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I dug a finger into his arm. “I was never that person. You act like I was Miss Sunshine.”
“The times I saw you, it seemed like you were.” He remained casual while I continued to get worked up.
“No way.”
“When’s the last time you really smiled?”
I knew the exact second. Thinking about it made my knees weak.
“Not because of you.”
He winced, but quickly recovered. “Your dad misses Blake.”
“Why don’t you share something personal I can guilt trip you about?” I suggested.
I was doing the best I could. No one seemed to understand I’d lost my life but had to keep living. What was I supposed to do with that?
He held up both his hands. “I tried. I swear I did,” he said to the sky.
“You’ve done your good deed for the day. Run along now.” I flicked my wrist in a shoo motion.
He shook his head, blew out what was most probably a frustrated breath, and for a moment, I felt my anger shift to pain. I hated how everyone did that around me. At me. Because of me.
There was a time when Patrick looked at me without frustration. A time when there was softness in his expression. But not anymore. Now disappointment reigned. That along with his own anger as he said, “You grew up with no influence at all from your mother. So how the hell did you end up just like her?”
Chapter Four
Patrick
What was I thinking?
The second she’d hit the door of Dino’s, I was after her. And to what end? She wasn’t my friend. Had been a royal bitch to me, if I were completely honest. Why did I care if she pissed away her family?
Because I’d seen a rare moment of vulnerability. Been behind that thick wall she had between her and the rest of the world. Maybe she wasn’t the easygoing, smiley type like her brothers and Mr. Dixon. But most of all, she hurt and didn’t know how to cope.
I didn’t want her to push the people who loved her past the point of no return. She needed them, although it appeared she didn’t seem to think so.
But what she’d done? Volunteering to work for Holt? That meant something. I just didn’t know what.
“Going after her only encourages her,” Andrew said as we strolled down the sidewalk.
“I used to think she was just lashing out. But she really goes below the belt,” Trish said as she threaded her arm through her husband’s while he pushed Ella in her stroller.
“Glutton for punishment.” I kicked at a smashed water bottle on the sidewalk, then thought better of it and picked it up, depositing it in a trash can.
“I’m trying not to take her shots personal, but it’s getting harder and harder.”
“What she did, with your mother, it was awful,” Trish said quietly. “That doesn’t mean we should just give up on her.”
“I don’t want to, but what the hell do we do?”
“I told her to show up at the garage and play nice,” I said.
“How’d that go over?” Andrew asked wryly.
“Worse than you imagine.”
“No two ways about it, this sucks. But what it’s doing to Dad? As if dealing with that witch wasn’t enough, now Marlow’s adding to the shit pile.”
