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“Because it turns out I was wrong about all the shit I used to say?”
He chuckles. “Yeah. But you took a chance. It’s hard to do that. I struggle with it myself.” He nods at Wren sitting in front of Sadie, taking each bow or ribbon and putting it in her lap. “She needs a mom, a woman in her life, but I just can’t do it. I can’t take that step.”
The day Bennett buried Kristie, I didn’t know what to say. I looked at Darla holding Wren, and I knew exactly what that little girl would miss having in her life. She would only know her mother through stories. I’m nothing like a mother, but I try to be a constant in Wren’s life. Her family dynamic might be different than others, but she’s loved. Wholeheartedly. I don’t ever want her to question that.
Getting closer to Wren helped heal me in a way. It healed the pain I’d always felt because I don’t remember my mom when both my brothers have their memories of her. My mom didn’t choose to leave. She was taken from us. Just like Kristie was taken from Wren. Aunt Darla and Aunt Bette try to fill that role for Wren. And my dad did a bang-up job of trying to be both for my brothers and me. We were loved. Nothing I could do would ever bring my mom back, so I needed to be grateful because though I didn’t have a mom, I had the rest of my family.
“Maybe you’re not ready,” I say to him.
“It’s been six years.”
Wren looks over her shoulder, finds her dad, and smiles. He returns her smile, though it’s edged with pain.
“Then maybe you just haven’t met the one yet.”
He chuckles. “So, you believe in soul mates now?”
I shake my head. “Nah, because then Kristie would’ve been yours.”
“She was.” There’s a depression in his voice I haven’t heard in a few years. I think it’s why Wren is all about Briar—she’s looking for someone to fill that role, and he knows it. But Bennett isn’t ready to find someone who could fit into their lives.
“Whoever the lucky woman is who will get to help raise Wren, you just haven’t found her yet.”
His eyes wander away from Wren and zero in on my dad. “Maybe I’ll end up like your dad.”
I shake my head. “You’re no Bruce.” I can’t picture Bennett having a different woman in his bed every Saturday night. “Maybe join a group or a club or something. Go out to more places than The Hidden Cave.”
He looks at me and leans in a bit. “That reminds me. There was a note on The Canary Wall the other day about you renting out Nick’s drive-in for a night to take a woman there. Was it really you, or is it bullshit?”
My gut twists and my eyes focus on the back of Briar’s head. I nod.
“And?”
I nod again.
“Well then, I think I should tell you, you’re gonna be outed soon. Melvin was in the bathroom, so I wrote a note with a bullshit story about Louise from the county clerk’s office and Mr. Torres hiding out in one of the library study rooms.”
My eyebrows raise. “You lied?”
He rocks his head back and forth. “Technically it’s true, but I don’t think anything was going on. But he did have to fix his ponytail after coming out. Wren was waiting for story time to start. Anyway, I put my notecard over the one that was talking about you.”
“Thanks, man.”
He shrugs. “You’ll do the same for me one day.”
“Promise.”
Briar gets up from her chair and heads to the hallway where the bathrooms are located. This is my opportunity.
“Do me one more favor?” I ask.
“Go.”
I slide out of my chair and head toward the bathroom hallway. Briar isn’t there, so I assume she’s already in the women’s bathroom.
I push the door open and peek my head in. “Briar?”
I find her at the sink, blotting her face with a paper towel. She’s fucking crying. My chest squeezes.
