“San Diego? That’s great! You’ll have family close by.”
I huff out a chuckle, though she’s right. My oldest brother, Madden, is based in San Diego now, and he actually played a season with the very team I’ve been invited to visit before he retired to run our family’s real estate development company. “I’m not sure that’s a selling point.”
She laughs. “At least it’s not Vegas.” Three more of my siblings are there—one of whom is Penny’s best friend. Which reminds me…
“Are you all set for Everleigh’s wedding?” I ask.
She nods and smiles brightly, and I never noticed how her smile lights up her whole face. “Maid of honor at your service. T-minus twenty-four days until wedding day. And only three days until her Vegas bachelorette party.” She wiggles her eyebrows. “What does she have you doing?”
“I’m not in the wedding. I’m not even an usher. She said she and Mav didn’t want to interfere too much with our schedules, so they decided to keep the wedding party small. But since I’m in town, she has me checking on the house basically every two days.” She’s getting married at the Bradley Mansion, the house where we were raised that’s currently going through renovations to become a wedding and event venue.
She laughs. “Full disclosure, she’s had me drive by at least once a week, too.”
I laugh and shake my head. “That’s Ev. Covering all the bases.”
“Are you going to the bachelor party?” she asks.
I nod. “Maverick invited me as a way to get to know me, or so says Ev. I think she made him, but it’s an excuse to go to Vegas and hang out with my brothers, so why not? When are you heading out there?”
“I’m not getting in until late Friday night. My mom’s watching the boys, and I can’t afford to take a day off work right now.” She purses her lips and shrugs.
My brows dip together. “Can’t they stay with their dad?”
She purses her lips. “What a great question. Theycould, but as it isn’t his court-mandated weekend, hewon’t.”
“Sounds like a dick.”
“You wouldn’t believe it. He’s not the same man I marred. I think the court isn’t thrilled with the way he keeps delaying everything.”
“He’s dragging shit out?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”
“How?” I ask. I have no idea how any of this works. Izzy drops my beer off, and Penny asks for another glass of wine.
I take a sip while she explains the divorce proceedings.
“Asking for continuances, which delays hearings by weeks or months. He contests every request I make. And when they’re at his house, my boys spend all their time with a nanny because he’s alwaysworking.” She puts air quotes aroundworking.
“Working?”
“That’s always what he told me he was doing when he was out late, but the viral video that still haunts my life showed how he was actually entertaining female clients at basketball games and who knows what else.”
“While you were home with the kids?” I clarify.
She nods. “I love my kids with my whole heart. But when I had them, I was under the impression we’d parent them together.”
“Not the case?”
She picks up her glass of wine and swirls it around. “No. He expected me to do everything during our marriage, so it shouldn’t surprise me. The kids had a day off? It meant I took the day off, too. One of them was home sick? That meant I didn’t go into work. Like what he did was more important than what I did because he made more money. But then I find out what he was actually doing all that time, and I just…ugh!” Her cheeks flush, and she slams back the rest of her glass of wine.
“Jesus, Pen. I had no idea it was so bad.”
She shakes her head and sets her glass down. “How would you?”
She’s right. We’re not close. I know her through my sister, but suddenly, I feel like I want to do something.
“What can I do to help?” I ask.
