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  “But I’m not perfect, am I?” Davis whispered, feeling sick.

  “He’d be proud of you for what you’ve accomplished in your life, and he’d be happy you found someone to make you as happy as your mother made him. Isn’t that perfect enough?”

  “But not perfect enough he wanted to be on my birth certificate?”

  “I was her husband. It was easier back then to do it that way. We didn’t want to have to explain wanting an expensive DNA test we couldn’t have afforded to do then anyway. That was forty-one years ago, Davis. Back then, it was a huge deal, and your mother was a school teacher. If it had somehow gotten out that she was involved with both of us, and had sons by two different men, it could have ended her teaching career. Parker is the one who insisted on things being like that because he didn’t want her or our children stigmatized by that kind of scandal.”

  “Didn’t want her to have the Aspie’s kids, huh?” Davis said, not even recognizing his own voice.

  Their father looked like he’d been slapped. “Please don’t talk about him like that. You didn’t know him.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I already told Melanie.” Davis turned at the sound of his mother’s voice from the doorway.

  “What?” he and Kirby both asked.

  “I drove to her apartment while I was out and told her. I wanted her to know and to be the one to tell her. To be prepared.”

  “Why?” Davis roared. “So she won’t want to have kids with me?”

  Kirby reached out and touched his shoulder, but Davis jerked away.

  Their mother walked over to stand next to their father, leaning into him as he once again slipped his arm around her shoulders.

  “I wanted her able to comfort you and to have all the facts. I had no idea if you were even going to want to speak to me and your father again after we told you. But we felt we needed to tell you now that you’ve found someone. Especially since you’re both going to be with her. And I wanted her to hear it from me so she could ask any questions she needed to. I wanted her to know why we were truly okay with the three of you being together.”

  Davis had finally hit his unable to process level. Falling back on an old and poor coping tactic, he stormed out the front door, slamming it behind him and hoping Kirby would take the cue and follow him since they’d ridden there in Kirby’s car.

  While he paced up and down the driveway he heard angry voices from inside. Just a minute later, Kirby also slammed the front door behind him as he walked out. Without a word, Kirby hit the button on his key fob to unlock the car. They both got in and Kirby backed out of their driveway, heading north.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Da.

  Fuq?

  Never in his life had Kirby ever wanted to have it out with his father. Not just with words, but a physical, knock-down fight.

  Until now.

  Because to see his brother emotionally gutted like that made Kirby feel a rage he never thought himself capable of. He’d spent plenty of time as a kid fighting bullies who wanted to pick on Davis.

  None of them had ever made him feel so much rage. He knew the bullies were just stupid, ignorant jackasses.

  Their father had raised them and knew Davis and what this would do to him.

  Even more reason why he knew he had to follow Davis out the door.

  He drove toward US 41 to head north, then pulled off into a shopping center and threw it into park, sitting there, silent, processing.

  Next to him, Davis stared out the window. From the tense set of his brother’s jaw, he knew how upset Davis was but was clueless what to say or do to help him.

  Kirby waited a couple of minutes until he knew he could speak without losing control and ranting about their parents.

  “I love you, Davis. I’m mad at them, too, but I love you. You’re my brother, and I love you, and nothing we learned tonight changes any of that. Understand?”

  Davis didn’t respond, didn’t acknowledge him.

  Kirby didn’t press, afraid it would only upset him even more.

  Ten minutes later, Davis finally spoke, even though it was in soft, mournful tones and he still didn’t look at Kirby. “They told her before they told us.”

  “I know, buddy.”

  “They just met her today. We’re their sons.”

  “I know.”

  Kirby didn’t try to interpret or analyze it. It just was, and Davis was rightfully due his moment to process and mourn and be angry and whatever emotions he was dealing with.

  “What else have they lied to us about?”

  “I did ask that before I flounced. They swear that’s it. An ‘omission.’”

  Davis snorted.

  That was progress, even if it bothered Kirby. An emotion like that, expressed in that way, meant the storm raged hot and heavy inside his brother as he tried to grapple with it and wrangle it into submission within him.

  Not to mention right now, Kirby’s head felt like it was going to explode, a throbbing headache that had started earlier and ramped into overdrive during their parents’ confession.

  “Why didn’t Mel call and tell us?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll have to ask her that. Maybe because we were there with them. I’m sure she meant well, or felt it wasn’t her place to tell us.”

  “If Mom and Dad hadn’t told us, do you think Mel would have?”

  “I don’t know, buddy. I want to think she would have. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt. She didn’t ask to have that dropped on her. That was pretty shitty of them to tell her like that.”

  “They should have told us first. They should have told us years ago.”

  “I agree.” Kirby took a deep breath. Rage still welled within him. Here Davis was enjoying life in a way he never had before, and then it was like the universe slapped him in the face for it.

  “I don’t understand why you’re upset. This is about me.”

