Because of His Past (4 page)

Grace opened her mouth, wanting to tell
him that she was mistaken.
 
She
wanted to say that she’d changed her mind—she’d fight for the chance to
be with him.
 
Scott would
deal,
he’d get over it.

But then her mouth closed.

What would she do if a month or two from
now, her and Liam broke up anyway?
 
What if he dumped her?
 
And
then she’d be left with no boyfriend, her heart broken, and her brother’s
business and life in ruins because of her own selfishness.

No, she couldn’t do something so risky,
couldn’t afford to hurt Scott just because she was infatuated with some rich
boy.

“Take care of yourself,” she said, her
voice barely even a whisper, as she turned, tears in her eyes, and started to
leave the room.

“And to think you kept saying I was the
one playing games,” Liam called after her.
 
“What a surprise, Grace,” he said, his voice dripping with anger and
hurt as she continued walking without looking back.

She opened the door, hesitating only
briefly, but it felt like forever.
 
Nothing had felt quite this painful in some time—it was like her
skin was on fire and every part of her burned.

Don’t
do this to him.
 
He’s in the
hospital, alone, hurting.
 
Don’t
leave him when he’s like this.
 
It’s
not his fault.

But she couldn’t afford to stop now.
 
If she did, she knew she’d never be able
to leave again.
 
This was her chance
to extricate herself and save Scott’s business.

So she walked out and closed the door
behind her, sealing him in there like she was sealing a tomb.

And her heart broke as she did it.

***

Days had passed since she’d left the
hospital and Liam behind, but it felt more like months.

It was hard to even drag herself out of
the apartment for a few minutes, let alone to meet up with her brother.

But Scott had insisted she meet him for
coffee.

Of course, as she sat at the table near
the window and sipped her tea, Scott was late.
 
This was nice little independent coffee
shop with a fireplace and everyone was busy working on their laptops, while a
small group of college students huddled over their class notes.

Outside, people walked to and fro, and
two lovers, holding hands, walked right past her as she sat inside the coffee
shop.
 
She looked longingly at them
as they went by, laughing at something that was just between them, oblivious to
her pain, oblivious to everything but just the sheer joy of being together.

I
wonder if I’ll ever feel that way again
, Grace thought.

She’d had just a brief taste of it with
Liam and it had felt so sweet.
 
It
was like being deprived of sugar and then someone had given her the tiniest
square of gourmet chocolate, and she’d had it there, melting on her tongue for
an instant.

Now she was back in the gray, dull
sugarless world, with nothing sweet in her life.
 
All she could do was watch those lucky
people strolling past, ensconced in their own love, not knowing the suffering
that she endured in her gray prison.

That was what she was thinking about as
Scott entered the shop and looked her up and down.
 
“No,” was all he said, as he approached,
shrugging off his coat, placing it on the back of his chair.
 
“This will not do, honey.”
 
He put his hands on his hips and stared
at her.

“Scott, please,” she moaned.
 
“Don’t lecture me, okay?”

“I’m going to get myself a big honking
mug of coffee and then when I come back, you better be sitting up straight with
a smile on your face,” he said.
 
“Because my sister is not going to be sobbing her life away
anymore.”
 
He turned on his heel and
strode to the counter to place his order.

Grace let out a long sigh.
 
So it was going to be that kind of
meeting, she thought.
 
She should’ve
know
better—should have stayed curled up in
bed.
 
But after days of depression,
crying, sleeping, she knew it was time to get up, shower, dress in something
reasonably attractive, and get outside again.

Scott returned to the table with his
coffee and a small quiche and at down, glancing at her as he picked up his
fork.
 
“You need to get a job,” he
said.

“Scott, seriously.
 
I will get up and leave right now if you
start in on me.”

He glanced up at her again, and this time
his eyes softened.
 
“Okay,” he
said.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
I won’t hound you.”

“Thanks,” she replied, sipping her tea
and staring out the window again.

“I feel badly that you broke up with Liam
Houston on my account,” her brother admitted.

This surprised her to hear.
 
“You do?”

“I’m not some coldhearted monster,
Grace,” he replied.
 
“Well, on
second thought, maybe I am coldhearted.
 
But I’m not a monster.”
 
Scott dug his fork into the quiche and then ate his first bite, rolling
his eyes with pleasure.
 
“Wow,
that’s good.”

Grace put her tea down and spun it slowly
on the table.
 
“I miss him,” she
admitted softly.

“Honey, I know you miss him,” Scott told
her.
 
“But he wasn’t right for
you.
 
The two of you couldn’t have
co-existed together.
 
Not in a
million years.”

“You think I’m not good enough for him?”

“It’s not about that, Grace, and you know
it.”
 
Scott ate a few more bites and
then put the fork down, staring across at her earnestly.
 
“I’ve had my share of heartbreak, little
sister.”

“You have?”
 
She looked at him, curious.
 
Scott had always been very closed
mouthed about his love life, or anything personal for that matter.

“I was in love once,” he announced,
sounding proud, his chin lifting defiantly.

“Oh,” Grace said.
 
“I didn’t know.”

