Luke (A Redemption Romance #1) (15 page)

“Luke! Are you guys done with the chairs? I need your help with the steaks.” Aurora’s voice came from the back door, her beautiful face was looking out at me, smiling. I’d do just about anything for that smile.

Reed clapped me on the back and said: “Go on man, just wanted to mention about Jake before tonight. I’ve got shit to do.” I nodded and followed him into the house.

Aurora

The barbecue was in full swing. Most everyone was here, the guys were all gathered in the back, except Jake who hadn’t shown up yet, they were all trying to give Luke advice on how to grill. They seemed to be having a good time.

Hope and Amber were inside the kitchen with me, I was putting the finishing touches on the salads and sides and the girls were taking snacks out to the guys. The dogs were outside with the men, running around and playing. Luke had bought some new tennis balls and Rusty was going crazy for them, Sadie wasn’t quite as impressed, but felt it her duty to herd Rusty as much as possible.

The doorbell chimed; I moved into the living room to answer it and found Jake on the front stoop. He was very handsome, but right now, he looked terrible. His light blonde hair was over long and a disheveled mess. His normally amazing blue eyes were blood shot and his jaw was scruffy. His pallor even seemed off, though I couldn’t put my finger it.

“Hey Jake!” I greeted, trying not to show my concern.

“Aurora,” Jake’s greeting was neither warm, nor his usual friendly.

“Come on in, the guys are in the back arguing over grilling techniques.” I held the door wide to beckon him inside. Jake entered the house and looked around as if he’d never been there before.

“Doesn’t seem right.” Jake’s strange statement had me halting in my tracks.

“What doesn’t seem right?” I asked back.

“We’re all moving on, living some happy fucking life as if everything is okay. Like they were never here.” I didn’t know how to respond to that, didn’t know what to say, but I had to try to reach out to him.

“That’s what Dylan and Nolan would want for us, don’t you think?”

“Don’t know, maybe. I have no idea how to do that. Maybe if I had some hot piece in
my
bed every night…”

“What the fuck are you saying to my woman?” Jake’s harsh words were cut off by Luke’ angry yell. “She is not some hot piece you asshole!” Luke was in Jake’s face, both men looked furious. I’d never seen Luke’s rage, not like this. Sure he’d been mad at me before but he never looked like that.

“Oh yeah? It’s funny, as soon as Nolan died, you moved right in. Did you even notice that he’s fucking dead?” Jake was shouting now, Luke grabbed the front of Jake’s shirt and I could see this escalating quickly.

“Really? You think I didn’t fucking notice? I was the one who went to his house, I fucking saw him. Where were you?” Luke’s chest was heaving, eyes hard with fury.

“I was there, he called me, I’m the one who was too late to stop him. I’m the one who saw his head splattered all over the living room wall! I’m the one who had to tell his sister! I’m the
fucking one
who’s dealt with all of that shit and you think I didn’t
fucking notice
?” He continued, spitting mad, yelling in Jake’s face.

Tears were rolling down my face, I knew what Luke had done, knew what he’d had to deal with, but hearing it like this, I knew it had affected him a lot more than he’d let on. I ran to the back door, flung it open and yelled “Reed! Jake’s here, he and Luke are fighting!”

Within seconds, the grill was turned down and Reed, Gavin and Trent ran into the living room. By the time I made it back in there, flanked by Hope and Amber, the three men were there taking care of the situation. Trent held Jake, both arms bent behind his back, Gavin had a hand in Luke’s chest and Reed stood between them all, glaring back and forth at the two of them.

Jake was spitting mad, and it seemed that no matter what Luke had said, no matter how much the guys tried to settle him down, he was itching for a fight. Reed had obviously had enough. He was the largest in the group of men, which was saying something, they were all well over six feet tall, strong and muscled, but Reed was enormous. His booming voice cut through the chaos in the room and everyone stopped to stare. Reed was usually easy going, kind and sometimes even sweet, but now, he was a formidable force of frustration.

“Enough!” He yelled. “We can’t fight with each other. We need to hold on, to cling to each other. Look around Jake! All these people give a shit about you, we all care about you. You look like hell, you’re acting like an asshole but we’re all still here.”

