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“Frank,” Dad said, his voice firm, “I’m warning you. Butt out of this and mind your own damn business.”
“Warning me? What are you gonna do, make me marry Carla’s sister?” Frank said, and Ryan laughed before quickly covering his mouth with his hand.
“She doesn’t have a sister, smartass. Stay out of this and leave Nick alone. He’s marrying that girl, and that’s final. I don’t have to explain myself or my reasons to you or your brother.”
“So that’s it then? No discussion, no conversation like two rational adults.” Frank pushed a little harder, willing my dad to break, but I knew it was no use. My dad refused to crack.
“We aren’t two adults, Frank. You are my child and I am your father. Now, get back to running your bar before Ryan burns it down being an idiot.”
When the call disconnected with a click, Ryan stood there with a shocked look on his face.
“He thinks I’m an idiot?” he asked, looking genuinely hurt.
Frank put his phone back in his pocket and stared at me. “I’m really sorry you had to grow up with that man. That isn’t the father we grew up with. I don’t know who that is.”
I shrugged, unable to find the words because we’d been through all this before. “I know it sucked, but I’m thankful you got to see that side of him. It’s the only side I’ve ever known.”
“An idiot?” Ryan was still fixated on the name our dad had called him before snapping out of it. “Who was that man?”
“Apparently that’s Nick’s dad,” Frank bit out.
I had to laugh. They didn’t want to claim the asshole any more than I did.
“Do you guys understand now that I don’t have a choice?” I asked, hoping for at least their understanding if the situation couldn’t be fixed.
“There has to be something we can do,” Frank said, refusing to be defeated. “Marrying the wrong person isn’t something I’d wish on my worst enemy.”
“I don’t know how to fix this. I just don’t see any other way.”
I laid my arm on the bar and dropped my head onto it, praying for one of my brothers to disagree with me, to say anything. When I was only met with silence, I accepted my future and my fate.
Day from Hell
Jess
All the progress I’d made with being over Nick came crashing to a halt when he called and told me about him and Carla. Since then I’d been sick over the news, even going so far as to look up his dad’s office number. More times than I could count, I pressed every digit of it but the last one on my phone, then chickened out every time. I was devastated and wanted answers, and needed more than anything to ask him why he was doing this. Nick marrying this awful person didn’t just affect Nick, it affected me too, and I wanted his father to know that.
When Rachel e-mailed me the online announcement about their engagement, with the wedding planned for only three months away, all the oxygen left my lungs in a single whoosh.
Three months. I had no idea why everything was so damned urgent, but I’d given up trying to make sense of it. The only silver lining was Rachel informing me that she’d be spending the “wedding weekend from Hades” with me so I wouldn’t have to go through it alone. I had no choice in the matter, and to be honest, I was grateful. There was no way I’d be able to get through that day on my own.
To my surprise, my sadness eventually dissipated as time passed, and anger took its place. I no longer blamed Nick’s dad for everything—I blamed Nick. He had the power to end this madness, to walk away from it, to stand up for himself once and for all. But he didn’t. He never did. And I refused to blame anyone else for what boiled down to being Nick’s actions, or inactions really.
I finally realized one day as I was eating with Brooke in the commissary on campus that this was Nick’s life, and mine was no longer tied to it. He’d willingly cut the cord that bound us together, freeing me. His choices and decisions had no longer had anything to do with me, and I needed to stop acting like they did.
“Maybe I will get under someone else,” I blurted during our lunch, and Brooke stopped eating her salad to stare at me.
“H
uh?”
I laughed. “Just hearing Rachel in my head is all. Sorry. She told me to get over Nick by sleeping with someone else.”
Brooke contemplated what I’d just said, squinting up at the ceiling for a moment before she looked back at me. “I guess that could work. But probably not, since you’d just be covering up your pain instead of truly letting it heal.”
I laughed again, truly amused that Brooke had taken my statement and dissected it like a scientist. “You’re probably right. Plus, it’s really not my style. I’m just so pissed all the time. I’m pissed at Nick. Pissed at myself.”
“Why are you pissed at yourself?” She placed her fork down and really focused on me.
