By now, the entire Hart family surrounded him, all with helpful remarks and suggestions.
“You should go back. You know how Cait’s afraid of being alone.”
“Cait will be fine. You need to rest until the morning.”
“Did you come back because you missed her?”
“How sweet. She went to look for you and you came back to find her.”
“You two are so cute, crisscrossing like that.”
“Enough.” Brian threw his hands up. When everyone talked at once, he couldn’t even think. He was an only child and used to long periods of quiet and solitude. “I’m going back. You guys go back to your wild party.”
He spun around and found the woman he mistook for Cait. “Sorry about the misunderstanding.”
“It’s okay,” she replied. “It’s kind of romantic how you defended your wife’s honor.”
Actually, it wasn’t. He’d shown Cait’s entire family how little he knew her, and how insecure he was about her. Their agreement had been to stay married and be faithful to one another, just like any other married couple, but they weren’t in love, they were best friends.
Brian slunk away from the hearty Christmas party, leaving his in-laws singing Christmas carols and passing around hot cider. The entire situation used to be tolerable, when he and Cait were the only married couple in the extended family.
But now, with Connor and Nadine so sweet on each other, and Jenna and Larry as well as Melisa and Rob clearly exuding love and romance, it was easy to see that he and Cait were lacking in that department.
The fact that Connor was having the first Hart grandchild wasn’t lost on their parents either. The elder Mr. