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Yeah, anger and jealously could eat a hole in a man—or it could find a home, knotting up, implanting in the lining of the soul. “He needs someone to blame for the shit life has handed him, and an older brother with questionable motives is handy.”
“Are your motives questionable?” He couldn’t read her voice, no longer knew her, so he couldn’t tell the intent behind the question. Maybe she thought Lucas helped her in order to insinuate himself into her life, maybe she wondered if Lucas still loved her.
But he didn’t love Courtney any longer. “I don’t have motives, but a man hurt by life imagines every shadow a threat.”
Courtney didn’t respond to him. Silence squatted on the line between them. Easier to change the subject. “I talked to Mom last night. She said they had him up and moving yesterday.”
“Yeah, they’d started physical therapy before he got so sick with the infection and he’s doing well. Physically, he tires easily, but considering how sick he was days ago, it’s a miraculous recovery.”
The doctors called it a miracle.
Lucas’s mother called it merely Ben being Ben. His younger brother always had a flair for drama, even when at death’s door. Sort of like Chris.
Though Lucas had been relieved to hear his brother had made such quick recovery, the thought of facing Ben created a storm of emotion inside him. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about the man who had stolen the life he’d built in his head and lived it out with the woman Lucas had once loved.
And Lucas wasn’t sure how he felt about leaving Addy.
Never had he contemplated a life anywhere but Texas. The open, rambling life suited him, so why did he feel empty when he thought about going back to the man he was? What had changed him?
He had no answers
“Any idea when you’ll come home?” he asked.
“Unbelievably, we’re coming home Saturday afternoon. We’ll catch a flight into the air station at Belle Chasse.”
“Do I need to pick y’all up?”
“No, your parents are flying down Thursday or Friday, so they’ll be there to help with the kids. You’re pretty much off the hook.”
He leaned back on the truck, giving a nod to an older gentleman walking by, his motley dog snuffing through the weeds grown lanky at the wall of a corner bar. “I’m inferring you don’t want me around when you arrive?”
“I assumed you needed to get back to your life.”
Something hot and bitter flooded him. They no longer needed him so they were done with him. Both Courtney and Ben wanted him to slink away, fade into the horizon never to be seen or heard of again. Just like before.
But it wasn’t just like before.
Courtney had changed everything when she’d called him and begged him to come to New Orleans. Sending him back to his relegated place in their lives would be like putting toothpaste back inside a tube. Wasn’t going to happen… and trying would make one hell of a mess.
Deep down Lucas knew he’d been changed by Michael, Chris, and Charlotte. He’d wiped their tears, scrubbed their faces, and caught their laughter in his hand, inhaling it, creating a place in his heart for them. He wasn’t going to leave their life and never come back. He wasn’t going to resume invisible uncle status again.
No more being sidelined. “I’m not going home without talking to you and Ben about what happened between us.”
Again silence sat heavy for a few seconds.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“You know what I mean. It’s time we dealt with what happened years ago, Courtney. Surely you didn’t think I would come to your house, build a relationship with your children, and then slip away like some stranger in the night. How fair is that to Michael or Chris? Even Charlotte likes me now.”
“You intentionally forgot about us, Lucas, or had you forgotten the silence between us was your choice?” Courtney’s voice rose in aggravation. “Youwouldn’t forgive us and you built that wall. Not us. But I don’t think now is a good time to deal with what stands between us. Ben is going through a lot of emotional baggage with the loss of his leg. He’s angry, grieving, and still recuperating. Maybe later in the summer… when he’s better.”
Lucas understood her need to protect his brother, but every instinct in his gut told him now was the time. “No, I’m not waiting any longer to settle things between me and him. His injury has proven people can’t continue to put off words that need to be spoken, thinking there will be a tomorrow. So, I will be here when Ben comes home. Then I’ll go back to Texas. But things will be different.”
Courtney took a deep breath. “Please, Lucas. Don’t rock this boat. Not now.”
“The bill is due.”
“We’ve waited almost thirteen years. Surely, we can-”
