AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So, what made you want to come over?” she asked looking between the two. “I mean, you could have texted saying you wanted to talk, really talk to me and not yell at me for who I happened to have fallen in love with.”
“Because we figured it’d be better to do it face-to-face and thought it might be better to talk to you on your own before we brought Tyler into the conversation,” Kevin answered her.
“We know we reacted badly, continued to react badly for too long, Sis,” Noah said warming her heart at the sincerity in his eyes as he said it. “We’re sorry about that, truly. It was just a complete shock to find you with someone so suddenly but especially with Tyler of all people. I acted like an ass, but it wasn’t all because he’s an Anderson. I mean that played a big part of it at first too, but there were two other things that were really bugging and worrying me about it. One, we all knew he was engaged to Angela just weeks before your announcement. We all know that the engagement and marriage were just for show now, but at the time, I didn’t.”
“I can understand as my older brother you’d be worried about that,” Justine said giving him a slight grin. “They really weren’t together in any way though.”
“So Olivia’s told me,” Noah replied making her chuckle at his tone.
“The other reason, and my biggest one because to be honest, I never thought Tyler was into Angela,” Kevin added, “is because of how he treated girls.”
“What are you talking about? Until Angela he hadn’t really even ‘dated’ anyone,” she asked, not following him.
“Yeah but I’d heard about how he dealt with girls while in college,” Kevin told her sending her brow up again at the anger in his tone over it. “One of the girls I was dating for a bit had a sister around your age. I think she was maybe a year older than you and I guess she and Tyler went to the same school. We were out in town, and she saw Tyler, knew him from pictures her sister had sent her, and I swear you’d have thought she was the one that’d dated him. She told me about it after I kept asking if she was okay, because she seemed completely different after seeing him. He played with her sister’s feelings, led her on, and when all she wanted was for their flirting to turn into something, he humiliated her. Told her he’d never want to touch her let alone kiss her.”
“Kevin told me about it about a year later when we saw him being a jerk to a girl at the fair. I was shocked honestly because we’d seen him with the twins, and he never seemed like he’d be that kind of guy. When I told Kevin I was amazed that he was the same guy, he filled me in on what happened with the ex’s sister, and a couple months after it, it was confirmed by one of the brothers of our new hire. He went to the same school, saw Tyler and was talking to him when his brother left the office, saw who he was talking to, and I came out after him just after it and saw the way he glared at Tyler. Said he didn’t like his brother hanging out with him because he treated women like shit,” Noah added. “So seeing him all over you, that you were married, him being an Anderson wasn’t the first reason why I didn’t want himanywhere near you, Justine. I was worried he’d hurt you. Maybe a bit of me worried that he was also using you to get to the family because of the feud, but it was mostly because he seemed to hate women, and I didn’t want him taking that out on you.”
“He told me,” she said seeing their surprise at her non-reaction to that news. “When we talked the first night, I could see the hatred in his eyes—or least what I assumed was hatred at the time. It was just his way of covering up the pain of everything he was going through. Between Hailey being sick, her surgery and him not being there daily to check on her, and then me leaving the way I did it was all beating him down. We were going to elope,” she added watching their eyes widen at that news. “The night before we were going to leave is when I left town. I wrote him letter telling him it wouldn’t work, that our families would never accept what was between us, and I didn’t want it to destroy us, what we’d had, so I was leaving. The truth is, I knew Hailey was sick—needed a kidney transplant. I overheard his parents arguing when I went over to see him, to tell him that something major was going on between Dad and Grant, so we should probably plan to be gone a little longer than we first planned to after we told everyone. When I heard his parents, I was worried what would happen if we left and something happened to Hailey and he wasn’t here…wasn’t allowed to be there for her, I just couldn’t make him choose between us, so I took myself out of the equation.”
“That’s why you left town?” she heard from the kitchen area and her eyes widened seeing Caroline and Barb there. Her stomach tightened with worry and the tiniest hint of annoyance that they’d walked right into the house without knocking until Tyler came into the room behind them, dropping a kiss onto her lips that calmed her instantly.
“Sorry, I didn’t know your brothers were here or I’d have told Mom and Caroline to stop by later, babydoll,” Tyler said,his fingers brushing against her cheek making her smile, leaning into his touch. “I need to take a shower. I’m all grimy and smell like smoke still.”
“I like you anyway,” she teased grinning up at him as he laughed, his eyes running over her face searching for any hint of tension she was certain, but it wasn’t there and he nodded, dropping a kiss onto her forehead before straightening back up, his eyes landing on the dying fire.
