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Finally, she raised her gaze to mine. It was cold and distant. “You give yourself way too much power.”
The deflection was meant to be an arrow, but it was what she didn’t say that wounded.
“I expect honesty. Especially from you.” Why had I expected anything different tonight? Because the more I learned of JoJo, the more selfless I saw her? And she was tenacious. Had I thought she’d be that way when it came to our relationship too?
That old familiar bitterness crept in, contaminating my thoughts as it always did.
JoJo and I went from hot to cold to hot again and I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with it. Wasn’t sure I could.
I’d lived the last two decades in a veil of lies. I held JoJo to a higher standard. Was she more like Alma than I’d thought?
JoJo dropped her fork with a clatter. “You want the truth? Yes, I stayed away because of you.”
CHAPTERTWENTY
JOJO
I’d letKane get under my skin again.
He seemed to permanently live there, stoking my temper to the point where I had no control over it.
And I prayed we could eat the rest of this lovely meal in uncomfortable silence.
Something pinched at my chest. He’d told Nancy I didn’t eat meat and she’d gone out of her way to prepare something especially for me.
Why? Why was he kind enough to do that?
“Honey, what happened to make you feel that way?”
This woman had been kind to me in a way my own mother wasn’t capable of. She genuinely wanted to help, but was there any help for this?
Kane knew why I’d stayed away. He’d been awful to me, except when he saved my life. And even though he’d hinted that he wasn’t happy enough to stay with Alma, he’d married her. And then he’d been terrible to her for two decades.
Guilt that I’d overlooked all the awful things he’d done to my sister crept into my chest. But if she were in my position, I had no doubt she’d do the same thing I was... probably more.
But she’d been in a similar situation and—I wouldn’t think of that now.
“I’d like to hear this too. We didn’t exactly hit it off that weekend in the Hamptons, but if you’d have given it a chance, we could have tried to fix it.”
I hated the note of hurt in his voice. Hated how it tugged on my heartstrings and made me question my decisions. I’d made them, and I’d stand by them because it had been the best thing all around.
“You’re my sister’s husband. Out of respect for your relationship, it was best I stayed away.” I sounded foreign, detached, despite I wasn’t.
I’d lost time with my family that I’d desperately tried to make up when I could. But I couldn’t be in the same space with him and Alma and act normally. Not after what he’d done to her.
“Washer husband.”
“It’s not final,” I said quietly.
“A technicality.”
“You should go back to the root of the problem,” Nancy said.
Kane and I looked at her like she was speaking gibberish.
“How do you propose we do that?” he asked carefully.
“Go back to the Hamptons.” She wiped her mouth with her napkin. “Meet again.”
