Trevor blinked up at him. “Because I hate you. Was I not clear about that?”

“No,” Darrin said, lightly blowing on his coffee before he took another small sip, “you were quite clear about that.”

“Then why are you wasting my time with this bullshit?”

He pointedly looked around the small holding room that security had thrown Trevor in over two hours ago. “Do you have something better to do?”

“Seethe,” Trevor bit out.

“You know that I can make this whole thing go away, don’t you?” he asked casually, not mentioning that he’d already done that or that Trevor was free to go since that would take away his leverage.

“I’d rather become Bubba’s bitch,” Trevor informed him, which of course made him sigh heavily as he shook his head, wondering why the bastards in his family had to make things so difficult.

“You know that I’ll never miss a payment,” he pointed out, hoping to talk some damn sense into his cousin.

Trevor snorted at that. “It’s not about the money.”

“Then what’s it about?”

“Did I not mention that I hated you?” Trevor asked with a disgusted shake of his head, taking another sip of water.

“But you love Marybeth,” Darrin pointed out.

Trevor looked up and met his gaze head on, “So do you.”

“Never said that I didn’t.”

“But, you’ve never told her.”

He actually had…

But since he’d been drunk and had mistaken her roommate for her, who’d sort of flipped out when she’d realized that he was in love with Marybeth, he decided that it was probably one of those things that shouldn’t be mentioned.

Ever.

“I don’t need to tell her.”

Trevor chuckled, shaking his head in wonder. “You’re hoping that the Bradford curse will do the work for you.”

“Maybe,” he said with a shrug.

“It’s not going to work.”

“It just might.”

Trevor muttered something as he put his cup down. “The curse is bullshit. It’s not going to work.”

“Then explain Zoe,” he said as he placed his cup of coffee on the table.

“She begged me to marry her and I just didn’t have the heart to turn the poor thing down,” Trevor said with an exaggerated sigh and a sad shake of his head.

“Didn’t she lose a bet?” he asked with a frown.

“You bastard!”

“Just sell me the house,” he said, hoping to get this over with so that he could hunt Marybeth down and start the long process of convincing her that this was a great idea.

“Not happening.”

“Yeah, it really is.”

“I’ll sell the house to Marybeth, but not to you!”

“That’s really not going to work for me,” he pointed out.

“Because she’ll be able to kick you out?” Trevor guessed, shaking his head in disgust.

“Exactly.”

“I’m not selling you the house,” Trevor said firmly.

“Oh, but I think you will,” Darrin said, pushing away from the wall as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone. “Unless you want Zoe to see what you were doing last night,” he said, holding the phone out to his cousin so that he could see the damning picture in all its glory.

“You…bastard!”

“It sure would be a shame if Zoe found out that you were throwing away the lunches that she packed for you everyday,” Darrin explained as he returned the phone to his back pocket.

Trevor narrowed his eyes on him. “You’ll regret this one day, you son of a bitch!”

“Probably,” he agreed with a careless shrug as he headed for the door. “But look on the bright side, you just stopped yourself from becoming Bubba’s bitch.”

“He would have been gentle!” his cousin yelled after him, making him chuckle as he headed towards the waiting room, preparing for the fight of his life.

Less than a year later…

She never should have agreed to come on this trip, she realized as she turned over onto her side and blinked away another tear as she listened to the Bradford boys talking and laughing around the fire.

At least if she’d stayed home she’d be able to lounge around in her pajamas, eating junk food and watching Lifetime movies while she wallowed in self-pity. Instead, she was stuck on this trip, forcing herself to smile and laugh at jokes while pretending that she wasn’t dying inside. Maybe she should just tell them that she wasn’t feeling well and get a ride into town, she thought even as she dismissed the idea. She didn’t want to talk about it and if she told them that she wasn’t feeling good, they’d gang up on her until she told them what was going on.

Sighing, she rolled over onto her other side, trying to find a comfortable position on the old, lumpy sleeping bag that Darrin had dug out of his parents’ garage. After a few more turns, groans and sighs, she decided to steal Darrin’s sleeping bag and use it as a mattress. Sitting up, she reached over to do just that when she heard a twig snap close by.

“I’m fine,” she muttered as she grabbed her sleeping bag and threw it on top of his.

“Then come out and join us,” Darrin said as he unzipped the large net window at the back of the tent.

“No,” she simply said as she sat on top of her mattress, laid back and closed her eyes.