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“Deal.”
But when we got back, Sam didn’t have to worry about holding me back. Craig and Dad were trying to moderate a yelling match that was getting closer and closer to a brawl between Dakota, Dylan, and Co
Co
PARKING BEHIND THE multiple cars at the cabin, I started cursing at the icy walkway as I tried to run up to the door. Without knocking, I walked in and walked toward the living room, where I could hear voices.
“Co
“Where is she?” I huffed as I looked around the room. I heard a bunch of women talking in the kitchen and turned that way.
“We told you,” he began as he stood in front of me, stopping me from getting closer to the girls.
“I said where the fuck is she?”
“Hold on here,” Mr. Price said, standing up from one of the couches. “What the hell is going on?”
“Co
“Maci!” I yelled toward the kitchen, and Dakota pushed me back with a hard shove.
“We told you to stay away!”
“The fuck?” Craig said as he came to stand behind Dakota.
“And I should have never listened to you! Maci!”
The women began pouring into the living room, and I looked wildly for her.
“She’s not here,” Amber said, her face breaking out in a smile when she saw me. “She left, but Sam followed her.”
“Left? Left for where?”
“It doesn’t fucking matter, because we told you to stay the hell away from her!” Dakota yelled, and started coming toward me, but Craig stopped him.
“Now everyone just shut the hell up!” Mr. Price yelled and walked into the triangle Dakota, Dylan, and I were making. “This has been the most dramatic Christmas vacation I think we’ve ever had. Now someone better explain to me what’s going on, and I mean right now.”
Dylan opened his mouth, but I spoke over him. “I’m in love with your daughter.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ, not again,” Craig groaned.
“He can’t—”
“No,” I cut Dylan off, and kept talking. “Whatever that asshole told you last night, don’t listen to him. Maci doesn’t want to be with him, I’ve seen the way he treats her, all he does is order her around and belittle her.”
“Like that’s much better than what you would do to her?” Dakota sneered.
“I won’t hurt Maci!” I yelled at him, and turned back to his dad. “I’ve been seeing your daughter all month. I know that’s not a long time, but I also know that there isn’t another girl for me out there.”
“Co
“Dakota Price! Shut your mouth and let him talk!”
I looked over to Mrs. Price, and sent her a grateful smile.
“If you’re so in love with Maci, tell me why my little sister looks like she wants to die?” Craig asked before I could say anything else.
Mr. Price raised a graying eyebrow at me, and I shrugged lamely. “Because I listened to Dakota and Dylan when I shouldn’t have.”
“Wait.” Craig released Dakota and pointed at his brothers. “You both already knew about this and didn’t say anything?”
“He came to talk to us about their relationship the night before we came,” Dylan started, and his dad cut him off.
“What I’m not understanding is what I’m seeing right now. You three have been inseparable since you were kids, and now this?”
“They forced me to break up with Maci! Do you understand how much it killed me to do that, how much it killed me to have to lie to her so she would believe me, and then listen to her cry for the rest of the night? I feel like I’ve been suffocating ever since I left the goddamn bar after talking to you three!”
“Wait, three?”
“Sam was there,” I answered Craig.
“Why the fuck did everyone know except for me?”
“I hadn’t pla
“Yeah,” Dylan started, “and we already told you our answer. You can’t date or marry Maci!”
“That’s not your fucking decision! You’re my best friend, but I never should have listened to you in the first place!”
“You know why we can’t let you be with her!” Dakota yelled back.
“Why can’t he be with her?” Mr. Price asked, the only calm male left in the room.
“Dakota, I swear to God I will die before I hurt your sister.”
“You don’t fucking know that!” He started toward me again, and Craig grabbed him to stop him.
“You told us—”
“I know what I said, Dylan. But I will do everything to make sure I never hurt her!”
“You already have.”
All of the men froze, and some of the women gasped from where they’d been whispering to each other. Forcing myself to turn to the left, it took all my willpower not to run up to her and grab her in my arms.
“Maci,” I breathed. And when I saw her face covered in tears, I automatically started toward her, stopping when she held up a hand.
“Sam told me they made you do it, and for the record, I will not forgive either of you for that,” she looked at her brothers, and wiped at her face when she turned back to me. “But, Co
“Maci, no, you don’t understand. You have to let me explain.”
Sam bent down to whisper something in her ear, but she shook her head at him and spoke loud enough for us to hear. “I already told you, he let them tell him what to do.” Looking back up at me, my heart broke when she choked out, “That told me all I need to know. Just go home, Co
My mind flashed back to Cassidy for the first time in a month. Having her tell me to leave the way Maci just had . . . but at the time, I’d listened to her and had left. Maci was different, I couldn’t leave her . . . not again. “I can’t.”
She turned toward the door, before looking back at me, fresh tears falling down her cheeks. “Why?”
“Because you’re mine, Maci! You’re. Mine.”
“You said—”
“I know what I said . . . I was lying. I was scared of what your brothers knew about me, scared of what I could do to you . . . and so I did what I thought would be best for you. But I’m miserable, and I know you are too.” I had taken a few steps toward her, but was afraid of pushing her back, so I stopped halfway between her, Sam, and her family.
Maci shook her head, clearly confused. “What you could do to me . . . ? I don’t . . . what do they know?”
Turning to look at Dakota and Dylan, I shook my head when I realized and understood what I had to do. I threw my arms out at my sides helplessly when I looked back at Maci.
“I was abused as a child. That’s why I’m so protective of Amy. Because she was older, she took my half of the beatings until I was old enough to understand, and made sure that she took as little of them as possible. The guy wasn’t even my biological father, but it was my mom’s husband, and he was the one who raised us. He almost killed us one night, that’s how we met our adoptive parents. My dad was one of the detectives on scene, and he and my mom fought to adopt both Amy and me.”
The room had gone completely silent, and Maci stood there staring at me with wide, devastated eyes. Her mouth hanging open as she shook her head back and forth, like she was in denial.
“I’ve always felt like I had to protect Amy from men. After we were adopted, it took until she met her husband in college for her to trust anyone other than Dad and me. But the problem that your brothers have with us being together is I have my own demons to face from that time in my life. I’m . . . shit, Maci, I’m terrified of turning into him. I have nightmares of being him to my future family. I had no idea I’d even told your brothers about all this until they informed me when I approached them about us a couple days ago. Apparently I got wasted one night and told them. I told them that I’d ruin and destroy my future family.”
“Co