Page 128 of Merging Wright

“Landon came to see me. He’s the judge and jury, right? He told me none of the fires were my fault, or yours, or Jane’s. We were so close before the festival, and that’s all that mattered.”

“But Trixie’s and the vacant store . . .”

Myles holds up a hand. “Are the lights on in town?”

“Did you not see them lit up?”

“I did.” He tilts his head.

Then why was he asking me this question?

“It was never about the lights or the festival or even the town, Mach.” His gaze doesn’t leave my face.

“I don’t understand.” Whatever Fischer’s motive, I’d had my suspicion Myles must have known something. “Explain it to me.”

“I just wanted you to come home.” My twin catches my eyes, holding mine as his match my own. “Fischer had offered me the town, but I didn’t want it. I have my construction company. I’m building and rebuilding all the time. There wasn’t an incentive big enough to tempt me to take on this project alone. I told Fischer to leave it to you.”

My forehead furrows but then suspicion grows. “Why would you do that?”

“I wanted my brother back. I wanted your forgiveness for Tracy dying on my watch. I wanted this divide between us gone.” Myles hobbles forward, but his stumbling has me rushing to him, gripping his upper arms.

“But there was all this business about having a wife?”

“Ma had been singing Jane’s praises for years. She made it sound like you trusted this woman I hadn’t ever met, and I took a risk. If push came to shove, you’d need someone you trusted at your side. You’d need someone strong who didn’t take your shit and maybe . . . I don’t know . . . I thought at least she might be your friend. She’d help you through whatever you’d need helping with when you returned.”

Myles had been right about so many things. I trusted Jane, and she didn’t take my shit. She worked beside me, and while I’d always wanted to consider her a work colleague, we did have a friendship. She was more than an acquaintance.

“That was a huge fucking risk.”

Myles shrugs while timidly chuckling. “But worth it.”

Staring at my brother, I try to process everything. He’d been the one to coerce Fischer to write the directives into his will. He’d given up the town as his inheritance. He requested I take a wife.

“What about you? Who has been here for you?” It couldn’t have been easy to recover after that accident. He was wounded. Tracy was dead. I’d accused him of killing her. He’d watched his best friend die beside him. He’d lost Ainsley, a girl too young for him at the time. And I’d left town with my faulty accusations and misbeliefs about everything.

Myles shakes his head.

Fuck. I am the worst brother in the world.

“I’m sorry, man.” Pulling my brother against me, I wrap my arms around him. He doesn’t reciprocate the hug, but I don’t need him to embrace me. I need him to forgive me. “I’m so sorry, brother.”

Myles awkwardly pats my lower back twice before pulling away from me. He’s not willing to touch me. He may never forgive me.

“It’s been all my fault.” I try to catch his eyes, but he keeps his head down. The tension around us is thick but different. It isn’t hatred. It isn’t sadness. It’s the awkwardness of rebuilding our relationship, like rebuilding this town. We needed time and resources. Most of all, we needed each other to get the job done.

“Let’s finish hanging some shelves,” I offer, accepting that working side-by-side with my brother is the best way to fulfill Fischer’s will, which spoke of Myles’s desire.

My brother wanted me home.

And I was back.

59

Playlist: “Love Story” – Taylor Swift

[Jane]

The festivities fill our weekend, and once it’s finished, I’m ready for a long winter’s nap. One of the things I’m trying to be better about for myself is time off. I start my new position as economic developer for Wrightwood after the first of the year, so I have some time to find a house and move my things from Chicago. The new year is looking bright for me.