“You’re all acting like nothing is fucking wrong. Dylan should be here, Nolan should fucking be here!” A gasp of shock seemed to come from every mouth. I felt Hope stiffen next to me, I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her into my side. Amber was on my other side and grabbed my hand. The three of us held each other in comfort and support. Hope was sobbing next to me and tears were streaming down my face.

“Jake!” Reed yelled, looking at me. I could see that Luke was bristling with anger and wondered how long the guys would be able to hold the two men back.

Jake’s head snapped to look at Reed, he’d been glaring daggers at Luke, but now his venom was focused on Reed again.

“What? Am I wrong? None of you, fucking none of you act like you give one shit that either of them are gone!” Everyone stared at Jake, but I was coming to the end. I couldn’t stand here and have someone tell me that I didn’t care that my brother was gone, that he killed himself. I didn’t think this was good for Hope either. She already carried enough guilt that she hadn’t been able to help Nolan.

“Shut the hell up,” I yelled, breaking through to the idiot still spouting nonsense in my living room.

“Nolan was my brother, and I shouldn’t have to answer to you about how I get on with my life. I miss him every day, but I’m not going to lay down and die next to him like you are.” Shocked and somber faces looked at me, then focused back on Jake.

Once their attention was trained on him again, I squeezed Amber’s hand, when she looked at me, I nodded my head toward my car keys sitting on the hook next to her. She squeezed my hand back in understanding, then quietly picked the keys up from the hook. I leaned over and whispered in Hope’s ear. “Let’s go” and nodded down the hall toward the garage door. None of the men were looking at us, they were so focused on their stupid fight. We were able to get down the hall without being noticed.

From what I’d heard earlier from Luke, how he yelled back at Jake about seeing Nolan and everything, I had to wonder if it was too hard for him to be with me. Obviously, he was struggling more than he’d let on. I knew I was being irrational, but I couldn’t take anymore right now, so in my standard fashion, I walled it all off and escaped.

The girls and I were in my car and driving to Hope’s house before any of us spoke.

“I can’t believe that! I thought they were friends.” Hope’s voice was soft but obviously confused and concerned.

My hands were trembling on the steering wheel but I heard Amber when she said “Aurora? Honey? Are you okay?” Hope’s head whipped around to look at me more closely.

“Shit! Aurora! Damn it! I’m so sorry, I, I shouldn’t have said that. Do you want me to drive?”

I just shook my head and pressed harder on the gas pedal.

Luke

The minute I’d heard Jake saying that shit to Rory, I almost lost my mind. I couldn’t believe that one of my friends would talk to her like that. I wanted to beat the shit out of him. He just kept spewing that bullshit too, no matter what I said, no matter what Reed said, he wouldn’t settle. I relaxed my stance and moved back a couple of feet. I pulled myself together enough. I was pretty sure I could hold back my anger. I didn’t understand though, how Jake could think of us like that, like we didn’t give a shit! He was obviously more fucked up than I’d realized. For him to be this off, there was more going on than we could see.

“Jake!” Reed yelled, after Jake had yelled some nonsense about us not caring about Dylan and Nolan. What a fucking crock! I was so focused on Jake, glaring at him, worried about his shit that I didn’t notice anything else.

After Rory’s outburst, I stared at her, then looked at Jake and saw his pace face. Was he starting to see the truth?

The room was mostly quiet for a few minutes, I heard the girls leave the room, which I thought was a good thing, Rory didn’t need to hear this shit! After a few minutes, I spoke.

“Jake, I don’t know what you think is going on around here. But you spewing that bullshit in front of Aurora is messed up. She doesn’t need to hear it. Nolan was her brother, her last family member. In the past couple of years she’s lost her mother and now her brother. Could you possibly be any more selfish right now? All of us are hurting, all of us are dealing with this in our own ways and you have no fucking clue what we’re feeling, especially since you haven’t asked.”

“I’m not fucking blind.” Jake roared. The anger was plain to see, but under the surface, he was really hurting. He was torn, I knew him well enough to know that he’d painted himself into this corner and didn’t really know how to get out of it.

“I can see how you’re all just living, happy and free. You’re all pissing rainbows around here.” He was really pushing it now.

