Chapter Sixteen
"Matthew Vostek. This is Tania Talcott, Andie's friend. We met, y'know, tall, red hair, big bazongas. Look, this is the fourth message I've left."
"Fifth," Matthew muttered as he leaned against his kitchen counter and listened to the voice that by now was all-too-familiar. He'd just gotten home from work. He was tired, sweaty, and hot and in no mood for anybody's bullshit.
"And if you don't call me back this time, I swear to God I'm going to drive over there and camp out in front of your house until you talk to me."
And if the phone calls were any indication of her persistence, she'd do it, too. Matt shook his head in frustration and picked up. "What is it, Tania?"
"What did you do to Andie?" were her first words.
"What? Look, I'm not going to discuss this with you. I have no idea what Andie told you..."
"She didn't tell me a damned thing. But you must have done a real number on her, the way she's so all-fired determined to screw up her life."
"If it makes you feel any better," he snapped. " She dumped me, okay?" Great. Way to sound pathetic, Vostek.
"She did?" That shut Tania down, momentarily. Then, in a tone laced with suspicion, "Why? What did you do?"
He would have laughed, if he wasn't so pissed off. Of course it had to be his fault.
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One Good Man
by Nona Raines
"Damned if I know." She'd been angry when he'd called her on her father's drinking, but he felt there was something more, another reason she hadn't called and was avoiding him.
They were both silent for a moment. "Do you care about her?" Tania asked.
Hell, yes. I only wish I didn't. "Tania—"
"Look, she's about to make a big mistake." Tania's voice was a growl. "That stupid ass Douglas was sniffing around her yesterday. She invited him to come to her place tonight."
"Shit." His heart was a cold lump of clay in his chest.
"Shit is right." Anger vibrated through the phone line.
"What I want to know is, what are you going about it?"
"What should I do?" He was clenching his teeth so hard his jaw hurt. Goddamn, what was wrong with Andie, fooling with her ex after the way he treated her?
Tania was quiet again. "You don't care?"
"She dropped me, Tania. It's not my business." For a few moments there was no response. "Are you there?"
"You're as big an asshole as Douglas is," she told him.
"Don't lump me with him," Matthew snapped. Jesus, what was this? It was the second time someone compared him to that shit Douglas.
"Forget I called." She slammed the receiver down in his ear.
After a shower and a quick sandwich slapped together in his kitchen, Matthew went to the one place where, no matter how low he felt, he was sure to get his ass kicked. His brother's.
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One Good Man
by Nona Raines
"So, how's it goin'?" Adam asked lightly, in a way that hinted he'd already guessed the answer.
"Not so good. Shitty, as a matter of fact."
"Yeah?" There was no sympathy in his brother's voice.
"You talk to Annie lately?"
"Andie," Matt responded, pretty sure Adam purposely mispronounced the name, just to be an asshole, the same way he always managed to "forget" Chelsea's. "Not since the day I found her father on the kitchen floor."
"How come?" Adam leaned back in his chair, his eyebrows quirked.
Matt gave him a look of annoyance. "She dumped my ass, man. I told you that."
"And that's it? You lie back like a puss and take it? Wash, that's pathetic."
"Didn't you say she was a dog?" Matthew reminded him.
"Oh, come on," Adam scoffed. "You know I'm full of shit.
Kim chewed my ass all the way home and gave me a crash course in PC. Who cares what I think anyway, if you like the chick? Be a man, go fight for the woman you want."
"You never told me to do that when what's-her-name dumped me."
"Chelsea," Adam said. "Well, she wasn't worth fighting for."
"If I fought for Andie, I'd be fighting her dad, and I'd lose,"
Matthew told him.
"You expect her to turn her back on her old man?"
"She'd be better off if she did."
"Like mom would have been?" Adam asked.
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One Good Man
by Nona Raines
"Yeah." Matt's voice was soft. "If she'd left him, she might still be alive today."
"But she didn't, did she?"
Matthew was stubbornly silent.
Adam stared him down. "We never talk about it, do we?"
"No, we don't." Matthew spoke through gritted teeth. "And there's no reason to start now."
"But maybe it needs to be said. Mom made her choice. And she picked Don the drunk over us."
"Shut up. It wasn't her fault. It was him."
"She could have left him." Adam's tone was calm but unyielding.
Matthew shook his head. "She believed in her marriage vows. She wanted to live up to them."
"Even at our expense? Even though she knew how lousy it was for us?"
"She wanted us to have a father. She...she..." Matthew heard himself stuttering. He'd run out of breath and excuses.
His heart beat loudly in his ears.
Adam kept hammering. "She was afraid to be alone."
"That's nuts," Matthew scoffed. His throat felt raw. "She wasn't alone. She had us."
"She had you. I got the hell out as fast as I could, remember?" Adam shook his head. "I had to. I'd have ended up killing him if I'd stayed. But you stayed, Mattso."
He said simply, "She needed me."
"We needed her." Adam sighed. "But we got fucked over."
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One Good Man
by Nona Raines
Matthew recoiled, rage zapping through him, literally blinding him for a moment. Then his fists clenched as he fought the impulse to plant one in his brother's eye.
But Adam wasn't scared. He held up his hand to forestall an argument. "I know she didn't mean to hurt us. But look at us. You wanted to save her and spent your whole life beating yourself up because you couldn't. That's why you've always had a hero complex with women. Always had to find one who was needy or wanted rescuing," Adam told him.
"Okay, Dr. Phil. You got me all figured out." Matthew ground his teeth. "Now you want to know your story?"
Adam dipped his head once. Have at it.
"Your story is you don't let anybody get close. And if anybody's stupid enough to try, stupid enough care about you, well, you just have to treat them like shit. Make sure you hurt them before they get any kind of a chance hurt you.
That's what happened with Elyse, isn't it? She didn't disappear on a whim. You did something to purposely drive her away."
The words hung in the air like the stink of a rotten carcass.
"Well," Adam said quietly. "You got me, all right."
"Shit." Matt sighed after a moment. The topic of Elyse had always been off-limits. "I shouldn't—"
"No, it's the truth. I'm a miserable lonely fuck." He waited.
"But that doesn't mean you need to be. Don't be such a pussy, Wash Boy. Go tell Andie how you feel."
178
One Good Man
by Nona Raines