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“We heard what happened at your shop.” I let my voice trail off, hoping she’d give me more information.
“It happened sometime last night. The alarm wasn’t working—” She stopped abruptly with a glance at Cammie.
What could I even say? It was unfortunate, or it sucked? All of that was true, but nothing solved her reality.
“Can I watch TV, Daddy?” Cammie spun on the stool and slid off. Her plate was empty, and her milk was mostly drunk.
“If that’s okay with Brooke.”
“The remote is on the coffee table,” Brooke said.
Cammie ran and jumped onto the couch. Normally, I would have admonished her, but my attention was on Brooke.
I stepped closer and then stopped, not sure how she’d receive me. “Are you okay?”
Her eyes welled with tears. “I took a huge risk, and it didn’t pay off.”
“It’s not over yet.”
Her shoulders tensed. “Isn’t it? I’ll lose weeks redoing the renovation. I’m not sure I’ll survive. The renovation sucked up all my savings.”
I wanted to move closer, to touch her and draw on the connection we’d formed over the last few weeks. “Is there somewhere we can go that’s a bit more private, but I can still keep an eye on Cammie?”
Brooke nodded and moved through the living room. “The deck.”
She opened the slider, gesturing for me to go first. It was a small deck only a few feet off the ground. The yard was neatly trimmed, and flowers lined the perimeter.
She sat in one of the two chairs, and I sat next to her.
“I’m sorry for last night. I overreacted.”
She looked at me hesitantly. “Did you?”
“I was upset when you didn’t tell me your plans. Not because of Bean Rush, but because I thought we were in a relationship, and you tell each other things when you’re in one.”
Her shoulders slumped. “You’re right. I screwed up. I wanted to tell you, but then there was so much distance between us this week.”
“Again, my fault. I pulled away. I’m used to it just being Cammie and me. Even when Maria was alive, she wasn’t with us. We parented separately. We didn’t do things together. We had different rules for Cammie in each of our houses, but it worked for us.
“I get that. I’m not trying to come between you and Cammie.”
“That’s not what I’m saying. I’m sorry, I’m not expressing myself very well.” I took her hand in mine, thankful she didn’t immediately pull away. “I want you to trust me, and I guess when I saw your sign, I felt betrayed in a way.”
I cringed at that because it was nothing like what her ex had done to her.
She covered my hand with her free one. “I screwed up, too. I shouldn’t have kept it from you. Heck, you probably could have helped. Hailey kept pushing me to do it, but you’re right; trusting anyone is hard for me.”
We’d both screwed up. “Do you think you could grow to trust me with time?”
She opened her mouth and then closed it again. Finally, she said, “I fell into old patterns, assuming you wouldn’t have my back. You told me you were interested in working together, and it didn’t compute. I couldn’t stop thinking that you might have alternate motives.”
“I can’t imagine what you went through, finding out your marriage was fraudulent. That has to be the worst kind of betrayal.”
Brooke shook her head. “I don’t feel embarrassed anymore, and that’s because of you.”
We were better people because of what we’d gone through in the past. It didn’t make us automatically better people; we still had to work on it each day. Occasionally, we’d fall into old patterns, and we’d have to remind each other of who we were. We weren’t those people who were afraid to get hurt or trust each other. We believed in each other.
ChapterTwenty-Seven