  Kirby knew he had to tread carefully and not risk alienating Davis. “I’m upset because I agree with you that we should have been told a long time ago. Given the circumstances, and how I know you love Mel as much as I do, I can see why they did what they did years ago in terms of Dad marrying Mom. Sarasota County was a lot more conservative back then, and it’s still pretty dang conservative, politically speaking.”

  “That doesn’t excuse them not telling me Parker was my biological father.”

  “I agree.”

  Davis slowly turned from the window to look at him. “In one of those books I read, Lynn’s books, I read about a triad who have twins and both men fathered them.”

  He didn’t continue.

  “Yes?” Kirby asked.

  “I thought at the time how preposterous that was. I looked it up, though, and there are cases of it. Apparently it happens in romance novels more than it happens in real life, but it can and does happen.”

  Kirby wasn’t sure what Davis’ point was, but he held on for the ride. “Okay.”

  Another moment for Davis to formulate his next statement. “Dad said Parker had more issues than I do, didn’t he?”

  That Davis was questioning something he heard spoke to how emotional and upset he was.

  “That’s what I heard, buddy.”

  Davis slowly nodded. “I love Mel,” he whispered. “What Dad said. That’s how I feel about her. She soothes me. It doesn’t drain me to be around her. It’s like she recharges me.”

  “Me, too, buddy,” he said.

  “I’m really, really angry. At Mom and Dad.”

  “I know. Me, too.”

  “Can we go talk to Mel? We told her we’d come by.”

  “Sure.” He shifted the car into drive and pulled out of the parking lot.

  He felt like he needed some time with her, too. He was angry at his parents for them not revealing this sooner. He was angry at them for not telling them, and for telling Mel first.

  He could only imagine how outraged Davis was.

  And now poor Mel, alone a
nd dealing with that.

  And part of him felt sad that, for all these years, they never knew about the other father they’d had, who they’d never gotten to know.

  A man who’d died loving them.

  * * * *

  Mel checked her phone when she got out of the shower but no calls from the guys. It was just after sunset, and she wondered when they’d be there.

  The bad feeling welling in her gut wouldn’t go away, either. She dressed in shorts and a T-shirt and was walking toward the kitchen when she caught sight of something through the partially open blinds in her front window.

  Outside, someone was walking around her car in the dark. Since no one was parked on either side of her, it was suspicious.

  Without thinking, she yanked the door open and ran down the walk. “Hey!”

  A woman stood up and now that Mel was running toward her, she recognized Felicity.

  And she heard a hissing noise.

  “You fucking cunt,” the woman screamed at her. “You cost me my fucking job!”

  Mel belatedly realized Felicity had something in her hand, a utility knife or something, which she’d apparently been using to hack at the sidewalls of her tires. The tires on her passenger side were flat, and the ones on the driver’s side were on their way there, and still Felicity leaned over to stab at them some more.

  “You’re crazy!” Mel screamed, her hands shaking as she backed toward the apartment while trying to dial 911. She took a second to snap a couple of pictures, realizing she needed proof, then hit send to complete the call.

  Felicity headed toward her and Melody misjudged where she was, her bare foot catching and skidding off the edge of the sidewalk and sending her crashing onto her back.

  She managed not to lose the phone and started screaming for help.

  In the apartment next to hers, the front light came on and a man opened the door.

  That seemed to stop Felicity, who turned and threw the knife away into the bushes before she offered a smile. “Sorry, my friend’s drunk, and—”

  “She’s not my friend and that crazy bitch just tried to come after me with a knife! Look what she did to my car!”

  The 911 operator answered and Mel didn’t care she was screaming into the phone. She stumbled to her feet, putting the man between her and Felicity, who wore a sickening smile.

  Headlights turned the corner and pulled in, the car parking next to hers. She was still giving her information to the operator as Kirby and Davis ran up.

  “Block her car in!” she screamed at Kirby.

  Davis immediately grabbed the keys from Kirby and ran back to the car, moving it down the parking lot and stopping behind a red Porsche parked in front of the next building.

  The car she’d seen on Thursday morning.

  While the 911 operator relayed information to the cops, Kirby was trying to talk to Mel, stepping in front of her while Mel was trying to keep an eye on Felicity. Mel finally lost it. “Keep that fucking crazy bitch away from me!” she screamed at him, pointing at Felicity.

  Davis returned just as Mel heard the sound of a siren approaching. The next fifteen minutes were filled with confusion and screaming as deputies handcuffed a struggling, swearing Felicity and, directed by Mel, located the knife in question. That was after showing the deputy the pics she’d taken, which clearly showed Felicity stabbing a tire.

  Had Mel thought meeting the men’s parents was stressful?

  Ha!

  That paled in comparison to…this.

  * * * *

  Once Davis realized Mel was okay, he let Kirby take control and basically tell him what he was supposed to do. More deputies arrived and he was pulled off to the side to give a statement about what he knew. Which wasn’t much, considering they’d arrived after Felicity had tossed the knife away, but he gave them background information to fill in the gaps.

