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I swallow hard. “I’m sorry.”
Wes’s head snaps back a bit, and he furrows his brow. This wasn’t the answer that he was expecting. “Why are you sorry?”
“For causing all this. We never used to fight like this. We all just got along, but now . . . I deserve this. I might as well have pushed the two of you together myself.”
“Jared . . .” London’s eyes glisten with tears.
“It’s okay, London. I understand. He loves you—he always has. I’m glad there was someone there for you when I left.”
She shakes her head. “That’s not how it happened. We just started officially seeing each other a year ago, and our marriage . . . it’s not working.”
“It’s not working because you can’t get over him and what he did to you.” Wes points at me. “You love him way more than he deserves.”
The hurt in Wes’s voice is clear. The tension between these two still seems raw from the outside of the situation, and I seem to be the very source of what’s ruining their marriage. It’s time for me to leave before I make things any worse for them. “I’m just going to go. The two of you obviously have a lot that you need to work out.”
Wes steps back, allowing me to pass by him. “Yeah, I think it’s best you go.”
The coldness in his voice stings as I walk out onto the porch, leaving Wes and London behind. The closeness I once shared with my brother is long gone. I don’t see a way back to the relationship we once had, since it’s clear that we’re both in love with the same woman.
“Jared, don’t go!” London pleads. “Stay.”
I turn around and face her. “I’m sorry, London. I don’t belong here. You and Wes . . .” I hesitate, unsure of what to say. “You don’t need me in the middle of this, causing you any more problems.”
I don’t give her a chance to say anything else. I all but run to the delivery van, jump inside, and speed off to process everything I’ve just learned. Once the initial shock passes, grief washes over me. The relationship I had with London is dead and gone, and it hits home that I’ve really lost her. Even though I’m the one who left her, a small glimmer of hope always flickered in the back of my mind that someday, somehow, we’d find our way back to one another. But now she’s with Wes, my own brother. It’s ironic that I expected Wes to stay out of my relationship with London, and now the shoe is on the other foot.
She said things between them weren’t working out, but I won’t intrude on their marriage. I can’t interfere no matter how bad I want her back. I’ve already been selfish enough when it comes to Wes and London, and I don’t want to hurt either of them any more.
When I get back to the
shop, Mom greets me with a smile. “How’d it go?”
I smile but decide that I’m not ready to tell her about who I just ran into. “It was fine.”
She frowns, and I’m sure she already knows that I took the yellow roses and delivered them to London, but she’s not letting on that she does. I know my mother, and she’s waiting on me to dive into telling her the bad news before bringing it up herself.
“No problems? And you found everyone all right?” she asks again.
I nod. “Everything went fine.” I need a distraction. “Are you ready for dinner? I’m starving.”
Mom wipes her hands on the faded blue towel she’s holding. “Yep. All done here. Let’s go.”
Through dinner, I’m quiet. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to Mom and hear all about what’s been going on in her life, it’s just that I can’t stop thinking about Wes and London.
Mom reaches across the table and places her hand on my forearm. “Is everything okay? You seem like your mind is somewhere else.”
I take a drink from my water glass and sigh. I could continue to hide the fact that I know about London and Wes, but my mind is teetering with so many questions. Who better to ask than her? “Why didn’t you tell me about the wedding?”
Her lips pull into a tight line, and then she sighs. “I thought you took the yellow roses.”
I nod. “I did, and let me tell you, I don’t know who was shocked more—me or London.”
“I can imagine. I never meant for you to find out that way. My plan was to break the news to you once we came here for dinner. How are you doing now that you know?”
I shrug. “I think I’m still in shock. Honestly, I can’t believe London married my brother. It just hurts so damn bad. I wanted to marry her. I wanted to be the one who gave her the Kraft name, but I wasn’t here to do that. It’s my fault that they’re together, and I can’t even be mad at them, even though I wish I were. It would be a whole lot easier to hate them both instead of having this heart-wrenching sadness inside me right now.”
“Were together,” Mom corrects. “They were only married about three months, and London broke it off.”
I stare at Mom from across the table, and I can see the wheels turning in her brain. She wants me to know that Wes and London are over, and it’s almost as if she’s trying to encourage me to not give up hope of getting London back. But the thing is, even if she somehow finds a spot in her heart that still loves me and is able to forgive me—us being together, it will crush Wes.
