Uncontrollable (24 page)

He slams on the brakes a little too quickly at a
red light. He places a hand on the steering wheel and turns his body to face
me. “When I’m ready. Why do I have to tell her right now? Do you want me to
fuck up everything? Because that’s exactly what it will do.” He sighs and sits
back in his seat. “She will do the same thing to me that she did to Marie.”

 “So you’re afraid of how she will treat
you
?
You’re not the least bit concerned how
she
will feel about the
situation?”

 “I know how she will feel,” he says through
gritted teeth. “She will feel like her entire life is a lie. She will feel like
she didn’t matter enough for someone to tell her the truth. And yes, I agree
with you. She deserves to know. But she doesn’t deserve those feelings right
now. She’s happy, and I don’t want to fuck that up for her, or you, or myself.”
By the time he finishes his rant, his voice is soft and somewhat full of
sorrow.

I decide to keep my mouth shut. I know everything
he just said was how he took the news when he found out the truth about his
life. And he just wants to save his sister from any more heartache. But I don’t
know how much longer I can keep my mouth shut.

We pull up to the country club and get out of the
truck. It is still pretty cold outside since it is February, so we will be
hitting inside today. I love golf but I fucking hate cold weather.

“Just so you know, I invited a friend,” Tate says
with a smirk now on his face.

“Who?” I ask as I type Angel a message that I hope
she has a good day. I hate it when she’s in a bad mood.

 “You’ll see. Just don’t punch him. He’s really a
good friend.”

My eyebrows shoot up.
Don’t punch him?
This
could get interesting.

I follow him into the indoor golf range and come to
a stop as he continues to walk up to a scrawny redhead who I have seen before.

I remember him talking to me the night at Larry’s
right before Matt attacked Angel outside the bathrooms.

“Hello again, Slade,” he says with a smile as he
extends his hand to me.

I place mine in his. “Hello…?” I never did learn
the guy’s name. But I do know that if he hadn’t come and got me, Matt would
have done more damage to her than what happened.

 “Scott.”

 I pull away from him and turn to Tate. “Just
another way of keeping eyes on Angel?”

 “And you,” he adds.

 “Me?” I fain innocence. “Why would you be watching
out for me?”

 He chuckles. “Cause you are sleeping with my sister.”

 I arch an eyebrow at him then look at Scott.

 Tate nods to him. “He knows. He’s the only other
one who knows beside you.”

 Why does this guy know his biggest secret?

Tate walks away to go get us some balls, and I take
advantage of the situation and turn to Scott. “So, how well do you know Tate?”

 “Very well,” he says.

 I frown. “How well?” Does he know his real name?

 He sighs. “Tate is my best friend. I won’t stab
him in the back by answering your questions. He really likes you, and he has
given you his blessing to marry his sister. I wouldn’t try to piss him off.”
And with that he walks off after Tate.

 
What the fuck was that about?
Gave me his
blessing? I snort. I never fucking asked for it. Hell, I didn’t know who Tate
was until
after
I proposed.

 My jaw tightens. All of a sudden I don’t like
Scott so much.

I’m waiting for Tate to
take a swing when I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I take it out hoping
that it’s Angel finally responding to my earlier text only to find
Parker’s
name on my phone.

“Hello?”

“What’s up, fucker?” he asks in his usual dickish tone.

“I’m playing golf with Tate,” I say. Scott, Tate’s
friend, got called into work and only stayed the first thirty minutes. Thank
God, the guy was getting on my nerves.

“Lucky. I wish I was playing with some balls. Oh,”
he says excitedly. “I do have some balls I can play with right below my…”

 I laugh and cut him off. “What do you want?”

 “Well I have some news for you.”

I try to balance my phone between my ear and
shoulder since it’s now my turn up to swing. When it doesn’t work I ask, “Yeah,
about that news. Can I call you back in twenty?”

“Listen real quickly,” he says ignoring my
question.

 I sigh and hold up my finger to the Tate for a
second. “Make it quick,” I tell him.

 “I’m moving back to St. Louis,” he says making it
extremely quick.

 “What? How did you pull that one off?” I ask with
a smile.

 “Well, I got a call that there was an open spot at
the precinct. So, I took it.”

 “That’s awesome. When are you moving back?”

 Tate gives me a smirk.

“As soon as I find a place to live. I’m gonna come
down next weekend for the wedding and check a few places out. They want me to
start as soon as possible. I guess the guy I’m replacing just quit coming into
work.”

Hmm. That’s odd. “Okay. Well let me know what you
find, and I’ll go look with you.”

“Sounds good. Have fun with your balls. I know I’m
going to. Mine, not yours,” he adds quickly.

 I hang up my phone laughing and place it back into
my pocket. “Parker’s moving back,” I announce to Tate.

“So I heard,” he says before taking a drink of his
water. “When and where?”

