Hard Brake (Wilkins Brothers Book 2)

Chapter 34

GRUFF

“Wow, what a bitch.” Tate tilts back the bottle of beer while lifting up his feet and setting them on his coffee table. I call it a coffee table, but it is really just a large plastic container that he uses to hold old car magazines that he gets. 

Tate’s place is barely what you could even call a bachelor pad. All his furniture is worn-out hand-me-downs from my parents or even worse, shit he finds on the side of the road. The only thing he puts any money into is his bed and that is for obvious reasons. If it were anybody else I would worry that he wasn’t being paid enough, but I know how much I pay him and that certainly isn’t the case. He just chooses to spend his money on other things.

“Is it naive as fuck of me to think that Ash would leave me alone?”

“Yes.” His answer was so quick that it almost took me by surprise. I expected my brother to have my back a bit more.

“Wow, just like that, huh?”

“Oh come on, Gruff. You’re smarter than this. We’ve been telling you for years now that you needed to break it off with Ash totally. She brings everybody down with her. I could have told you this when I was fucking sixteen, but you never listen.”

“She was just a hook-up. I’m not like the rest of you. I don’t want to go out and pick up some college chicks or floozies from the bar just because I want a fuck for the night. I never wanted anymore to do with her, she was just there for a quick fuck.”

“That’s what you thought, but she was using you just as she always did. She was fucking around during your entire marriage and then you didn’t even think twice about being the other guy when you knew she was engaged to be married.”

“She never loved that guy.”

“Fucking hell, stop defending her.”

“I’m not defending her!”

“The hell you aren’t. Ash has tried to fuck up your life since the day that you met her and you’ve let her do it at every turn. It is about time that you open your eyes. You damn well know that she was the reason that you never went to that automotive school in San Antonio. Then she cheated on you multiple times and your marriage crashed and burn. Then she tried to take your business away, you were just lucky you had the money and the means to rebuild, and now she’s trying to break up what might be the most important thing in your life and you’re still sitting here with blinders on.”

I was pretty much stunned silent by Tate’s comments. Everything he said was true, but I’ve avoided seeing the full picture right in front of me. Even in the many years since we’ve been divorced, Ash has kept me from any other relationships by always being there when I needed a release. Who would want to be with a guy who was still sleeping with his ex?

“You’re right. Fuck.” I slouch back on the couch and groan. “Should I call her?”

“Fuck if I know. I’m not a relationship guy.”

“Then who the fuck do I ask? Don’t even fucking say Maverick, not pretending like he all of a sudden knows relationships just because he’s getting married. We all know he’s just a lucky bastard who’s better half crashed into his life,” I chuckle, “almost literally.”

“Don’t knock it though, I mean, that’s almost exactly what happened with you too.”

“You think?”

“At the expense of sounding like a pansy, you and Camila are meant to be together. You’ve helped her find safety and in that safety she found herself and she’s happy now. Those kids are thriving and happy and that is all because of you. They have also softened you up a bit. Not in a bad way, you’re definitely a better man with her in your life.”