I shake my head. “Did he tell you why?”
“Yeah,” he answers in a low voice. “He told me he talked to James too. I guess he’s trying to recruit whoever he can to convince you to forgive him.”
“James didn’t say anything.”
“I know,” he answers. “He said he doesn’t want to get in between you two. And you know he’s got his own set of issues at home.”
“It wasn’t just a one-time thing,” I tell him. “He was seeing her for seven months before she demanded he leave me. She threatened to tell me. He started havingFatal Attractionnightmares and told me he couldn’t risk her meddling with his family. Said he couldn’t do that to me and Sadie.”
Josh scoffs. “That was nice of him.”
“It’s over.” I clamp my teeth over my lower lip. “It’s been over. For a long time. Not just because of the affair, but we’ve grown apart over the years. This was just the tipping point.”
Josh reaches for my forearm across the table. “Whatever you want to do, I’m here for you. Me and Mina. We’ll get you through this.”
“Yeah,” I croak hoarsely.
“And I’m sorry.”
I tilt my head to the side, a little confused. “About what?”
“If I had known…I wouldn’t have asked Everett to be a part of all of this.”
My body tenses hearing Everett’s name. “Why did you?”
He exhales a heavy sigh. “I just…missed him. He was my best friend, and he disappeared so suddenly. I wanted to catch up, know what he’s been up to.”
I nod, and Josh offers another apology. “I really am sorry, Teen.”
“It’s—I mean, it’s fine. I’m an adult. I can handle it.”
“Teeny, I was there.” He pauses to run a hand through his hair. “I was there when you had to pick up the pieces of your heart. You were never the same after. And maybe it’s that I’m getting married, and I finally met someone I want to spend the rest of my life with, but I can’t imagine hurting Mina like that.”
My breath hitches. It’s been twenty years and I thought what I went through, I went through it completely alone. Isolated in my own world of heartbreak where I cocooned myself in pain and grief. I never once thought about the people around who witnessed it all.
“If I had known what was going on between you and Leo, I would’ve never asked him to come. Not when you’re this vulnerable.”
“I’ll manage,” I say with a weak smile. “The wedding’s going to fly by, and I’ll never have to see his annoyingly handsome face again.” I try to convince myself of the words caustically pouring out of me. It doesn’t matter how little they ring true. I have to be okay with it. I have to be able to face Everett at my brother’s wedding. Because the ensuing alternative, the one where I choose to let my past peek through the cracks in the walls I’ve built, isn’t something I think I’ll survive.
Josh smirks a tender chuckle, indulging my feeble joke, just as Kelly returns. She places a large rectangular plate carrying various cake slices ranging in different flavors between myself and Josh. “So, we have red velvet, chocolate, carrot, confetti, and vanilla.”
I poke a finger in Josh’s direction. “No confetti,” I say sternly. “Bride’s orders.”
CHAPTERTEN
Everett
THEN
“Parlez-vous anglais?”
“Purrr—”
“Par—”
“Okay, this shit is hard.”
We’re interrupted by a sharp shushing sound, and Teeny giggles.