I line up my club with the ball. “He’ll be in town
for the wedding next weekend. He’s gonna look for a place to move into then.” I
swing and hit the ball. “I guess he got a job, and they want him down here to
start quickly.”

Tate tilts his head for a few seconds and rubs his
unshaven chin as if in thought. “He can move in with me,” he finally offers.

“Move in with you?” I repeat.

He shrugs. “Sure. I have a three bedroom, two and a
half bathroom house. It’s just me. He can move in if he wants. If he doesn’t
want to live there for long, he can at least live there until he finds a
different place.”

 Shit, I can already see the two bachelors living
together. A fucking orgy every night. “I will call him whenever we leave here.”

After I smoked Tate’s ass
at our game of golf I spoke to Parker. The bastard squealed like a kid when I
told him Tate offered up his place for as long as he needed it. He pretty much
told Tate he’s never going to move out. That they were going to be ‘party
brothers’ and ‘live it up’. Tate didn’t correct him. I definitely see trouble
in their futures, and I couldn’t help but be grateful for the fact that I only
have one woman in my life. Now that I look back at my life over the years—at
all the women—there was always drama and headaches.

 “Wanna come in for a beer?” I ask Tate as he pulls
up to my house.

 He looks over at Missy’s car still parked in our
driveway and just stares at it.

“We can go downstairs and play some pool,” I offer.

 “Yeah.” He runs his hand over his unshaven face.
“I guess I could have a beer.”

I chuckle softly at his nervousness of seeing
Missy. “She didn’t seem to be bothered by you being here earlier.” I try to
loosen him up.

He rolls his shoulders. “Guess I’m the only one
being a little bitch about our Vegas night,” he says laughing at himself.

“Seems so,” I say with a smile.

 I walk into the house and instantly hear Angel in
the kitchen still going to town on the cake.

“Hey baby,” I say sweetly entering the kitchen. I
come to an abrupt stop when I see it looks worse than it did yesterday. There’s
even flour on the cabinets. How did she manage that?

She throws down a dish rag as she lets out a growl.

 “Wow,” Tate says looking around. “Not going so
well?” he asks looking at her.

She shakes her head. “I need a break. I need to
clear my mind and come back to it later before I lose my mind,” she answers,
pushing back all of the loose strands of hair that cover her face.

Missy lets out a little laugh. “It hasn’t been all
that bad.” She walks over to the sink and turns on the water to wash her hands.
“We’ve actually learned a lot today.”

Missy turns to face her as she dries off her hands.
“I’ll do some more research tomorrow. Do you want me to come over after you get
off work to help you?”

Angel sighs. “If you don’t mind, that would be
great, Missy.”

 Missy nods. “Count me in. Although I do have a
couple of night classes this week. Other than that I’m here to help you,” she
offers with a smile.

“Thank you,” Angel responds.

 Missy nods her head and picks up her purse.

 “Good luck on your date tonight,” Angel announces.

 Missy’s blue eyes get bigger as she stares at her.
And I see Tate’s body stiffen beside me. My eyes move over to Angel, and she
begins to throw some stuff away as if she didn’t just make this uncomfortable
situation even more awkward.

 “Yeah.” Missy swallows nervously. Her eyes land on
Tate for a second then she quickly looks away. “Thanks,” she says before
running for the front door.

“What are you guys doing?” Angel asks as she sits
down on at the kitchen island. She places her chin in her hands and stares at
us with sleepy eyes.

“We were going to go downstairs to play a game of
pool and drink a few beers,” I say slowly trying to gauge Tate’s mood now. It’s
pretty obvious he is pissed.

She gestures to the door leading downstairs. “Don’t
let me stop you.” She yawns. “I’m gonna clean up my mess and then go to bed.”
Her eyes travel over the messy kitchen, and she sighs. “I’m tired.”

I look from her to Tate as he stands as stiff as a
statue beside me. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” he says before turning and walking
out the door.

We have two days before my
brother’s wedding. Parker came into town last night, his truck already attached
to a small U-Haul. We all got his stuff unloaded, which wasn’t much. Since Tate
already has living room furniture and stuff like that, all Parker brought was
bedroom furniture. The rest he stuck in a storage in Arkansas. We all ended up
back at my house.

That was a bad idea.

 Missy and Angel were in the kitchen working on the
cake, and Courtney was eating up all their mistakes. Parker, of course, gave
them a hard time, and Angel ended up throwing a spatula at him. He ducked, and
it just ended up getting cake batter on the wall. So, when Parker and Tate
called me to get together tonight, Angel threatened me with my life if I
brought them back to our house. And she was holding a little saw in her hand
when she did it.

 Needless to say, I ran out of our house and headed
straight to Tate and Parker’s after picking up my brother and Josh on the way.

Now we all sit in their living room watching a
hockey game.

“It can’t stay.” Tate shakes his head at the black
and white cat that sits in Parker’s lap.

 “She has to,” he pouts. “We’re a package deal.”