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Lucy sighs. “Always. And I’m not the only one. Sarah hates her. Dad thinks she’s totally stuck up. I can’t imagine that the rest of the family feels much differently. And the way she just ran off like that! None of us wanted to see you marry her, but no one thought she would be that cruel.”
“How did I not know this?” I lean forward in my chair and shove a hand through my thick mop of hair. “This is quite a secret, Lulu.”
She wrinkles her nose. “There’s no call for childhood nicknames. It’s not exactly a closely held secret.”
“Why didn’t anyone ever talk to me about it?”
“I think Dad and Rex tried. You were off in LaLa Land. There was no way to reach you, especially once Holly announced that she was pregnant.”
I grunt. “I swear this is the first I’ve of it.”
Lucy purses her lips. “You’re a Bennett man. Y’all were born more stubborn than a bunch of pissed off mules.”
“Says the girl who didn’t shower for almost two months when she was twelve. Rex calls that Pigsty Summer, ‘cause you were against any kind of bathing or cleaning up after yourself. You only broke because Walker Harrison told you that you stank.”
She goes bright pink, and gives me an outraged look. “I was protesting the oil pipeline coming down the coast!”
I smirk at her. “You were doing it to get a rise out of Sarah.”
She scrunches her face up. “That too. Mom hated that summer.”
“Yep.”
After a minute, Lucy asks quietly, “Do you miss her?”
I give her a long look. “Who, Holly?”
She nods. I smile sadly.
“Yeah. It’s been six months since she officially took off. But I just can’t believe she’s gone.” I fish in my pants pocket, pull out Holly’s huge diamond ring, and lay it down on the metal table with a clang. “She sent me a long letter with this enclosed.”
Lucy picks up the ring and looks at it speculatively. “It’s absolutely hideous. I can’t believe that she picked this out.”
I smirk and take the ring back.
“Not only that, but she designed it herself.”
“Of course she did. Because she’s a selfish b–”
My sharp glance causes Lucy to swallow her words. “She is!”
“It’s too little, too late now.” Putting the ring back in my pocket, I sigh. “I hate knowing that my entire family hated Holly and nobody said anything. It would’ve been nice if one of y’all had slapped me with a big sign that said ‘Don’t Marry Her!’”
“I’ll remember that next time that you propose to a big jerk.” Her eyes sparkle. “So, have you dipped your toes in the dating pool yet?”
“Hell no,” I blurt out. “I’m in a one-year time out from all that foolishness. I’m in sexile.”
“Ewww, what?” Lucy asks.
“Exiled from the opposite sex,” I supply. “Sexiled.”
“So you’re not interested in being set up? Because you know my mom is just salivating over the idea.”
“I told this to Sarah already. I’m not interested. The same goes for anybody asking about my dating status. I am not open for business.”
“Noted.” She wiggles her brows. “Mom baked a bunch of applesauce-ginger-molasses cookies for your arrival and hid them somewhere. Wanna go find them and pig out?”
I roll my eyes and stand up. “Not interested. But my son might be. Let’s go find him. I’m sure he’ll help us discover Sarah’s hidden treasure.”
