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My heart pounds as I recall the encounter with Brady earlier, but I am fully prepared to defend whatever I need to. That’s not what I want from this dinner, though. I don’t know what I do want from this dinner. Fuck, is this some sort of announcement that we are in a relationship? Are we? Of course, we are. The man loves me. And unlike me, he isn’t afraid to say how he feels.
Shit, I didn’t think this through at all. My steps slow a bit and Carter reaches back for my hand.
“What is it?”
I just eye him.
“D, it’s just family. The people in that house are your family, too.”
He’s right. Devyn, Brady, even fucking Levi, are my family. And Vicki, she doesn’t know me, but I suspect she knows the history. She doesn’t strike me as a woman who misses anything. Brady comes by that trait honestly.
I nod and take a deep breath. Given Brady’s mood this morning, I’m fairly certain the dinner invite did not extend to me. A memory of the night that seems like a lifetime ago flashes through my mind. I brought a date to this house once. A random twink who hit on Levi, but, hell, I can hardly blame anyone for that. But this isn’t some random twink I might fuck once, one who is posing as my date in order to calm everyone down about me being so lonely.
Nope, this is Carter. This is Brady’s brother. This is the man I’ve spent a lifetime hating because hating myself was too much to take. And this is Carter, who, despite all of that, is standing here with me, reaching for my hand. I let him have it but drop it just as we enter the kitchen and I step in to meet Levi’s shocked expression. I stop in the kitchen as Carter dashes into the living room by-passing Levi and heads straight to Vicki.
Devyn bounces in and does a double-take, looking at me wide-eyed. She gives me a hug and ushers me fully into the house. “I hope I’m not intruding,” I whisper to her.
She smacks me hard on the chest. “Of course not!”
I’m certain Brady doesn’t share that sentiment. I scan the room, looking for him, but he isn’t there. Suddenly, his body fills the frame of the doors to the patio. He stops and stares across the room at me. No warmth. No ‘so glad you could join us’. Just an icy glare.
“Ignore him. He’s cranky today,” Levi says.
“I might be the reason he is cranky today.”
Levi gives me a look indicating he knows that to be true. “He’ll get over it.”
Levi has way more faith than I do. Regardless, at least a few people in this room are happy to see me.
Carter motions me over to where he is standing, clinging tightly to his mom. Brady’s mom, his stepmom. You’d never know that by the way he looks at her, the way he talks about her.
Physically, there is no doubt who shares her blood. Her hair is gray, but with the dark undertones, it’s clear it was once thick and dark like Brady’s now silver-threaded hair. They have the same olive skin and those gray eyes of his came from her. She is only slightly taller than Devyn, but leggy, like her son.
I’ve met Vicki on a couple of occasions, but never spent time with her.
“I think you two have met, right?” Carter says.
I nod. “Yes.” I hold my hand out for her. “Mrs. Hughes…”
“Please, call me Vicki,” she begs.
I smile at her. We make some small talk about hockey and Minnesota. I mention the neighborhood my parents recently moved to, and she exclaims she has friends a street over from them. “We play bunco there every week,” she says. “I’m so sorry about Lizzie.”
Well, that about knocks me over. Apparently, St. Paul is even smaller than it seems. It gets Carter’s attention, too.
“Thank you,” I manage.
“That’s one reason they moved over there. The Alzheimer’s facility is less than a mile away.”
Vicki squeezes my arm.
“I’m so sorry about The Captain,” I look at Carter and then back at Vicki. She gives me another squeeze and a smile, before she moves to the living room leaving me with Carter’s curious stare.
“Lizzie?” Carter asks.
“My mom,” I say.
“I’m so sorry.”
