Breaking the Rules (11 page)

Even though the evening was somewhat warm, Adam picked up the remote that controlled the gas fireplace along one wall of the great room. “Come here,” he whispered, grabbing her hand and leading her to his favorite over-sized chair. They could have stretched out on the couch, but after everything that had happened, Adam needed to feel her body close to his.

***

Something was off with Adam. Carly had never heard him panic the way he was when h
e found the front door locked. Now, the tension in Adam's body made it feel like she was trying to snuggle up to a cement wall.

Carly brushed her fingers gently along Adam's jaw. “What's going on? You seem really tense tonight.” 

Adam continued staring at the dancing flames in the fireplace as he traced feather-light circles on Carly's back. “We had a problem at Julia's house. Hopefully, it's all taken care of now.”

Carly turned on Adam's lap so
that she was looking him in the eye. That's when she saw the fear on his face. “What kind of problem? Is Jules okay? Do we need to go there tonight?”

Adam shook his head, tightening his grip around Carly's waist. “No, Micah's there. He made
her lock herself in the truck when we got to her place. That crazy bitch broke in and tossed the whole house.”

Carly shuddered, realizing how much worse the situation could have been. “Do you think Karen knew the house would be empty?”

“No clue.” Adam rested his head on Carly's shoulder, gently kissing her collarbone. “I think the only thing we know for sure is there's no telling what that woman is capable of.”

When Adam handed Carly the keys to his house as they tried to keep from having sex against the side of a brick wall, her head filled with images of all the lewd fun they would have when he got to the house. Now, she couldn't imagine anything other than sitting with him, staring into the fire. There were no words spoken, no hands roaming. It wasn't what she had hoped for, but there was no denying how right it felt to be with him.

“Should we go to bed?” Carly asked softly when they both started drifting to sleep. Neither of them had gotten a decent night of sleep last night, and it was looking like they had another long day ahead of them tomorrow.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Adam gently lifted Carly off his lap, turned off the fireplace and grabbed her fingers to lead her up the stairs. The loft bedroom was open on one side, looking out over the great room below with windows lining the outer wall, giving Carly an
amazing view of Madison off in the distance.

Within minutes of tucking under the covers and curling himself against Carly's back, Adam was sound asleep.
Either the adrenaline coursing through her veins from everything that had happened in their little circle of friends, or the catnap on the deck caused Carly to be wide-awake. She listened to Adam's shallow, even breaths as she stared at the night beyond the windows. For the first time since she'd gotten on the bus to New York, there was part of her wishing she had never left.

Carly threw one pillow towards the stairs while burying her head under another when Adam told her it was time to wake up. It seemed like she had just gotten to sleep.
She really needed to break Adam's developing habit of waking her up. “Don't wanna,” she whined. This was supposed to be a vacation for Carly, and she found herself awake at an ungodly hour two days in a row.

“Come on, Peanut,” Adam coaxed. She peeked out from under the pillow when she felt the mattress dip under his weight. “I brought coffee. Does that help?”

Without sitting up, Carly reached a hand out for the mug. The only thing that would help was more sleep, but coffee would have to be a reasonable substitute. “Why are you up so early?” Carly grumbled, finally sitting up to take a sip. Coffee in bed was certainly one extraordinary thing about the times when she and Adam were together. It helped that he seemed to possess some sort of coffee making skill she lacked; his coffee was always strong without being overpowering.

“I have to get over to Julia's. Micah and I need to make a list of supplies and then run to Madison.” Adam shifted on the bed until he was leaning against the
massive cherry headboard. As impressed as she was with his home last night, it was even more beautiful in the light of day. Every piece of furniture in the loft seemed custom-made for the space. He patted the space between his legs and Carly moved so that she was leaning against his chest.

Her head flopped back against his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her waist. They had spent many mornings in New York just like this
, cuddling on the bed, avoiding the world outside. That wasn't possible today. “Would you be upset if I stay here for a while? If we're not telling Julia about us, it would look odd if we show up at the same time.”

Adam let out a frustrated sigh, making Carly wonder if they should bite the bullet and tell everyone they were together. Micah already knew, so it was only a matter of time before the secret was out. It just didn't feel right to dump anything on Julia, positive or negative, with so much crashing down around her since she came home.

“I suppose you're right,” Adam grumbled. It felt like they were on the brink of another fight about whom to tell and when. “Give Annie a call in a while and head over there. Are you going out to see Gran today?”

“Yeah, I'll probably stop out there when I head back into town.” She turned onto her side so
she could run her fingers through the light dusting of hair on Adam's chest. Before him, Carly had not cared much for chest hair, but like everything else about this man, it worked for him. “You sure you're okay with this?”

