The Home-wrecker (The Goode Brothers)
The Home-wrecker: Chapter 45

Those were the last two words Caleb uttered before passing out and being hauled away by the paramedics. I stayed by his side for as long as I could. But eventually, they slammed those ambulance doors in my face.

I sobbed the entire way to the hospital in my car. All I kept thinking as I drove was that this was all my fault. If I had just told Sean sooner, or if I’d broken up with him when I had the chance, none of this would have happened.

Why was I so afraid? It’s because of me that Caleb is in the hospital right now. It’s because of me that his arm is broken and his hand is shattered.

And yet, after all of that, he still uttered those two words to me after I said how sorry I was.

I’m not.

It baffles my mind how someone can love someone else at all costs, regardless of the sacrifice. Knowing what it cost him to be with me, he still did it. Caleb and I both feared Sean’s reaction when he found out, but Caleb took that risk anyway.

I’m not.

The nurses in the emergency room wouldn’t let me back to see him, no matter how much I cried and begged. So I slept the night away on the weathered, dirty vinyl seats of the emergency room waiting area.

By the time someone finally shakes me awake, it’s early morning.

“Hey,” the man says gently. He looks oddly familiar, but I’m sure I’ve never met him before. “You must be Briar,” he adds as he takes a seat in the chair opposite mine.

I wipe the drool from my mouth as I move into a sitting position. “Yeah,” I reply.

“I’m Luke, Caleb’s brother.”

“Oh.” I glance around the waiting room, looking for his mother or someone else. Panic sets in as I stare at the triage desk, waiting for an answer. “How is he? Have you talked to him?”

“They’ve put him in a room, and he’s being prepped for surgery.”

“Surgery?” I ask in a panic.

“It’s nothing major,” he replies, trying to calm me. “They just have to put a few screws in his arm to set the bone.”

I slap my hand over my mouth. The grotesque sight of Sean’s foot stomping on Caleb’s arm reenters my mind. “Oh my god.”

“They’re only letting his family back right now, but the nurses said you slept out here all night.”

Suddenly, I want to cry. Exhaustion, fear, and adrenaline have my head pounding.

“I had to,” I wail. “The ambulance came and got him, and then they said to wait here, but it’s been all night.” My voice is shaking with emotion.

“Okay, okay. It’s all right.”

“I just want to see him,” I cry.

“I know you do,” he mumbles. “Let me see what I can do.”

Wiping the tears and streaks of makeup from under my eyes, I watch Caleb’s brother walk to the triage desk of the emergency room. He leans down and gives the nurse behind the counter a flirtatious grin. She glances my way, giving me a stern look before turning back toward him.

After a moment, she nods and gestures at me. I scurry from my chair, and when I reach them, Lucas wraps an arm around my shoulders.

“If anyone asks, you’re his wife, okay?”

“Okay,” I stammer nervously.

The nurse stands up and walks us through the large door leading to the emergency room. We go down a long hallway and up the elevator until we reach the third floor. When she opens one of the doors on the right, and I see Caleb lying there, I begin to cry again.

“Caleb,” I sob, rushing to his side.

His mother is there, holding his good hand in hers, and it looks as if she’s praying quietly to herself.

When she lifts her eyes to look at me, I can tell she’s been crying too. Wiping away my own tears, I brush his hair from his forehead. The bruises and swelling around his face make my heart ache with remorse.

“They’ve pumped him so full of pain meds he’s not waking up right now,” his mother says softly.

“As long as he’s not in any pain,” I reply.

When I feel his mother’s skeptical eyes on my face, I want to say something, but I don’t know what. I want to apologize because this happened because of me, but I don’t quite know how much they know. I’m sure they have questions as to why their son was so badly beaten at a party after a football game. But if they knew the truth, that it was because of me, would they hate me?

If it was my son, I would.

Luke scoots a chair up behind me and allows me to sit at Caleb’s side. His mother holds his left hand while his right is bandaged and resting against his chest. Since I have no hand to hold, I just continue brushing the soft hair away from his face.

And in my mind, the apology echoes over and over like an incantation. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

Present Day

I’m standing at the edge of the pool deck, staring down at the man currently sitting at the bottom, waiting for him to come up for air.

Glancing down at my watch, I time him.

