His Plus One by Kate Aster

Chapter 20

- GRAYDON -

“Boy, you really screwed that one up.”

I hear my oldest brother’s unwelcome voice sneaking up on me.

After a night sleeping on my parents’ couch, which regrettably does not turn into a bed like the one in my suite, the last thing I need is the sight of my three brothers coming up behind me and joining me for a coffee which I desperately need right now.

“Yeah, figures you’d blow it. We actually liked this one.” Colt smacks me in the shoulder as he echoes Carson’s sentiment.

Ignoring them, I eye Mason as he sits without an invitation. “You’re up early for a newlywed. Marital bliss already losing its sheen?”

He cocks his head. “Hardly. But Freya wanted to meet up with the girls for yoga this morning.”

“Is Hailey with them?” I dare ask.

“Yep. No missing her right now. She’s got this unmistakable aura about her.”

“I think they call it pissed off,” I suggest.

“Yeah. But there’s something else there. You gotta remember that with women. There’s always more to it than meets the eye. So you gonna give me the deets? All Carson ever says is his usual ‘It’s not my story to share’ bullshit.”

I glance in my oldest brother’s direction.

He shrugs. “It’s not my story to share.”

For once, I’m appreciating Carson’s respect for privacy.

“The deets.” My frown deepens. “Well, her ex sent her flowers and Carson here gives me the idea that I’m supposed to do something about it.”

“I gave you the idea?” Carson looks veritably appalled. “I never told you to do anything.”

“Well, you said you did a lot worse to Natasha’s ex when he showed up on your doorstep.”

“Totally different,” he counters.

“Not different at all,” I challenge.

“It is different. She was married to the guy and he cheated on her and got someone else pregnant. And after all that, he dares to show up? He totally deserved what he got.”

I frown. It is different then. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that yesterday?”

“You didn’t ask. Besides, I didn’t think you’d actually call her ex. All this guy did was send some flowers and a dumb note.”

“It was a creepy note,” I say defensively. “Even you said so. Morbid, I think you called it.”

“Ooo…” Mason’s eyes light with intrigue. “What’d it say?”

“Don’t,” I command my oldest brother, remembering what Hailey said to me yesterday. The last thing I need is to give her another reason to be angry with me.

Carson, thank God, raises his hands from our table and says his usual, “It’s not my story to share.”

I send him a grateful look.

“That was stupid of you, but I can’t believe she booted you out of the room for that,” Mason considers.

“I volunteered to go.”

He screws up his face. “You what?”

“I volunteered to leave. It was that or she might have left the ship.”

Mason shakes his head. “You shouldn’t have done that. You broke Rule #1 of relationships. Never go to bed angry.”

Colt laughs. “No, I think that’s Rule #2. Rule #1 is Don’t call your girlfriend’s ex without her permission.” His laugh turns into an all-out cackle.

I hate Colt sometimes.

“Well, you’re safe to try to make up now. There’s no leaving the ship today unless she’s a hell of a swimmer,” he continues. “Mom and Dad are so pissed off at you. You made her cry you know.”

I screw up my face. “Mom cried?”

I get an eye roll from him in return. “No. Hailey did. The three of them went out to dinner last night. Didn’t they tell you that?”

“They’re not speaking to me either. Just sent me looks of disgust as I curled up on their hard couch.” I shrink in my seat.

Hailey cried over this? God, I feel so small right now. I knew she was upset. Hell-raising mad even. But she cried?

Crying brings me a whole new level of guilt.

Mason narrows his eyes on me. “You need to apologize. Now. I don’t want everyone’s memory of my wedding cruise to be about your argument.”

“I’ve tried apologizing. Believe me. She won’t talk to me. Just texted me back the old ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ speech.”

Mason winces. “Ooh. That’s bad. Classic breakup line.”

“I don’t blame her,” Colt pipes in.

I glare. “Thanks for the support, Bro.”

“I’m serious. Max would have thrown a fit if I did something like that. The whole knight-in-shining armor stuff doesn’t go over well with women like Hailey. Max is the same.”

“What do you mean?”

“Dude, are you really this clueless? She’s not mad just because you called her ex. I mean, that was… nuclear. Huge mistake. But she’s also mad because you thought she couldn’t handle it on her own. It’s insulting.”

My shoulders droop. I hate it when my brothers are right.

Mason gives me a thump on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, man. We all do stupid shit when we’re in love.”

I open my mouth to deny it. I should say something. I can’t let my family start thinking that I fell for her or my mom will start texting me ideas about my own rehearsal dinner.

But I am in love with her. I might have realized it yesterday at the wedding. But the fact is, I probably fell for her a long time before that.

And I sure as hell don’t want this to end. I want more sunsets. I want more lunches. Hell, I want more cruises and I’m kicking myself for not booking that next one yet because if we had, then maybe she’d have to make up with me.

So, rather than try to deny it, I just grumble, “Okay, smart-asses. How do I make it right?”

“You know what you need to do?” Colt offers quickly. “You need a grand gesture.”

“A grand gesture? Like two dozen roses?” I deadpan. “Wasn’t it someone’s grand gesture that landed me in this spot in the first place?”

He gives a firm shake of his head. “Roses are pathetic. That’s not a grand gesture. Look at Mason here.”

Mason tucks in his chin. “What about me?”

“He proposed to Freya in a freaking coffee shop. Lame. That’s why he got stuck making up for it by throwing this blow-out beach wedding in the middle of the ocean that we all had to wake up at the crack of ass to get to on time.”

