front doorstep the second she’d left that kitchen. In fact, he did. He’d gone over and knocked on the door. Eddie had met him on the porch and told him to go home, that Jillian didn’t want to see him.
He asked Eddie if he thought she’d ever want to talk to him, and Eddie said he didn’t know.
“It’s never easy,” Josh said. “But you have to ask yourself is she worth it? And if the answer is yes—”
“Hell yes.” His brothers shared a look that Clay couldn’t quite read but clearly, everyone else in the room understood. “What?”
“If you’re asking what, then you need more help than you think,” Rhett said.
Clay looked at Rhett and blinked. It was the first time he realized that his brother wasn’t supposed to be in town. “I thought you were in Toronto this week.”
Rhett shrugged. “I was clearly needed here more.”