Adam kissed the top of Carly's head, letting his lips rest against her hair for a moment before responding. “Yeah. There's so much going on over at my sister's house right now, I think it's the right decision.” He crooked one finger under Carly's chin, turning her head until their eyes met. “That doesn't mean I like keeping secrets from her. I want to tell her about us soon.”

***

“Hey, where's Jules?” Adam asked when he found Micah sitting alone at Julia's kitchen table. Looking around, you'd never know what all had gone down in the house the night before. Micah must have gotten up early to finish cleaning.

Micah nodded towards the staircase without saying a word. He looked like hell. Adam poured a cup of coffee for each of them and slid one across the table to Micah as he sat down. “Hey, you do know you can't beat yourself up forever, right?” It would be easy to blame Micah for everything Karen had done, but that wasn't going to do anyone any good.

“I know that up here,” Micah said, tapping a finger against his temple. “That doesn't change the fact that all I seem to do is hurt your sister.
Now she's getting hurt physically
and
emotionally. I should just walk away.”

It was a surreal conversation for the two men to be having. On  one hand, Adam agreed that Micah had hurt Julia so much over the years he had no right to have her in his life. On the other hand, Adam saw how much he'd matured over the years and knew in his heart that Micah didn't cheat on Julia because he didn't love her.
The fact that Adam was closer to Micah than he was to his own sister only complicated matters.

“Look,” Adam started, staring into his coffee. “You can feel like an asshole for a lot of things. You screwed her
hard
when you were kids. But you're not that guy now. And I'd be willing to bet even Julia would agree that Caleb's a pretty cool kid most of the time, so we can't totally hate you.”

“I guess,” Micah conceded. “I really do love her. You know that, right?”

Adam nodded. Once he got over hating Micah, he had no doubt the man loved Julia with every fiber of his being. If there had been any doubt, living under the same roof as Micah and Karen, listening to them fight about how he'd never gotten over Julia would have been enough to convince anyone. “Are we going to sit here like a couple of women or did you want to figure out how to keep Julia safe? Until they catch the guy that was with Karen Friday night, I don't want my sister here alone. Ever.”

“She's gonn
a kick your ass if she hears you talking about her like she needs protecting.” Micah smirked, almost as if he was picturing the showdown between the Sanders siblings. “But you're right.”

The two men sat at the kitchen table for nearly an hour
planning everything they could do to make the house more secure. When Adam called Annie to get her parents' phone number since they owned the house Julia lived in, he asked her to come over to sit with Julia while he and Micah ran to Madison. Annie, always the quick thinker of the bunch, said she'd invite Carly to come with her so they could do some pampering and finish helping Julia settle into her new home.

Both men stopped talking when they heard Julia coming down the staircase. “I already heard you guys, so you might as well keep going,” she said as she rounded the counter to pour herself a cup of coffee. Adam was surprised he wasn't getting more resistance from Julia. Unless she'd had a lobotomy during the years they were estranged, she was
very much a no-nonsense woman who didn't stand for anyone feeling like they had to protect her.

“You're not going to freak out about us trying to keep you safe today?” Adam laughed, still expecting her to go off on him at any moment. It felt good to have a relationship with his sister
again; he just wished it didn't feel like they were strangers most of the time.

“No, I think you guys have proved your point.” Julia chuckled, staring into her coffee mug. “That bitch is nuts!” Both men stared at her, speechless. Listening to her, you'd never know she'd been through anything stressful. Adam wondered if Micah had slipped her something to help her sleep. The sister he remembered wasn't a morning person and definitely didn't handle conflict well. This perky woman across the room from them was someone entirely new.

“Sorry, Micah. I know she's Caleb's mom but face it, she's completely and utterly crazy.

When Micah crossed the room and kissed Julia deeply, Adam grimaced. It should bother him to see them together after everything that had happened over the course of a decade, but it didn't. It felt right seeing them together
, almost as right as it felt when he was with Carly. That didn’t mean he needed to watch them making out in front of him.

“Jules, I'm going to use your bathroom. You don't have a curtain for the other shower yet.” He'd spent so much time curled up on the bed with Carly that he hadn't had time to shower. If Julia asked why he was using her shower, he had no clue what he'd say. “Micah, once I'm dressed, we'll
run to Madison. Annie and Carly should be here by then.”

As expected, Julia saw through their plan for the girls to come over while they were gone. She didn't put up much of a fight because as she pointed out, it had been far too long since the three of them had bee
n together. Then, she threw the guys yet another curve ball when she said all five of them would go into Madison together. She needed to get all new bedding thanks to Karen slicing hers and didn't trust the guys to pick out something she'd like.

