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Chapter Thirty-Seven
Jackson
Five minutes after Lena ran upstairs, Brodie came home. I was glad he missed the show.
“Hey.” I tried to keep the note of surprise out of my tone, but it was difficult because he never came home this early.
He grunted and walked to the fridge. Something was off.
“What’s going on?” I frowned at him and placed my hand on his shoulder.
He turned toward me, holding a bag of peas to his face.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Some joker thought he’d use my face for a punching bag. That’s what happened. Parades seem to bring the worst, as well as the best, out of people, and some of them can’t hold their liquor, particularly when their wife is cheating on them.”
“You were with a married woman?”
“She was here for the parade from Fall River Valley, and I didn’t know she was married. She lied about that.”
“Ya think?”
He gave me a sour look. “Don’t judge.”
I laughed. “I won’t judge you if you don’t judge me, little brother.”
He gave me a sideways glare. “What happened now?”
“I kissed Lena tonight,” I blurted it out, too excited about it not to.
“She’s still married.”
“Legally separated as of three days ago, and what about not judging?”
“Okay. Well, it was bound to happen, I guess.”
“That’s all you’re going to say?”
“You said not to judge.”
“I know, but I still want your opinion.”
“No, you don’t. You only want it if it’s something you want to hear.”
He had a point, so I let it go. I knew how he felt about it, and I didn’t want to hear it, but I’d hoped that because of his messed-up evening, he’d try to see things a little differently. Brodie had a bizarre way of dealing with things. I knew this by the way he used women. In his mind, he wasn’t doing anything wrong, simply having fun. But I knew what tormented my little brother.
* * *
I couldn’t stand not knowinghow Lena was feeling about the kiss, and I couldn’t stand not knowing whether or not she hated me now. So I drove into town and picked up some sticky buns from Traci’s Bakery. Luckily, I caught Traci as she was locking up for the night.
I knocked on Lena’s door, and she opened it a crack.
“Hi,” I held up the pink box. “We never had dessert.” I gave her the most charming smile I had. “And these are the best cinnamon buns in the entire county, something everyone should try at least once. And it’s my way of saying thank you for dinner.” That was all true, but it was also my excuse to see her.
I’m sure she saw through my lame excuse after I’d said it by the way she smiled and slowly opened the door wider for me to enter. She turned toward the kitchen. “I boiled some water for tea. I’ll get us a cup.”
I set the box of pastries on the small coffee table and watched her in the kitchen. She’d changed into the sweatpants I’d given her. I wondered if she slept in them and had to pull myself from the vision of her under the sheets, without the pants. We sat at the table, drank the tea, and ate the sticky buns, avoiding any and all discussion about the kiss, but I knew we were both thinking about it.
