His Brother’s Fiancée

3. Effie

3

Effie

Effie had thought she’d been cried out, but by the time she’d reached the end of the Smiths’ cabin’s driveway, her tears were blinding.

There’s no way I can be around anyone like this.

She didn’t even have to think about it. Effie angled the SUV towards the trailhead of the familiar chipped paths she’d explored with King all through high school.

It soothed her, just the sound of her footsteps in the wild. Like she was a teenager again, she easily picked out the sounds in the forest that hugged the outskirts of the city. Dark-eyed junco. American Goldfinch. Northern cardinal.

It was here, her junior year, that she’d first told King she wanted to be a vet tech. He’d laughed and joked that it was good her relentless memorization of bird songs would come in handy.

She knew her Dansko work shoes were getting covered in mud, but she kept on. Dr. Yung would give her hell when she saw them, but in the woods work seemed a lifetime away. Effie didn’t stop walking until she realized the sun would set soon. She was exhausted, but calmed.

As she approached the Explorer, the clouds in the sky started to turn a threatening deep slate. Effie barely made it out of the deserted parking lot before the first drops of rain appeared.

Freezing, she jabbed at the seat warmers until it was on full blast. It took her a mile to get into a reception zone, and her phone shook to life with backed-up texts.

The ones from Thorne she deleted without reading. Her mom, begrudgingly, had agreed to take care of Yaya.

“We’re out of thyme,” her mom had added.

“So figure it out,” Effie said under her breath before she replied with a simple thumbs up.

There were no messages from King.

No big surprise there. He never was much for the phone, even before he gave her an ultimatum and then took off for Chicago alone.

The rain had turned into a torrential downpour. Even with the wipers on as strong as possible, Effie couldn’t see more than a couple of feet in front of her.

She rounded the corner only to be greeted by a wildly veering sedan with its brights on. They blared the horn as Effie’s heart froze. Instinctually, she veered to the side of the road and stopped inches from the steep ledge that led to a creek.

“Forget this,” she said. In this weather it would take hours to get home—assuming she even made it safely.

Turning the car around, she slowly drove back to the cabin.

“Please be gone,” she whispered as she turned the SUV onto the cabin’s long driveway. “Please be gone.”

What was King doing up at the cabin, anyway? Last she’d heard, he had his act together with a normal, professional nine-to-five. She’d had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing when she’d heard.

Effie knew there was no way he could keep up that kind of charade. It just wasn’t him. But she hadn’t heard about him quitting.

She flipped off the lights as she rolled up to the house. The exterior lights were bright enough to make the entire, generous parking area visible. There was no sign of King’s car, but she hadn’t seen it last night either.

“Hello?” she called as she pushed the door open gently. “Anyone here?”

She wrinkled her nose as she noticed that King had tidied up what little things she’d brought into the cabin. He’d stacked her bag by the door with the cardigan folded on top.

“Neat freak,” she said under her breath.

“You know goddamned well that I’m here,” she heard King call from the kitchen. “Whose house do you think it is?”

Effie opened her mouth to fire off a snarky retort, but clamped it shut. She was starving, she was freezing, and the smell of the steak coming from the kitchen was irresistible.

King didn’t even look at her as she hovered in the kitchen doorway. Instead, he lifted the pan to keep coating the prime cuts in butter.

“So what’s the deal?” he asked, eyes still glued to the pan. “You show up at my cabin—break in, actually—”

“Excuse me, but I have a key?” she said, instantly irked. “And it’s not your cabin, it’s your family’s—”

“Actually, it’s in my name. Besides, I thought by now you might have grown out of the whole taking whatever you want from my family whenever and however you liked.”

Effie bristled. Back when they’d broken up, they’d never had the kind of intense fight that should have unfolded. When King had dumped her, it had been neat and fast. Effie often thought she’d been in shock, unable to react. By the time she’d started dating his brother, King was in Chicago, halfway across the state.

The neat transition from King to Thorne had been almost too easy.

“I—” she began, but King held up his hand.

“Forget it. So did you get him out of your system?”

“Who?” she asked, just to buy time.

She prayed he wouldn’t say his name. Just hearing Thorne’s name would send a fresh jolt of anger through her, but it was like a current. Buried deep. Maybe all the tears and the trek through the woods really had done some healing.

King let out a cruel laugh. “Three guesses.”

“It’s not that simple,” she said.

“I never said it was.”

From the living room, the dull murmur of the local news station suddenly became urgent.

“This is an emergency announcement,” a robotic voice said.

Without speaking, both of them rushed into the living room. Through the picture windows, there were fat flakes of snow beating angrily against the glass.

“Oh, my God,” Effie said under her breath.

“…travel advisory in effect…” the television warned.

“It’s sticking already,” King said as he peered out the window. “Shit.”

“No, no, no,” Effie said. “This can’t be happening, this can’t—”

“What the hell are you so upset about?” King asked. “You’re the one who randomly drove up to the woods when you know we’re the first place to get snowfall—”

“I didn’t have anywhere else to go!” Effie screamed.

