Page 10 of Love Me Again

“We’re going to get a divorce. I haven’t seen him in almost two years. He never even told you about me.”

Molly studied her for a minute, as if finally, fully understanding that Josie thought this was all completely and utterly insane.

“Look. I love my brother, but I’ve also been married to a dumb ass. And while my ex-husband is worthless with a capital W, I happen to think my brother is…redeemable. But that doesn’t mean it’s your job to redeem him. Or our job to punish you for not doing what none of us have been able do.”

Not your job to redeem him. Josie inhaled a sharp breath, because she supposed that was a newish thought. The idea she hadn’t failed, because fixing him hadn’t been her job in the first place. But… “I would have. If he’d have let me.” The tears in her eyes burned, and it wasn’t helped by Molly’s expression of soft understanding.

“Why are you guys doing this?” Josie asked again, her voice suddenly raspy.

“Honestly? I think Mom wants to get to know the woman my impenetrable brother married and never told us about. But more than that, bigger than that? Mom is just someone who wants to help. It used to really irritate me, but as I got older I realize… She received a lot of help at different low points in her life, and she knows how much it made a difference, so she always wants to make a difference. For anyone.”

Josie thought that sounded nice. Help and wanting to give it. She might have even felt comfortable taking that help.

If it wasn’t coming from Boone’s family.

“I feel like I shouldn’t take it.”

Molly nodded thoughtfully. “I understand that, but if you’ve got nowhere to go, seems like you should take a kindness wherever it’s offered. And trust me, I know that’s easier said than done. Give yourself the duration of this storm at least. No point risking your neck just to run away from help.”

Run away from help. She wanted to laugh, but the bitterness that seemed to coat her wouldn’t allow it. When had she been offered help? Almost never in her life. She’d always been the one doing the helping, the work, pulling everyone else along.

She hadn’t even realized that or resented it until her father was gone and she had no one left to help, to take care of. Nothing to do but falter.

“I didn’t come here because I wanted to see him,” Josie said firmly, not that Molly had asked or insinuated. Josie just needed to make it clear to someone, if only to make it clear to herself. “I just didn’t know how else to do this.” I just didn’t have anywhere else to go.

“We’ll poke and prod Boone to make sure it’s taken care of. So you don’t need to worry about anything. Sit tight. Trust me, Mom’ll take care of everything. Boone will keep his distance. He’s good at that. I can’t promise my mother will.”

Josie thought of that hug Deb had given her when she’d started to cry. Josie had absolutely no memories of her mother. Her memories of her grandmother were hazy, but while her dad’s mother had loved her, in Josie’s memories, she had not been a warm and fuzzy person. Practical. Straightforward. Someone who’d pick her up if she fell, but not soft.

But her father had been, and she missed him with an ache she knew would never, ever go away.

So someone not keeping their distance wasn’t the threat Molly seemed to think it was.

“Relax,” Molly said firmly. “Take a break for a day or two. Let yourself breathe. There will be time for decision making and kicking Boone to the curb for good. I promise.”

Josie didn’t believe in promises anymore. Not a one made to her had ever been kept. Her father had tried, but it wasn’t his fault his body had failed him and her.

Boone hadn’t tried very hard, she didn’t think.

But what other choice did she have but sit tight and weather this storm?

The literal one, anyway.

CHAPTER 5

“Where’d you come from?” Boone demanded of Molly when she trudged into the house, covered in snow. She might have been at the stables, but since everyone else was accounted for, Boone thought Molly must have something to do with where Josie had been secreted off to.

“Outside,” she replied annoyingly.

“Where’s Josie?”

She hung her coat on the peg, slipped out of her boots, moved past him without even sparing him a glance. “Leave her be, Boone. She doesn’t want to see you.”

It grated, even if Molly was right. But why should she take Josie’s side when she was his sister? And she’d never even met Josie before today.

“She came here,” Boone pointed out, trailing after Molly, like he was three again. Following his oldest sister around trying to be annoying enough she’d pay attention to him.

“Because apparently you were supposed to take care of the divorce paperwork and didn’t. She didn’t come to see you. Though I have to admire the big fat lip she gave you.”