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What had just happened? My heart was pounding, my palms were sweating, and my mouth was horribly dry. I couldn’t escape the feeling that I’d just royally fucked up everything. I hadn’t done what I was supposed to do, but everything had gone down in what felt like five seconds. One minute, I was holding hands with Hanna, feeling like the happiest guy in the world, and the next, Ember was calling out to her mother.
“Do you have anything to eat? I’m starved,” Brandy said as she led Ember into the living room. “Do you have any new toys? I want to see them.”
I went through the motions of making an omelet, remembering the time that I’d made Hanna eggs after we’d made love for the first, second, and maybe third time. I was filled with hope that she was my future, but I worried about what it would mean when Brandy showed up.
Now my worst-case scenario was playing itself out in my cabin, and Hanna left. Needing help, I texted Knox.
Brandy’s here.
His response was immediate.
Knox:
You can’t be serious.
She was standing on my porch when we got back.
My phone buzzed. When I hit accept and lifted it to my ear, Knox barked, “Tell me this is a fucking joke.”
I heard Ember’s sweet voice mixed with Brandy’s nasally one, and I said, “I wish it was.”
“Are you alone?”
“Hold on,” I said as I turned off the stove and moved outside onto the porch. Hanna’s car was gone. Only my truck was parked in the driveway. Had Brandy gotten a ride here, and if so, from whom? Was there a boyfriend I needed to be worried about? “Okay.”
“I can’t believe she showed up a few days before Christmas.”
“Do you think it has something to do with that article?” Hanna and Marley had posted that write-up on me and the cabin. I’d approved it because it had been innocent enough. She’d talked about my close relationship with my brothers, my mom, and the move.
Knox bit off a curse. “It could have been.”
“When she comes, she usually asks for money and gives me some sob story about wanting a place to start over so she can spend time with Ember.”
“Then she disappears. Don’t give that woman any more money.” Knox’s tone was filled with disgust.
“What if I want her to disappear?” I asked, my heart thumping painfully in my chest.
“You can’t keep doing that. What does Hanna think?”
I ran a hand through my hair. “I have no idea. She left.”
“What do you mean, she left?” Knox was barking rapid-fire questions into my ear, but it felt like I was moving through honey. I sat in the rocking chair next to the tree we decorated just a couple of weeks earlier. Back when Brandy showing up was an idea and not a reality.
I hung my head and closed my eyes. “Brandy said something about staying in the guest room, and Hanna’s things were in there. Hanna said she’d get her stuff, and I thought she would move them to my bedroom. But then she came down with a bag, saying she was staying with her parents for a few days.”
“Was that her plan for the holiday?”
“We hadn’t talked about it, but I assumed she’d stay with us, and maybe we’d spend a few hours with her parents. She never mentioned staying overnight.” I racked my brain, trying to remember if she’d done that in the past, and I couldn’t think of a time when she had. She lived close enough to her parents, so there was never a need to stay overnight with them.
“She doesn’t have a place. It’s gone, right?”
“Yeah, her lease is up. That’s why she was staying with me.” That sent a pang through my heart. Was she still planning on moving out after the new year?
“I don’t like the sound of this. Hanna left because Brandy is staying in your guest room. Are you sure it’s a good idea to let her stay with you for a few days?”
“You obviously don’t think so.”
Knox chuckled without any humor. “You moved in your ex, and your current love was so uncomfortable she left. Why didn’t you stop her?”