“I brought more wood up from the shed to fill the box on porch. Probably why I didn’t see any cars, I came in the back way,” he explained to his mom and sister before his eyes flowed over to her brothers. “Noah…Kevin…”
“Tyler, we were just telling our sister we were sorry for being so adamant that this was wrong—that you weren’t the right man for her,” Noah said making his brow tick up a bit.
“Figured she should know how you treated women in college, but it seems she already did,” Kevin added, and Tyler shook his head, his thumb stroking her lips as he smiled gently at her.
“I didn’t think anyone here knew,” he stated making his sister’s and mom’s brows lift curiously their way.
“I dated the sister of one of the girls you…”
Kevin hesitated and Tyler filled it in for him, “Was a complete and utter jackass towards? I’m not proud of what I did, the girls I hurt with my anger and dismissiveness. I was furious with Justine for leaving, hurting, and wanted everyone else to hurt just as much. Hated seeing happy couples and did some really stupid shit over the years…such as burning down the gazebo and trying to burn the flowers because the truth is, I planted them for Justine and seeing them blooming without her here, not knowing where she was was a bit too much.”
“I’m sorry,youburnt down the gazebo?” Caroline asked, her jaw almost on the floor. “That’s why you…”
“Helped rebuild it, and take care of it for free, make sure the plants are taken care of,” he said, nodding at the questions on their face. “The next year, when Justine’s tulips still managed to bloom…there was no denying how much I still loved her and at least out there I could tend to it, wish for things to be different. It didn’t stop me from being a complete ass, but mostly it changed from wanting to hurt them for the hell of it and to stop from feeling it to simply being I didn’t want any other woman touching me. I tried to be an ass to her when I saw her that first day, but it was impossible to stay angry with her when I learnt the real reason she left.”
“To stop you from potentially having to choose between us and her?” Caroline said looking between them and she nodded. “You didn’t think to sit down and talk it over with him instead of just leaving?”
“I wanted to, I really did,” Justine said knowing there was no way for them to admit the whole story to the group. That was far too dangerous. “I just knew how easily he could talk me into anything. That smile and those eyes…when he turned them on me with a pleading look there was no chance at winning. I was terrified that if I stayed, even if we didn’t leave that night and elope, somehow it’d come out that we were together, and things would be even worse with the current situation. I was also terrified that if we did elope and Hailey got worse, no one would let him see her, be with her and if that happened he’d resent me eventually. I thought at least if something happened, he’d be here. He wouldn’t have that time taken from him because of me.”
“I tried to be angry about it when she told me, asked her what if it’d all been for nothing. I mean, I thank god it wasn’t,” Tyler said, holding her gaze, his eyes telling her just how much it wasn’t god he was really thanking for it, “but if the worst happened and we lost Hailey on top of me losing her, whatwould have be point and she told me time. That every minute I did have with Hailey would have been worth any pain from us being apart. That if that’d happened, she would have come back, been there for me to lean on even if no one else knew she was there for me.”
“How would you have known? I mean, you went to school in Maryland, and you barely talked to any of us,” Noah asked her curious as he watched them.
“I was still friends with a few people from here. All it would have taken was a little barb tossed around with Tyler’s name for them to have said to give him a break because of what was going on and I kept an eye on the papers out here, praying I didn’t see anything about Hailey in them,” she hedged. It was half true though, so they easily bought it.
Barb moved over to them with a box, sitting it down on the coffee table before pulling her into a hug that surprised her entirely.
“Thank you, for being so concerned with Tyler’s wellbeing, even over yours. That couldn’t have been easy,” Barb said squeezing her hand gently. “It would have been difficult no matter what but being so far away on your own as well…I can’t imagine you had it much easier than Tyler did trying to just get through the days. He had us to lean on, but you were all alone, and then to add in the job you were doing…”
“It’s no wonder you were emotionally wrung out when you got home,” Tyler finished for her, kissing her temple. “So, what brought you over here?” he asked her brothers when he pulled back, giving his mom a smile as he ran his hand up and down Justine’s arm.
“We wanted to stop by and talk to Justine, tell her we were sorry for how we behaved but that most of our reasoning wasn’t because you were an Anderson but what we thought was a woman-hating jackass,” Noah answered making her grin a hint.“The last few weeks, seeing the two of you at church, the way you’ve treated her had me finally watching the video a friend sent me of the two of you. I know Olivia watched it, that her, Mom, and Madison were supporting this but she’s my baby sister and the thought of anyone playing with or hurting her…I’d have killed anyone that did it. I was sure they didn’t know the truth of who you were—or who I thought you were.”