“Almost four minutes. That’s actually pretty impressive,” I say as his head pops up, and he shakes the water from his face.

He spins toward me, looking surprised. “Oh, hey.”

I prop my hands up on my hips as I stare down at him. “Care to tell me why my husband is still sleeping at eleven a.m. in the morning?”

A coy laugh slips through his lips. “He’s still sleeping?”

“Well, yeah, Dean. He didn’t get home until nearly four o’clock this morning.”

Dean shoots me an apologetic smile. Lowering myself, I sit on the edge of the pool and let my legs dangle in the water as he approaches. I shake my head at him in mock disappointment as he plants his hands on either side of my body.

“It’s not my fault he decided to surprise me at work,” he says.

“Uh-huh,” I reply. “And what exactly did you do at your work in the middle of the night?”

With a wince, he turns his sexy smirk away from me. “I mean, do you really want to know?”

Biting my bottom lip, I fight a smile. “No,” I reply, “as long as I get payback.”

His brows shoot upward flirtatiously. Then he glances behind me at the house. “Where’s that little monster who is bound to interrupt us?” he asks.

“My sister picked her up this morning to take the girls shopping.”

“Oh, so we’re alone then?” he replies as he tugs me closer to the edge of the pool.

I place a hand on his chest. “Let me stop you right there.”

“I already told you a little blood doesn’t scare me,” he says with a wink.

“We are not having sex in my swimming pool in broad daylight,” I reply obstinately. But as he begins unbuttoning my shorts, I can’t help the giggle that escapes.

“Are you sure about that?” he replies in a sultry tone before dragging me into the pool. I let out a shriek as water soaks my clothes, but he quickly quiets my screams with his lips against mine.

When I’m with Dean, it’s like nothing else exists. He treats me differently than everyone else, like an entire person, separate from a mother and a wife. I’m lost to the world when I’m in his arms, which is probably why I don’t hear the car door slam in the distance.

“Knock, knock, we’re back early⁠—”

Dean tears himself away from me as I turn to see my sister standing in the yard, staring down at us with her mouth agape. It feels like she stands there forever, just staring. Then she quickly turns away nervously.

Shit.

“Felicity had a little accident, so we had to cut our shopping trip short.” Juliet starts pacing wildly as if she doesn’t know how to behave.

“It’s okay,” I stammer as I climb out of the pool. I glance back at Dean awkwardly, who exits from the other side, grabbing a towel to dry off.

“I’ll be…uh, over there,” he stutters as he disappears toward his apartment.

I wrap one of the spare towels around myself as I stare at my sister, waiting for her to acknowledge me.

“Abby’s already in the house,” she stammers without looking at me.

“Juliet,” I say, trying to get her attention.

“Um, I’ll just… I’ll just go,” she says.

“Juliet, wait,” I say, calling after her. “It’s not what you think.”

She spins toward me, meeting my gaze with hers for the first time. “Not what I think? Because I think what I saw was your new tenant with his hands all over you in the pool and the two of you making out like teenagers.”

I let out a sigh. I don’t want to lie to my sister, and I promised Dean that we would make this work, that we would make people understand. So, hiding the truth and lying as if we have something to be ashamed of is not how I want to handle this. And who better to launch the whole idea with than my sister?

“Yes, I know that’s what you saw, but I’m telling you, it’s not what you think,” I reply calmly.

“Okay, so it’s not you cheating on Caleb?” she asks, astounded.

“It’s not,” I say.

She scoffs as she lets her hands slap against her legs. “Okay, then, what exactly is it?”

“Caleb knows,” I say softly.

Juliet’s eyes widen as she stares at me. “Oh god.”

She sounds appalled, as if she’s just discovered that we are some alien life forms. And finding out that we have somewhat of an open marriage is the worst possible thing she could have just discovered.

“Calm down,” I say.

“Are you guys, like…” her voice trails as she glances around to make sure that we’re alone, “swingers?” She says it like it’s the punch line of a joke.

“No,” I reply. “We are not swingers.”

“So, you just have an open marriage?” she asks.

“Not really.”

“I’m so confused,” she says, looking at me, waiting for some sort of clarification.

“Okay, we’ve never told anyone this.” I start as I take a step forward and cross my arms. “But technically, Caleb and I are both with Dean, or rather, he’s with us. We are all together.”

