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I pretended a taxi passing by was the most interesting thing I’d ever seen. “She already is,” I muttered.
“Why’d you do it? Why would you want me to think the worst of her even after you knew we were together?” Genuine curiosity mixed with hurt laced his voice.
“I hate her.” Never ever had I admitted that out loud. And now that I’d said it, I wondered just how true it was anymore.
He stopped walking. “What happened between you two?”
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “It’s like she took my place.”
“How can you say that?”
“Just the way I see it.” I kicked at a loose piece of concrete on the sidewalk. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry about trying to make you think she and Dad were having an affair.”
“I’m not over it, but I’m trying.”
I threw up my arms. “You shouldn’t ever get over it.” My shout echoed off the building beside us. A woman slid past without doing a double take, like a man screaming was normal.
“I’m not going to pretend the things you’ve done aren’t despicable. The money and the company—” He scrubbed a hand across his forehead. “If it had just been me you affected, but people lost their jobs. Good people that I had to personally call and tell them they’d been laid off.”
“I kept them all,” I said defensively.
“But Dad said—”
“Because I made him think that.” I paced in a small circle. “I’m an ass. I’m worse than an ass, but I worked with them too. Sandie Reynolds had less than a year to retirement. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—take that from her.”
Easton stared at me as if I were a stranger. “They’re in Houston?”
“And there’s still an office building. I didn’t close it after I bought the company even though that was part of the deal. Call the Carter Energy building right now.” I checked my watch. “Mr. Stills is on duty at the security desk, just as he has been for the past forty something years.”
“This is what I have such a hard time with. That man, the one who wouldn’t just disregard people who helped us become the success we are and the one who barely leaves our mother’s side, he’s the one I know. The one I’m fighting for.”
I hung my head. He put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me in for a hug. I held him tight, a lump forming in my throat.
“Don’t forgive me. I don’t deserve it,” I rasped, unable to let him go.
“You’re right. You don’t deserve forgiveness, because you fucked up. I can’t understand how you could have been so vindictive and hateful, especially toward Mulaney. But you’re my brother. You’ll always be my brother. And I want you in my life. I’m not sure when the hurt will go away, but I will forgive you. Now that I understand more, understand where your mind went, you don’t have a choice. It’s whatIwant.”
It was what I wanted too, but I couldn’t say that. Couldn’t say anything because I was afraid he’d change his mind.
He hugged me hard, then slapped my back.
“You’re still doing the community service at Paths of Purpose.” His tone was so much lighter than it had been, filling me with hope I didn’t realize I’d been searching for. “Only this time, don’t pick up any of the women there.”
“What’s the point in going then?” I joked. Volunteering at the shelter was no hardship, considering the alternative.
“Keep it in your pants, little brother,” he teased, his arm slung around my shoulders as we resumed our walk home. “I don’t think that will be a problem anyway. That devil woman has you by the balls.”
“The hell she does,” I argued, and he cast me a disbelieving look.
“Did you know she left?”
“I told her to go.”
“You didn’t mean it.”
“Oh, I meant it. She said we’d keep tearing at each other until nothing was left. It’s better this way.” It didn’t feel better, and I was still furious with her over what she’d done, but I dreaded going back to an empty bed.
“She left her dog with Mama.”
