Matt & Brooklyn: A Standalone in the "Again for the First Time" Family Saga (AFTFT Book 2) (19 page)

“Find it yet?” he asked.

Unzipping the first pocket, I stuck my hand inside. “Nope. Nothing yet.”

“Keep looking.”

I dug inside another and felt a small velvet box, knowing already what it was—
the ring
.

“Matt—”

“Don’t freak out,” he interjected, laughing to himself because he was probably ready for me to protest. “I just figured you may as well have it. It’s not like
I
can do anything with it. Plus… whether you like it or not, it’s yours.”

I felt uncomfortable, but listened when he went on.

“Look… I know neither of us planned what happened, but I think we’ll look back on it years from now and laugh. In the meantime, the ring is yours, Mrs. Valente.”

I burst out laughing. “Quit playing.”

He laughed, too. “On a serious note, I’m gonna get the paperwork started for the annulment once I get back. That way we’ll be all set whenever you make into town again.”

I appreciated that he was on top of this even though I wasn’t there. “Cool. Thank you.”

There were a few seconds that passed and neither of us spoke. It came back to me that I’d run into Mel, so I told him about it.

“How was she?” he asked. It shouldn’t have surprised me that he cared, but it did.

“She seemed fine,” I said, hoisting myself up from the floor before putting the suitcase back where it belonged. “She was just kind of… mmm… lost seems like the wrong word, maybe disconnected is better. Like she had a lot on her mind and wasn’t really present.”

Matt fell silent for a moment and I made my way back downstairs with the ring still in hand.

“She asked about you and the rest of the family,” I added. “Asked if you all were angry with her for leaving him.”

A cynical laugh on the other end of the phone took me by surprise. “It’s a miracle she stayed as long as she did. I mean, I want my brother to be happy and all, but not at the expense of running Mel down into the ground. None of us thought that was right.”

I agreed wholeheartedly.

There was more to the conversation, but I didn’t want Matt to worry too much about Nick. The thought crossed my mind that I should just call and let Luke know instead, since he was nearby and it wouldn’t be a big deal for him to check in on Nick himself, but Matt deserved to know, too. Besides, I was sure the first person he’d call, if not Nick to investigate, would be Luke.

“She said some things that I think you need to know,” I finally added.

Concern hung heavy in Matt’s voice when he asked what I meant.

“Well, while she and I were talking, his sleeping around came up, and it turns out that wasn’t even the last straw. There’s something else going on with him, but she didn’t go into detail about it.”

In my mind, I pictured that brokenness I’d seen behind her eyes while hating herself for still having feelings for Nick.

“She didn’t say anything else?”

I shook my head although he couldn’t see me. “No. In fact, after that, she got upset and walked away. She just asked me to have you and Luke check up on him.”

Matt sighed heavily on the other end and I knew he felt helpless being so far away. If I didn’t think he would’ve been upset about me keeping this from him, I would have. However, I knew he was just as on guard with his family as I was about mine. And if I was him, I’d want to know what was going on, too.

“Thanks for telling me,” he said distractedly.

“You’re welcome. I wish I had more info for you, but that’s all she said.”

He understood that and when he fell silent, I did the same so he could think.

When he spoke up again, I tuned back into the conversation immediately. “I guess I need to call Luke to get a game plan together.”

“What do you think is going on with him?” I asked.

He was thoughtful for a moment. “If I had to guess, I’d say his drinking. He’s always had a weakness for liquor and women—terrible combination.”

Despite the way I felt about Nick personally, I couldn’t help but to feel sorry for him. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

“Thanks for offering, but I’m pretty sure this one’s gonna be on me and my family. The last time he got like this was while he was in college, but he wasn’t as much of a recluse back then so he couldn’t hide it. My parents made him go to AA and he got himself together. I’m pretty sure he’s going to have to try that again.”

I had no idea this was a reoccurring problem, but at least they already knew how to handle him. And lucky for Nick, he had a family that wouldn’t give up on him, a family that would make sure he found the help he needed.

*****

Lia and Julian settled in at the piano in the front room and I was just about to head upstairs so they wouldn’t think I was hovering, but the doorbell halted me. When I pulled the door open, three of my sisters—Aura, Lissy, and Delia—were all standing there with wide grins on their face.

“We come bearing gifts,” Delia sang before pushing her way inside my house.

I stepped aside and let the others in, too, smiling because I was pretty sure I already knew what this was all about. Lissy was clutching a bottle of wine; Delia had a grocery bag that likely contained the most fattening snacks she could find; Aura waved a DVD at me.

“I brought this, but I’m pretty sure hearing about your trip will be all the entertainment we need,” she said as she passed by me.

“Hey, Lia,” Lissy said, making her way to my kitchen to grab four wine glasses.

“Hey, everybody,” Lia replied, only turning from what she and Julian were doing for a few seconds. When her back was to us again, Delia and Aura eyed me.

“What’ve we got here?” Delia whispered, pointing at our niece and her friend.

I smiled and waved her off. “They’re just friends,” I assured them. “Trust me, I’ve been observing these two for hours now and there’s no funny business.”

“Yet,” Aura added.

I closed and locked my front door, watching as my sisters made their way up the stairs to my bedroom.

“Lia, it’s nine. Julian can stay until 10:30, then lock up, okay?” She was grinning from ear to ear.

“Okay,” she piped, and then turned around again.

As I climbed the stairs, I felt for the ring box I’d shoved in my pocket after my conversation with Matt. If I knew my sisters, I was in for the third-degree, so any maneuvers I planned to put in place to keep them out my business would have to be airtight.