***

Being back in Wisconsin wasn't anything like Carly had expected it to be. If you'd told her six months prior that she would not only come home for reunion weekend, but would also be spending her Sunday afternoon with her childhood best friends and her boyfriend, who happened to be her friend's younger brother, she would have asked what drugs you were on and when you planned to share them. While it wasn't anything she could have seen happening in her lifetime, it was good to have the gang back together.

Just like they did when they were younger, the girls made a game out of seeing how much they could torture Micah. When they were teens, it was clothing stores in the mall. Now, it was Bed, Bath and Beyond, looking at everything from bedding to blenders. It wasn't quite as much fun since Micah wasn't the lone male anymore, but it was still something familiar. Just one more thing to make Carly realize how much she missed life here.

“Hey Carly,” Micah called out from behind an endcap overflowing with pillows. “Do you think Adam should get some new pillows?” Carly's eyes grew wide as she looked over to Julia to see if she caught on to what was being said. “Fuck man, that hurt,” she heard Micah groan. Carly hoped Adam got a good shot in on him.

“I don't know, Micah,” Carly called back. “What did you think the last time the two of you had a slumber party?”
Two can play this game.

The girls started giggling as they started looking at the different bedding displays. “So, how do you like being home?” Carly asked Julia casually as walked up and down the aisles.

Julia let out a frustrated laugh. “You mean other than finding out Micah cheated on me, had a kid and lied to me about it? Or, do you mean with the exception of his ex-wife pulling me into a dark bathroom, the same woman he cheated with, and then having her break into my house? Other than all of that, couldn't be better.”

When she put it that way, Carly could see why it wasn't an easy question to answer. “Yeah,
other than all of that. I mean, is it weird being back?” Carly was fishing for information. It was too soon to even think about moving halfway across the country for a man, but she couldn't deny that there was a possibility of having to make that decision in the future.

“It's okay, I guess.” Julia kept her head down, but Carly could see her smiling. Obviously, once you removed the bullshit from the equation, Julia didn't mind being back home. “I'm still not sure I'm cut out for living here forever, but it's been good to spend some time with Adam and Annie.”

“And Micah?” Carly asked. Gran made it sound like they were far from getting back together, but from everything Carly had seen since walking into Julia's house that the high school sweethearts were well on their way to a reconciliation.

Julia flopped onto one of the bedding displays. Her shoulders
sagged before she leaned over to bury her face in her hands. “Carly, I have no clue what to do about him. I really want to be pissed at him forever, you know. But then we're around each other, and it's just like it was when we were kids.”

Carly sat next to her, ignoring the icy glare from the sales person at the end of the aisle. “Have you ever thought that maybe you don't always get to choose
who you love? Maybe you were supposed to come home, and you two were supposed to find a way to get past your differences.”

Julia's body stiffened. “Our differences? I think it's
a hell of a lot more than differences, and you know it too.” Julia pressed her lips together tightly. “Speaking of which, why didn't anyone bother to tell me? Do you know how stupid I felt coming home after all these years and finding out that Micah has a son who just happened to be born about seven months after we broke up?”

It wasn't anger that washed over Julia's face, although that would have been a justified reaction. All Carly saw when she glanced over at her friend was pain. After the first boy she ever loved
betrayed her, Julia was then betrayed by everyone for more than a dozen years. Everyone knew the truth behind their breakup, but no one told Julia. At first, they didn't want to hurt her when she seemed to be adjusting well to life in college. Then she met Josh and seemed to be so happy no one saw the point in telling her something that was likely to make her doubt her feelings for him. Granted, their marriage wasn't a fairy tale, but knowing Julia, she would have run from any man had she known the truth about Micah. Given the way Adam and Julia's mom fooled around and then left, both of them had serious trust issues to begin with. Over time, it simply became second nature to avoid Micah's name in conversation.

Carly felt sick to her stomach when she realized it was happening again.
This time, Carly told herself it was temporary, only until Julia could digest everything she'd already learned about the past, but was it really? Or was Carly worried her own relationship would fail, and she didn't want to jeopardize the chance at reconnecting with one of her oldest friends?

One thing was certain, the actions of their parents
totally screwed up both Julia and Carly, and they allowed those experiences to skew any chance they had at happiness.

***

“Seriously, Micah, what the fuck was that all about?” Adam asked once the girls had run off to do whatever it was they were doing. Micah dropped them off in front of the mall, telling them he'd be back in two hours to pick them up.