AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She had to just sit in her own sadness. She couldn’t retreat behind being Benny’s mom. She couldn’t retreat into her job because they were still on a break.
She just had to sit with this.
And hope.
It was by far the hardest thing that Elizabeth had ever done.
BRODY FELT BROKEN. And that was a new experience. He’d felt that way a whole lot of times in his life. But this was the first time he felt like he was maybe able to do something about it, and just wasn’t. It was some bullshit. And he didn’t know how to get past it.
That was the problem. He didn’t know how to fix it. Not any of it.
Not himself, not...
He sighed heavily and walked up to the door of his brother’s house. Because it had to be Gus. Gus was the one he’d betrayed the worst with his actions.
Gus who had borne the brunt of it. Gus who had cared for them.
It was his wife, Alaina, who opened the door.
“Hey Brody,” she said, hand on her baby bump, her expression confused.
“Is Gus around?”
“Yeah. He’s having coffee.”
“Great. I just... I need to talk to him.”
“Yes,” she said, stepping out of his way. He went past her and saw his brother sitting at the dining room table.
“Good morning,” Brody said.
“Clearly not. Or you wouldn’t be here. Coffee?” Gus asked.
It was such a strange thing, to look at his brother, his scarred face, evidence of the abuse that he had suffered, sitting in their childhood home. With a wife. With a baby on the way.
Put together in a way that Brody just wasn’t. And the thing was, Lachlan had a point. Why couldn’t Brody seem to sort through all of it? Why, when they were the ones who had suffered in a way that he didn’t? And maybe, maybe it was the lying. And maybe there would be no way for him to sort it all out. Maybe he could never be fixed. But part of him really wanted to try right now.
Part of him wanted to try to make sense of all of this.
“So Elizabeth said she loves me,” Brody said.
“Yet you don’t look happy,” Gus said. “Sit. Have coffee.”
He found himself doing what Gus said, because it was a habit. Listening to his older brother.
Maybe that was why he was here.
He poured himself some black coffee and then sat down across from Gus. “Of course I’m not happy about it.”
“I mean, I get it. Kind of. I was thrilled when Alaina said she loved me. I didn’t say it back, though. That was kind of the big hang-up there.”
“Well, I relate to you. I’m not... Look, who doesn’t want a beautiful woman to love them? But the problem is, she’s got a kid. And she needs all this stuff. She was in foster care, and... I can’t be the perfect rescuer for her. She deserves that. She deserves...”
“I learned something being a married man, Brody. Women don’t like it when you tell them what they deserve.”
“Well. I didn’t tell her. I didn’t actually talk to her.”
“Pansy ass,” Gus huffed.