  After their statements had been taken, Davis walked over to Mel, who was sitting on her front stoop.

  “Are you all right?”

  She glared up at him. “No, I am not fucking all right, Davis! Your mother shows up and drops a bomb on me, and then fucking Felicity shows up and slashes my tires? Thank fucking Christ that guy stepped out or she might have come after me! No, I’m not fucking all right!”

  Kirby stepped in. “It’s okay, Davis. Let her be.”

  “But she’s upset.”

  “Yes, I know,” he quietly said. “She has every right to be upset.”

  “Goddamned right I have every right to be fucking upset!”

  “I’ll pay for your tires,” Davis quietly said.

  “This is not about the cost of fucking tires, you idiot!” she screamed. “Are you fucking serious? What the fucking hell is wrong with you? Are you crazy? Fuck the goddamned tires!”

  Dammit. He turned to Kirby, lost and feeling helpless. He did not want to make this worse, but apparently that was exactly what he was doing.

  She got up and went inside, slamming the door behind her and locking it.

  Seemed to be the night for that.

  He wanted to follow her, but Kirby caught his arm and shook his head.

  “But she’s upset.”

  “Yeah, she needs time to calm down.”

  “Shouldn’t we be with her?”

  “If she’d wanted us to be with her, she’d have asked us to be. Remember, it’s not just this. It’s this whole week, and then Mom. Mel’s really upset. She just had a bad scare and needs to process everything.”

  Torn, he stared at her apartment door. Leaving didn’t feel right to him, but he had to trust Kirby. “Then what do we do?”

  “Right now, we’re going to wait until the cops tell us we can leave. Then you’re driving me home so I can crawl into bed.”

  He realized his brother looked horrible. “What’s wrong?”

  “Migraine.”

  “Oh. Sorry.”

  “Not your fault, Davis.”

  “Feels like tonight is my fault all the way around.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Mel seethed as she slammed her apartment door and locked not just the knob, but the deadbolt for good measure.

  Oh.

  My.

  Fucking.

  GAWD!

  This was too much. Too damn much. Getting cheated on, that fucking sucked. Finding out a guy was about to cheat on her, yeah, that sucked, too. Realizing a guy was a tool or an asshat or a full-on asshole—whatever—but in none of her past relationships had any crazy psycho ex stalked her and tried to hurt her!

  Ever.

  She paced the apartment. Twenty minutes later, when she peeked out the viewfinder in her door, everything was gone. Kirby and Davis, the cops, the two wreckers with both Felicity’s car and hers.

  The guys hadn’t even bothered to knock and say good-bye.

  Figures.

  Well, now she knew where she rated. That message was pretty damn clear. She could take a fucking hint.

  She needed another shower to calm down and wash the dirt off her from where she’d fallen. As she stepped under the spray, the shakes finally hit her and she slid down the wall, sobbing, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her head on her knees as she cried.

  It wasn’t even the monetary hit, although four new tires would put a major dent in her budget and require her to max out a credit card.

  Maybe I’ll make fucking Darby pay for those. His goddamned crazy psycho daughter.

  Yeah, she’d stormed into her apartment and slammed the door, but her guys hadn’t even tried to follow her and knock.

  After she’d basically told Davis he could shove the tires up his ass, they’d just stood there, staring at her and looking like they were both angry.

  Probably angry at her for knowing about Davis’ biological father before they did.

  Fuck.

  Then again, she had asked Davis what the fuck was wrong with him…

  She groaned.

  Oh, no. Dammit.

  Yeah, she hadn’t
just asked Davis what was wrong with him. She’d said some pretty mean things to him without even thinking about it.

  Yep, leave it to her to take a craptastic situation and figure out a way to not only make it worse, but epically worse. She hadn’t even been thinking about what she was saying when she’d said it.

  No wonder the guys looked angry. She’d have been angry, too. And no wonder they hadn’t followed her.

  She didn’t blame them.

  How had her world gone from perfect to apocalyptic in just the space of a couple of hours?

  Welp, so much for that. Crazy cat lady it is.

  Done. I’m sooo fucking done.

  It was a cruel twist of fate that she’d felt closer to both men than anyone else in her life.

  * * * *

  Kirby was working on a sick headache by the time the deputies said they could leave. In fact, he’d had Davis drive them home. Mel was furious, and Kirby couldn’t blame her. She’d stormed into her apartment, slamming the door behind her and throwing the deadbolt so hard both he and Davis could hear it.

  And she hadn’t come out.

  He wondered if she’d finally hit her fuck this shit level and was metaphorically throwing the deadbolt on her heart, too. He didn’t blame her. On top of the bombshell their parents had dropped on them—and Mel—tonight, the last thing they’d needed was this bullshit with Felicity.

  If Felicity’s crazy caused Mel to understandably tell him and Davis to go fuck themselves, Kirby was going to be hard-pressed not to demand they sell the house and move into separate residences.

  He was done. Happiness had lain so close, within their grasp, for both of them, and then this crazy crap.