“Did you hear her? You are hurting her now, she’s had enough. You don’t have any idea what any of us is going through. You’re too busy being a drunk.”

“No, it’s just, I didn’t mean to make it worse. I don’t understand how you can all just move on so easily.” Jake looked down, finally he seemed to realize what he’d done, how he’d hurt everyone around him.

I didn’t have any sympathy for him though; he’d acted like a dick, in front of Rory, had probably hurt her a lot more than he’d ever understand. If her damn walls went back up, it was me who was going to have to fight with everything I had to break through again.

“Can we all just relax and act like the friends that we’re supposed to be?” Reed’s voice was still frustrated, but he’d relaxed some. I could see Griffin and Trent had stepped back and weren’t as tense now either.

“Look, Jake, we’ve been friends for a long time, but if you think you can walk into Aurora’s house, throw a fit in front of everyone and hurt her like you just did, ever again, that friendship will end. We’re all going through a lot, so you’ve got this one pass, but I swear to god, if she says you’re not welcome here again, then you’re fucking not.”

Jake nodded and muttered “Yeah, I – uh - shit. I’m sorry, I’m fucked up. I shouldn’t have said that shit to her.”

“No! You fucking shouldn’t have; and if you ever call my woman a hot piece of ass again, you and I will have serious problems.” I was still angry and the tone of my voice showed it. Reed looked toward me and raised his eye brows as if in question, probably wondering if I could let it go.

“Got it. Look, I am sorry, I need to pull my head out of my ass. I’ll go find Aurora and apologize. I shouldn’t have said that to her.” Jake looked suitably apologetic, so I let it go.

I just nodded and watched as he walked to the back yard. I heard the door open then he called back “Where did the girls go? I thought they came out here.”

My head snapped up and walked toward him. The back yard was empty. Had the girls gone into another room? I’d heard the door close, had thought it was the back door, but hadn’t paid any attention to it. I walked through the house, Reed on my tail and checked each room. The girls weren’t here; looking into the garage I saw that Rory’s car was gone.

“Shit! They left.” I pulled my cell from my pocket and called her, but heard her phone ringing from the kitchen. “God Damn it! She left her phone.” I was seriously pissed again, I didn’t know where she was and she didn’t have her phone. She must have been even more upset than I’d realized.

“Where do you think they went?” Reed asked from the kitchen. He was holding her phone in his hand, looking at the screen like it would give him some answer.

“No fucking clue.” I replied tersely. Gavin had walked out back and took the steaks off the grill. I hoped they weren’t totally fucked up, I was hungry, but more than that, I was worried about Rory.

Using Aurora’s phone, I called Hope’s number and then Amber’s, both went immediately to voicemail. I knew that Hope carried a pager for emergencies for her patients but didn’t have the number and had no way to find it.

“What do you want to do? Do you want to try and find them?” Jake’s voice from behind me had me stiffening my spine. I was getting more irritated with him by the minute.

“No, they’re together, I’m sure they just went to one of the other girl’s houses. If she wanted to talk to me, she’d call. She probably just wanted to get out of here with all the shit going on.”

Jake nodded his agreement and we moved into the kitchen. All the guys ate, and then everyone pitched in to clean up. Jake did the most, probably thinking that he had the most to make up for, which was true. I knew that both Hope’s and Amber’s cars were still here, so they’d all have to come back sooner or later. Once clean-up was done, we moved into the family room to watch a game. I didn’t even see the TV, just watched out the front windows for Rory’s headlights. It was hours later when I saw them turn into the driveway. None of the guys had left, there was a lot of tension in the air, but they’d all stayed, presumably to make sure the girls were all right.

I gave Jake a pointed look, a wordless threat; he’d better not fuck up again. The girls were quiet when they filed into the house, instead of joining us, they walked into the kitchen. I heard them moving around, getting food from the fridge and heating stuff up in the microwave. I walked in, I had to see Rory. Walking up behind her, I turned her around and saw the haunted look on her face and the redness around her eyes. If I had to guess, I’d say she’d been crying and for a good long time. I pulled her into my arms, wanting to comfort her, needing to feel her, to give comfort to myself as well. I was so afraid that she’d pull away from me.