“Hey…”

Colt barrels on. “Girls want something dramatic they can blast onto the internet and go viral with. Proposing in a coffee shop...” His voice trails as he shakes his head at Mason. “Not a viral moment.”

“Well, hate to point out the obvious, but I’m not getting engaged,” I remind him. “Just trying to smooth things over.”

Colt swipes his hand through the air. “Engagements, big apologies. Same thing.”

“For the record, I proposed to Natasha on the couch and she seemed fine with it. She didn’t need anything dramatic,” Carson says in that know-it-all tone I hate.

“Yeah, but look at you now,” Colt pipes in. “Stuck planning an elaborate wedding at some vineyard to make up for the boring proposal. How much is that gonna set you back, genius?”

“It’s a meadery, not a vineyard,” he corrects, looking annoyed. “And at least I didn’t profess my love for her in front of two hundred of her co-workers at an office party like you did,” he says, seeing as we’ve all heard the sappy story at least three times from Max. “Talk about pathetic.”

Colt juts out his chin defensively. “It worked. She was so satisfied with it that she was justfine getting married at the courthouse in front of the justice of the peace.”

The stubborn look on Colt’s face suddenly morphs. Into sheer horror.

My jaw drops right along with Mason’s and Carson’s.

“What?” we all gasp in perfect unison.

The color drains from Colt’s face. “I—oh, shit.”

“You and Max got married?” I ask. “Without telling any of us?”

“We—not entirely—I mean, well, legally, yeah, but we’re still planning on having something small—you know, for family… it was just that—”

“Mom’s going to fucking kill you. You know how she lives for this stuff,” Carson admonishes.

“Forget Mom. I’m going to kill you,” Mason sneers. “If you’d let all of us in on this wedding thing at the courthouse, maybe Mom might have gotten her fix and not been up my ass for nearly a year as we tried to plan ours.”

“Up your ass?” Now it’s my turn to be pissed, and it has nothing to do with the fact that I slept on a couch last night. “I’m the one who always gets stuck dealing with Mom in this family. Do you know how many times she called me just about the meal options for your rehearsal dinner?” My gaze shifts from Mason to Colt. “I’m so telling on you,” I say, realizing I sound like I’m eight years old again.

“Don’t you dare.”

“This might work to your advantage, Graydon,” Carson points out. “Maybe if Mom’s mad at Colt she’ll stop being mad at you.”

I kind of like that idea.

Colt looks desperate. “Come on. Don’t. Bro Code.”

Ugh. Bro Code. I can’t break that. “All right. I won’t say anything if no one else does. But you have to help me crawl out of this hole with Hailey.”

Colt nods confidently. “Easy. You just need to publicly shame yourself.” He shrugs.

Publicly shame myself? Hell, I already did that yesterday at yoga class. But I’m not about to tell my brothers that.

“He has a point,” Carson says thoughtfully. “Apologies are more easily accepted when you can get a crowd on your side.”

I shake my head, standing. “You know what? I’m good. I fell into this ditch on my own. I’ll crawl out of it on my own.”

“Supposed to be a perfect sunset tonight,” I hear Colt shout at my back. “Great backdrop for the apology of the century.”

My other brothers laugh.

I know Hailey wants siblings. Right now, I’m thinking she can have all of mine.

I walk past the buffet and refill my coffee before heading to the stairs.

I keep thinking about that last text she sent me.

It’s not you. It’s me.

But it isn’t her. She did nothing wrong.

It was all me.

I think of what Hailey told me that first day in Bermuda.

“They think you’re the most likely Adler to get a Medal of Honor.”

At the time, I was strangely touched by those words.

But maybe my brothers didn’t mean it as a compliment. More as a warning.

They’re right. I jump into action too quickly. And this time it cost me.

I stop on the stairway realizing I’m headed to our suite rather than back to my mom and dad’s cabin. Sighing, I change course, and take a shortcut through the shops where Hailey and I were just the other night.

I frown as I walk by the jewelry store, engagement rings glimmering in the windows as though to mock me.

“Something dramatic.”

“A grand gesture.”

I scoff as I think about what Colt said. Easy for him to pull off a grand gesture after being inseparable from Max for nearly twenty years.

If I did something dramatic like pulling out a ring for Hailey in front of a bunch of people this early in the game, she’d call my commander to tell him I needed a psych eval.

The cruise director’s voice pipes in above me like the voice of God. “Attention, passengers. Don’t forget there’s a beer pong competition on the promenade deck at noon…” he begins, then prattling on something about bingo, a trivia contest, and the ship’s own version of the newlywed game in the Lido Lounge.

I tune most of it out until he says something that has my ears perking up.

“… and karaoke at four on the pool deck. It’s your last chance to stretch those vocal chords, plug your ears, and enjoy the spotlight.”

My frown deepens, knowing in my gut she’ll be there. She promised me she’d do it if I tried yoga, and I’ve never known her to not follow through on a promise.

Anger and frustration fuse in my gut. I was supposed to be with her when she did karaoke for the first time. I even remember back at our lunch table at the NSA when David first suggested we take a selfie doing it, that same conversation when Swami came up with this crazy cruise idea at lunch.

Instead, I’m betting she’ll be sharing her mic with all her new friends, belting out something apropos like Kate Nash’s Dickhead or Allison Iraheta’s Friday I’ll be over U.

Something dramatic, Colt had said. Hell, if I showed up with a grand gesture of an apology in the middle of that, it would be like jumping into the lion’s den. That’s pretty dramatic.

And I am a SEAL.

I can handle a lion’s den.