Unexpected (The Protectors 10)

Everett shook his head. “Not sure. Part of me wants him to know, you know? Then maybe he’d understand why.”

He wasn’t making sense, but I didn’t say that. The fact that he was even talking to me about his relationship with Pierce was huge. Since I knew much of Everett’s despair was rooted in some kind of guilt he felt for whatever had happened between him and Pierce, I started with that.

“I think if he loved you, he’d understand, whether he knew what you were thinking or not. I think he’d want you to be happy.”

“Have you ever been in love?”

If he’d asked me the question casually, I wouldn’t have answered him. But he wasn’t even looking at me when he spoke.

“Once,” I admitted.

“What happened?”

Keep your fucking mouth shut, Nash.

A tremor shifted throughout my body and I suddenly felt too warm. I needed to heed my inner voice’s warning. We were in dangerous territory already.

“He betrayed me.”

Everett didn’t react to the fact that I’d just outed myself to him. When he did finally look at me, he said, “He was a fool.”

What the hell was happening? How had we gone from barely speaking to this?

“That’s what I was,” Everett continued, his eyes going back to Pierce’s headstone. “A fool. A fraud, a liar, and a fool. Pierce hit the trifecta with me.”

“I doubt he felt that way,” I offered.

“No, he didn’t. He wouldn’t. He would have done anything for me… he did, actually. He gave up his career, stayed silent about what we were to one another when I asked him to… all I did was make promises that started with, ‘As soon as my term ends.’ He made sacrifices, I made excuses.”

Before I could say anything, Everett turned and began heading back to the car. I’d expected the visit to last longer, but I suspected he was eager to return to Seattle. He’d rushed through the various meetings regarding the handling of Vincent’s estate the day before, while this morning had been spent preparing for the funeral, so there was no reason for him to stay. We hadn’t even gone to his home, since the drive back and forth to D.C. would have wasted too much precious time.

As we reached the car, Everett’s phone rang. I’d given up on trying to tune out his conversations in recent days, but I didn’t garner much from this one as he mumbled a couple of yeses, nos, and okays. It wasn’t until he’d hung up the phone that he turned to me and said, “That was Gage. Reese is being discharged today.”

“That’s great news.”

Everett nodded. “He’s agreed to stay at Gage’s house.”

I nodded in understanding and leaned past Everett to open the door for him. “Then let’s get you home to see your son, Mr. President.”

Chapter 15

Gage

“You need to do something.”

I glanced up from where I was sitting on the steps leading off the back porch. Nash was looming over me, his gray eyes bright with anger. It was the first time the man had spoken to me since he and Everett had returned from D.C. a week earlier.

A day I was referring to as doomsday in my head.

Because it was the same day I’d gotten Reese home.

And it was the same day I’d had to break Everett’s heart all over again when I’d been forced to tell him that Reese had threatened to leave if Everett even tried to speak to him. The older man had been completely devastated, and I’d been helpless to do anything as Nash had urged Everett to go back with him to the guest house so they could get some rest. I’d heard Nash tell Everett that things would look better in the morning.

But they hadn’t.

Nor in any of the days that had followed.

We were on day seven of Reese’s embargo. There’d been a few close calls when Everett and Reese had crossed paths, like when I’d been taking Reese to the car to drive him to his therapy appointments or Reese had wheeled himself to the kitchen to get something to drink. But Everett had heeded Reese’s warning and hadn’t said a word to him.

Though I could tell it had practically killed him to do it.

The tension between the two men was bleeding into the rest of the family dynamics, and I was starting to wonder if I hadn’t bitten off more than I could chew. My daughter was confused by why father and son weren’t speaking, but she’d followed my direction to not bring it up with either man. Our normal family nights watching television together or playing games had taken a back seat to the awkwardness and we often escaped to our own rooms for the evenings instead. Charlie had recently started school, so she used the excuse that she had homework to do, while my father spent more time than he probably needed to on the lesson plans he prepared for the two weekly online college courses he taught on Greek mythology. I’d tried a few times to spend time with Reese in the evenings, but he’d claimed that he just wanted to sleep. But worst of all, Everett, who’d spent the first few nights after he and Nash had initially arrived interacting with me and my family, disappeared to the guest house each night. He didn’t even join us for dinner anymore, since he’d rather Reese join us.