“It was a couple of years ago.
 
He was a very successful businessman
that I met at the gym of all places.
 
He was older than me, and rich, and everything I could have asked
for.
 
We were together for about
seven months and then it ended.”

Grace nodded, not sure how to
proceed.
 
“Who ended it?”

Scott looked down.
 
“He did.
 
He said that I was too young, and that I
needed to grow and get more life experience before I’d be ready to settle
down.”

“But you didn’t agree with him.”

“No, of course not.
 
I was madly in love with him and I
thought he felt the same about me.”
 
Scott shook his head and blinked, picking up his mug and laughing, but
the laughter was full of sadness.
 
“A few months after we broke up, I saw him going into the gym with
another man.
 
And it was obvious
they were together.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Scott told her.
 
“And you want to know the kicker?
 
The best part?”

She nodded.
 
“What’s that?”

“The best part of it is that the man he
was with was someone even younger than me.
 
I’d met the guy before, and he was just as young and dumb and
inexperienced as I was.
 
So all that
stuff about my lack of experience and youth was bullshit,” Scott said, and his
eyes blazed with fury.
 
“It was an
excuse to break up with me, no fuss no muss.”

Grace sat back and thought about it.
 
“Scott, I’m so sorry.
 
I wish you’d told me at the time.”

He fiddled with his fork, finally
plunging it into his quiche with a vengeance.
 
“What would you have done?
 
Probably told Mom and Dad their son was
having a big, gay, messy affair.”

“I wouldn’t have told Mom and Dad,” she
said, rolling her eyes.
 
“I’m not a
complete jerk, you know.”

Scott took a bite and chewed, his eyes
glimmering with unshed tears.
 
“It
still hurts,” he whispered.
 
And
then he looked up at her.
 
“So I
know how you’re feeling right now, honey.
 
And I can tell you that it never completely goes away, but it does get a
little easier to bear every single minute that passes.”

Grace nodded, taking a deep breath in,
lifting her mug to her lips and feeling the heat from the hot water against her
chin.
 
“But your situation was
different from mine,” she said.
 
“I’m the one who insisted on ending things, and I did it because Liam’s
mother is a lunatic.”

Scott frowned.
 
“That’s not the real reason.”

“Oh no?”

“No,” he said firmly.
 
He pointed his fork at her and a piece
of quiche fell onto the table.
 
“You
and Liam Houston might as well be from two different planets.
 
No, make that, two completely different
galaxies.
 
It just can’t work.”

“But why not?
 
Why couldn’t we be together?”

He smirked.
 
“That’s like asking why gravity keeps us
from just flapping our arms and flying into the sky like a bird.
 
It’s just the way things are.
 
People like Liam Houston inhabit their
own pretty, protected little world, and the air they breathe is rarified.
 
It’s a different planet from ours even
if it looks like they’re sharing space with us mere mortals.”

“You can’t mean that,” she said.
 
“Is that why you’re so enamored with
rich people?
 
Is that why you do
this wedding business—because you think they’re better than you, and you
can only be as good as them if you make that much money?”

“I can’t ever be one of them, Grace,”
Scott said, with a small smile.
 
“No
matter how much money I make, I’ll always be a poor boy from the suburbs.
 
It’s not just money—it’s a social
class that goes back decades.
 
It’s
a way of life—it’s something that’s handed down from one generation to
another.
 
A name, an inheritance, a
genetic lottery.”

“I don’t believe in that stuff,” she
said.

“You don’t have to believe in it. And
besides, we both know that you do,” he whispered, his eyes locked on hers.
 
“You know, deep down, that the world
would never let you and Liam be happy together.
 
And the very first instance that you
presented yourselves as a couple, the world conspired against you
immediately.
 
You have to listen to
what the universe is telling you, Grace.
 
It’s saying,
danger.
 
Danger.
 
Danger.
”

Grace sipped her tea and considered what
her brother was telling her.
 
She
hated that a suspicious part of her mind tended to agree with him.
 
Somehow, she felt that Liam and her were
an aberration—
that
she couldn’t ever truly be
allowed to be with him, he was out of her league in a profound way.
 
And that made her angry.
 
“It’s not fair, though.
 
We’re all just people.”

“Just people?” Scott laughed.
 
“No, honey.
 
No.
 
You and I are just people.
 
Liam Houston and his ilk are artifacts from a different era.
 
They don’t fit in this place and time,
and they never will.
 
And honestly,
as much as I find them interesting, like rare birds—I wouldn’t want to be
them or have to live like them.”
 
He
cocked his head thoughtfully.
 
“I’m
sure that’s why Liam is getting in fistfights and mixing with the seedy
underbelly of the community.
 
He’s
trying to throw off the weight of his legacy—he’s trying to pretend it’s
not real.
 
But sadly, it is.
 
And he’ll discover just how real it is
soon enough.”

Scott’s prediction hit her like a fist to
the stomach.
 
She felt the knot of
tension in her belly, thinking of Liam’s beautiful face, his cool blue eyes,
and the way he’d tasted.
 
His lips, like fire, burning into hers.