I found them scattered around my room when I walked in—Lissy in the recliner in the corner, Delia propped up in the bed resting on my pillow, and Aura rummaging through my closet.

I plopped down on the bed and let out a breath. “Ok, let me have it, hens. Get to cackling.”

“Well, since you so graciously opened the door for us to ask… how was your trip?” Delia asked. Realizing the conversation was starting, Aura closed my closet door back, tucked the shirt she’d decided to
‘borrow’
inside her purse, and sat at the end of my bed.

“It was nice,” was all I offered up.

“Nice?” Lissy asked, smiling.

They weren’t going to make this easy on me.

Delia reached inside the snack bag and pulled out a box of chocolate candy and started munching.

“How was Matt?” Aura asked.

“He’s fine. Busy,” I added.

Delia eyed me hard and then set the candy aside. “Ok, since you wanna be cryptic, I’m just gonna be straight up.” I braced myself because my sisters could be hella raunchy when they wanted to be. “So… was the dick good or what?” Delia blurted.

Lissy choked on her wine when she burst out laughing.

“What? We
all
wanted to know,” Delia reasoned.

I covered my face with my hand. When I looked up again, all eyes were on me. “I wouldn’t know, Delia, because nothing happened,” I lied. In truth, a
lot
happened.

None of them looked like they believed me, but it was Aura who spoke up. “Brook, not only are you a bad liar, you’re…
relaxed
,” she said, settling on that word to describe whatever vibe she was getting from me.

I laughed. “Whatever.”

“No, she’s right,” Delia agreed. “You’re not as uptight as you usually are.” She smiled and got more comfortable in my bed. “Mmm hmm… you definitely played a little while you were out there. You let him touch it, smell it, something. You’re not gonna convince us otherwise, so you may as well spill it.”

I massaged my temples when the questioning started to annoy me. Delia poked her finger into my side over and over again, cheesing. “Was it good? Was it? Was it?”

I smacked her hand away, but all she did was laugh. Lissy was quietly observing from the corner while the other two did the dirty work, but I knew she was in on this, too.

Aura poured me a glass of wine and set it beside me on the nightstand.

“Are you trying to get me drunk so I tell my business?” I joked, taking a sip.

“Does that mean there’s business to tell?” she asked.

I stared at their inquisitive faces and thought to myself. Really, if I didn’t tell my sisters, who the hell else was I gonna tell? Reaching behind me for a pillow to hug across my chest, I took a breath.

“First let me start off by saying that I hate all of you.”

“And we love you, too. Continue,” Delia said with a grin.

That night at Matt’s, when I was supposed to be getting ready for the premier, so many thoughts ran through my head. On top of how quickly things were coming to a head with us, there was the discovery that we’d foolishly gotten married—which I
still
hadn’t fully accepted. To say that I was freaked out was an understatement. I just couldn’t imagine sitting beside Matt the entire evening, pretending like nothing happened. However, what took place
instead
was much more intense.

I ran my hand through my hair and took a breath. “Okay, so yeah… it happened,” I admitted.

My sisters erupted into a mixture of laughs and screams.

“I knew it!” Aura bragged. “All that bull you tried to feed us about him just being a friend.”

“Matt
is
a friend,” I countered. “Things just… I don’t know. They got out of control.”

Delia sat up now, wanting to make sure she didn’t miss anything.  “Now back to my original question: was it good?”

My face felt hot, partly because they were putting me on the spot and partly because I was having flashbacks from that night. First closing my eyes, I nodded, finally answering the question.

“Ohhh… details?” Aura begged.

I smiled at their relentless prying. “I am not about to give you all a play-by-play of what we did.”

Delia frowned. “You’re no fun.”

I laughed and acknowledged the ring I was still toting around in my pocket, but didn’t touch it. The thought crossed my mind that I should tell them about that part too, simply because it was so incredibly irresponsible they’d get a kick out of it.

Why the hell not…

Reaching for the velvet box, my sisters didn’t even notice. They decided to discuss my news without me, making their own assumptions about what the experience with Matt was like. It was Lissy who first noticed it in my hand.

“Um… I sure hope you plan to elaborate on that,” she said, leaving her seat across the room to join the rest of us on the bed. Now the others noticed, too.

“She pulled a Lissy,” Delia joked, referring to our sister’s shotgun wedding that took us all by surprise a couple years ago. Lissy smacked her on the arm and then turned her eyes back toward me.

When I didn’t say anything, their faces all went slack. “You
didn’t
really do that… did you?” Aura asked nervously.

The only answer I gave was to open the box, revealing the ring and band Matt had somehow managed to purchase in his drunken stupor. Thinking about it now, with my emotions back in check, I smiled. Slipping both pieces onto my finger, I was pretty sure I freaked my sisters the hell out. They were so used to me being the level-headed one, the one whose moves they could all predict—but not this time.

“Yeah… so this happened,” I confessed, flashing the ring to them on my hand.

“What?”

“Hold up?”

“What the hell?” were their collective responses. I was laughing so hard I had no idea who said what. Apparently, this was the key to shutting them all up.

“I don’t understand,” Aura said, grabbing my hand to take a closer look.

“Let’s just say there was a lot of alcohol involved,” I admitted. “I woke up Saturday morning with sand in my hair, a hangover like you wouldn’t believe, and with a husband.”

Oh gosh… it felt so weird saying that, especially seeing as how I was referring to Matt.

They still weren’t laughing, but I sure was. In fact, this was the first time since it happened that I found it funny. Maybe they were right; I
was
more relaxed now. I recalled how I was barely able to stand straight in the video, watching myself sway back and forth while reading the vows. Matt was cracking up through the whole thing. It was truly a mess and now I couldn’t catch my breath as I thought back on the details.