She surprised both of them, and clapped her hand over her mouth as King’s eyes widened.

“Okay, I get it. Jesus,” he said.

The television flickered briefly and went black.

“The electricity—” she started, but King shook his head.

“The lights are still on, it’s just the television. I’ll get the emergency radio out.”

Effie struggled out of her coat and dumped it onto one of the thick leather chairs. She kicked off her shoes haphazardly. King, radio in hand, stopped and deliberately neatened up her shoes against the wall.

“We have a coat closet. In case you forgot,” he said, and looked pointedly at the coat.

“I’m sorry, how rude of me. I don’t mean to mess up your pristine cottage while we’re stuck in the middle of a freaking blizzard.”

Still, she picked up the coat and stomped to the hall closet. She knew she was acting like a spoiled brat, but she couldn’t help it.

First King had pissed her off, scaring the crap out of her like that in the morning. Acting like such a self-righteous jerk when she’d been so vulnerable.

But she knew it was really Thorne that deserved her rage, even though she couldn’t say she was surprised. There were clues, she’d just ignored them.

How he always changed the password on his phone and took it into the bathroom with him. The way he blatantly checked out waitresses or never texted back right away when he was on so-called business trips.

I’m a moron, and ignorance really is bliss. Or at least, it’s easier than paying attention.

She couldn’t get her mother’s words out of her head.

“Thorne’s so respectful!” her mother would gush. “Imagine that, offering to take care of all of us. What a gentleman—”

“Ugh,” Effie said as sunk into the couch.

King scanned the radio knobs to the clearest station. “… encourage those in the Chicago area, particularly in higher elevations, to batten down for the next twenty-four hours at least…”

“Well,” King said as he stood up. “Looks like it’s me and you, kid. It’s too late to make it anywhere now,” he said and looked back to the window. “It’s really coming down out there.”

“I’m supposed to be at work at seven in the morning,” she said. “The vet is going to be pissed if I don’t show up—”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have ran off into the mountains then,” he said, and looked over his shoulder at her. “I’d call the boss if I were you, tell them you’re going to be stuck here a few days at least.”

The last thing I want is to be stuck here with you, she thought. God. And all the crap I have to work out in the real world. Yaya, my mom, Thorne…

Just the thought of it all made her tired.

She worried her lip and took in his broad back as he faced away from her and gazed at the blizzard outside. It had been so long since she’d just taken him in like this. He was at once both familiar and a stranger.

There were things buried deep inside her memory that were suddenly brought back to life, like the small birthmark behind his right ear. Or the unbelievable V-shape which framed his hips that had become even more pronounced as he’d matured.

There were new things, too. Details that almost knocked the breath out of her. He’d always had a bit of a scruff in high school, but it had developed into a full-blown and permanent five o’clock shadow. His jaw had become even more square.

If this wasn’t King, the same King who had broken her heart, she’d fall in lust with him in an instant.

Get it together, Effie, she told herself. You read too many romance books.

That’s what her mom and Yaya said, at least.

Relationships aren’t just about two people, she reminded herself. Maybe they were right. She was quick to fall, to imagine what kind of fairytale taking a particular path might lead to.

And what had that gotten her? Inching towards her mid-twenties and only been with two men—two brothers, to be exact.

She’d watched as her college girlfriends had hookups and one-night stands. They gave her crap about her long-distance, steady boyfriend, but when they met Thorne that shut them up.

How many of them were dating a gorgeous, wealthy, golden boy? None of them.

“…up to four feet in higher elevations…” the radio continued.

Suddenly, she felt a weight fall into her lap. Effie hadn’t even noticed that King had swooped in on her.

“Might as well stay entertained,” he said. She looked down and saw one of the romance novels she’d grabbed from Thorne’s condo in her lap. “I can’t believe you still read this shit.”

“Hey,” she said, defensive. Effie looked up into those steely eyes. “At least I read.”

King laughed. “You don’t know anything about me, Effie. Not anymore.”

“And you think you know me?”

“I know you still read the same drivel you did in high school. I know you spent the day walking the trails by the creek—”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I know you,” he said pointedly.

King leaned down. It made Effie’s breath catch in her throat, but she refused to move or look away.

“And I know neither of us are surprised at what my asshole of a brother did. You deserve better.”

“You don’t know me,” she said. “You knew a little girl, a long time ago.”

King looked at her for a long moment.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said finally, and rose slowly.

“King?” she asked. “I, uhm. I know you don’t owe me any favors, okay? But I’d be really grateful if you didn’t tell anyone I was here.”

“Who would I tell?” he asked. “And how? You think I’m going to send a carrier pigeon into the city?”

King began to prod at the lingering orange in the fireplace as Effie’s eyelids got heavy. By the time the fire roared again and covered her face in heat, she felt nearly drugged.

The woods, the blizzard, and King had taken it all out of her.

As she felt herself slip into oblivion, she thought she felt a warm blanket thrown over her body.