Once I’m done speaking, she continues to stare at me, her mouth parted and her eyes wide. After a moment, she finally turns away, taking a moment to breathe and think.

“Oh my god, Briar,” she hisses, “aren’t we a little old for this?”

“A little old for what?” I ask, feeling offended.

“I don’t know—threesomes and partying like you’re in college. You’re supposed to be trying to have a baby, not screwing around with some twenty-six-year-old.”

She sounds so pretentious and judgmental; it hurts to hear her talk to me like this. Sure, my sister does live on a high horse from time to time, but I hate hearing her talk this way.

“Okay, first of all, we’re not partying. This isn’t a phase. And we’re not just screwing around with him, Juliet. We love him.”

“What do you mean we?” she scoffs. “Caleb is…”

It’s not really my place to tell, but there’s no way to hide it now. “Yes, Caleb is with him too. But I’m asking you to keep this to yourself for now.”

Her mouth hangs open, and the way she looks almost offended grates on my nerves. How dare she judge Caleb or me. How dare she act like this somehow hurts her.

“You made a vow, Briar,” she snaps. “To each other. In front of God, you made that vow. Does that mean nothing to you?”

“Caleb and I have kept our vows,” I reply. “Bringing more love into our relationship doesn’t change that. Besides, I’m done trying to live my life to please God.”

“How progressive of you,” she replies with scorn.

“I thought you were going to take this a lot better,” I reply, letting my brows pinch inward as I glare at her.

“Take what?” she shrieks. “This is ridiculous, Briar. Do you even hear yourself?”

“I do hear myself, Juliet,” I reply in a clipped tone. “What I’m struggling to hear and understand is why on earth you’re so upset about this. You’re acting like what I’ve just told you somehow affects you at all when it doesn’t.”

She scoffs. “You’re kidding yourself if you think this doesn’t affect everyone around you. What about your daughter? What sort of example are you setting for her?”

“That she can love anyone she wants and be in any kind of relationship that makes her happy,” I argue.

“A relationship? That’s what you call this?”

“Yes, because that’s what it is.”

She lets out an exhale through her nose and shakes her head at me. “I don’t think Felicity and Abigail should play together for a while. I can’t expose my daughter to…whatever this is.”

Bile rises in my throat as I fight the urge to scream or vomit. This isn’t fair. But it’s clear I can’t make her understand that.

I don’t respond to that. Instead, I just avert my gaze and mutter under my breath, “I think you should go.”

“Yeah, I do, too,” she replies, sounding angry.

She stomps out of my yard, but before she can leave, I call after her. “And for what it’s worth, Juliet, we’re not trying for a baby anymore.”

She presses her lips together and gives me a nod. I’m already feeling sick from the response, as she adds, “At this point, I think that’s probably for the best.”

Her words sting and there’s a burning behind my eyes, but I won’t let her see me cry. My sister and I have definitely butted heads before. We don’t always see eye to eye. But I never expected this.

For some reason, I felt as if she would have had my back before anyone. I expected my mother to be the one so appalled. Not my sister. But it always was them against me. Now, I truly feel it. I have no doubt that my mother will react the same way as Juliet, tenfold.

But to know that I don’t have a shred of support from my sister hurts more than I ever expected it to. Even after I hear her car door slam and her tires against the gravel as she pulls out of the driveway, I stand on the back patio soaked to the bone, holding the towel over my body as I let that entire interaction wash over me.

It dawns on me now that Caleb and I have been in serious denial. No one is going to just accept our relationship without doubts and judgment. Those who do accept it likely won’t take it seriously. They’ll see us, as my sister said, like it’s some partying threesome phase we’re in.

The road ahead of us feels daunting and insurmountable if that’s the choice we choose to make.

I’m sitting in one of the patio chairs and staring straight ahead, letting my mind ponder and reflect when I hear the apartment door closing. Dean appears in front of me after a few moments. I lift my gaze to his face as he gives me a sympathetic smile.

“Did you hear that?” I ask.

“Every word,” he replies.

Then he crouches down in front of me, placing his hands on my thighs as he stares into my eyes.

“That’s how it’s going to be with everyone, Briar. We don’t live in a perfect world. I’m terrified about what this relationship might cost you both.”

I reach for his hands as I lean forward.

“I’m not,” I reply with confidence.