Sitting on the stool at the island where Brynlee sat, I feel a heaviness weigh on me. I’ve spent two weeks avoiding people, and I hate that Mom’s heard all about it. As if I wasn’t already the disappointment in the family for being thirty-five and unmarried with no kids.
“Well, her ex from the city showed up, tryin’ to drag her back to Chicago by force if he had to, and popped her one in the mouth. Then you came out, scared him away, and dumped the girl as she stood there bleedin’ in front of everyone.”
Wow. That’s fairly accurate if not exaggerated. “I’ve lost my nice guy title, haven’t I?”
“Guess losin’ it isn’t everythin’ you hoped it would be, huh? So, Rhett, what really happened? Because I refuse to believe you’d do somethin’ so cruel to Brynlee.”
Swallowing, I can’t meet her eyes. The same as mine. I’ve never been able to lie to Mom. She sees right through any half-truths I try to give her, and I know she knows I lied to get out of the seven birthday parties that have been planned since Thanksgiving.
“I lost my mind,” I say because it’s very much the truth. How else do I explain what happened next? “Kevin showed up and tried to make her leave. She stopped me from beatin’ his ass when he grabbed her, which sent me into a spiral.”
Mom leans on the counter in front of me. “Why?”
“Because she protected him.”
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe she was protectin’ you? That man comes from money. He probably has seven lawyers on speed dial, and I have no doubt he would have sued the man he thought took his fiancée if he’d gotten the bop he likely deserved.”
Um, no, I hadn’t thought of that. At all. And now I feel like a bigger loser for everything that comes next. Damn it.
“They, uh, went outside to talk, and I don’t really know what happened there. I just know Everett came runnin’ into the bar shoutin’ that Kevin hit Brynlee, and when I got out there, he was leavin’ the parkin’ lot. She had a bleedin’ lip and ankle, but she said it was an accident.”
Her eyes widen. “Poor girl.”
“I lost it when she said she didn’t want to press charges. The whole situation with her engagement when I saw it still active online made me crazy. It was impossible to see any logic through the storm brewin’ in my mind.”
“This might be an absurd question, but did it ever occur to you to just… ask her about it? I know for a fact that she didn’t know until Thanksgiving.”
“It is absurd because it would have been logical. And, in case you missed it in the way this story has gone, logic and reasonin’ don’t make appearances.”
Mom sighs and rests her head in her hands. “I didn’t raise you to be this man, Rhett. You’ve always been better than this.”
“And I’ve always been left, Mom. I thought I was on borrowed time, and seein’ that countdown convinced me that she was goin’ back to him. If I asked her, she’d just lie like I thought she had been.”
“Rhett—”
“He’s a better man than I am, Mom.”
The glare I get makes me lean back as though lasers will shoot out and scald me. “First of all, he is not better than you.”
“He’s an underwear model.”
“And when has Brynlee ever made you feel as though you don’t measure up? From what everyone’s told me since you two got together, it’s clear as day that girl loves you. It was clear to me, too.”
I snap my eyes up to lock with hers. “What?”
“I saw it when I was talkin’ to her. It was written all over her face as she talked about the things she loved about you. She didn’t think you two were on the same page, and I don’t think she was wrong. It’s why she hadn’t told you yet.”
Everyone knew but me. “He’s richer than I’ll ever be.”
“She’s not hurtin’ for money herself. Besides, if that’s what she was after, she would’ve never left him.”
“I didn’t trust that she had actually left him,” I say and laugh when she gives me a stern look. One that tells me she knows I’m not this stupid.
“You don’t even know why she left him, do you?”
Licking my lips, I shake my head and stare at the counter. “I never wanted to know more than I had to about it. It was easier to pretend, for a while, that he didn’t exist anymore. Until he did.”
“He cheated on her.”
