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“How?”
“From the time we were kids, my family has treated her as one of us.” I put my forehead against hers. “Then again, that’s what people from Burdett do.”
“Where?” She’d obviously never heard of the place because it was a bump in the road in the middle of nowhere Texas.
“It’s where Grandma Carter lives. Where Dad was raised. The Jacobs have been friends of ours since time began, I’m pretty sure.”
“I had no idea those kind of relationships were real,” she said, a little wonder in her voice.
“They’re very real.”
“That’s why Stone and Muriella let your brother live with them.” It sounded like dots were connecting in her mind.
“Mulaney’s his sister, so it’s kinda different, but even if she weren’t in the picture and Easton needed a place to stay, they’d let him. No questions asked.” Giving the shirt off one’s back wasn’t just a saying to the people of Burdett. It was a way of life. One I hadn’t adopted.
“I don’t get it. If you’re all friends, what’s the big deal about Mulaney?” She moved her hands from my chest to my shoulders, and I temporarily forgot the anger Mulaney incited in me every time I thought about her.
“The second she came to Carter Energy, she was a VP, just like me and Easton. My dad thinks she shits gold. Whatever she says is gospel.”
“Jealous much?”
“Wouldn’t you think he’d listen to his own son over her?” I exploded. “When he took a temporary leave as CEO, he named her as interim.Her. It should have been Easton. Or at the very least me. But Dad never even considered us. I know he didn’t.”
She cupped my cheeks. I tried to shake her off, unable to stand any kind of comfort, but she held firm. “I get why you’d be upset about that.”
“He didn’t even tell us he was considering taking time away. Just called a meeting and boom, Mulaney’s CEO.” The pressure in my head diminished as I unleashed all my pent-up frustration. “Easton says Dad did it so we could spend more time with Mama too.”
“What if that was your father’s rationale?” She rubbed her thumb across my cheek, her calm a stark contrast to my fury.
“He could’ve at least tossed it around with the three of us.” I held her tight against me, needing her strength. “That was the final straw. I’d already started siphoning money and manipulating EXODUS at that point, but her being named CEO was the catalyst to speed up the timetable. If they were going to blow me off about everything, I’d destroy what was so precious to all of them and make it look like the company’s failure was her fault in the process.”
As the words came out, I realized how petty that was. I’d been a jealous child in a grown man’s body. But the way my family had embraced Mulaney still bothered me. It was like they chose her over me. Every. Single. Time.But when did that start?
“You ever think about letting go of your grudge?”
“Would you?” We worked in tandem, soaping and washing one another with the efficiency of a couple who’d been doing it for years.
“Depends on why I was pissed off.” She rinsed the last of the suds off. “There is a fine line between hurting others and hurting yourself. Most of the time when I’ve harbored bad feelings toward someone, it was me who suffered the most.”
“So if I could move on, how should I go about fixing it?”
“I don’t know if you can.” She tossed me a towel before taking one of her own off the rack. “But I’d start with a sincere apology. If you can’t give them that, there’s really no point in saying it.”
“I don’t see this going anywhere very fast.”
“Yeah. Saying ‘I’m sorry’ is practically impossible for me too.” With slow, purposeful strokes, she dried herself. “Pack the extra towels in our bag. These are a hell of a lot better than the ones we have.”
“You don’t think they’ll notice they’re missing?”
“I don’t care.” She flipped her hair over and wrapped the towel around it. “Hey, I know. We’ll bring ours back up here. Then we didn’t steal; we just traded.”
“I’m going to have to take inventory.” There was no telling what my little kleptomaniac would take, and none of it mattered. I just like aggravating her.
“I don’t want your family photos or your granny’s quilt.”
“That quilt holds some good memories for us.” I put my arms around her from behind, resting my chin on her shoulder. Her eyes met mine in the mirror. God only knew what was about to come out of that mouth.
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but you make a good point.” She wrinkled her nose as if that were difficult to admit. “Speaking of family photos . . . do you have a sister?”
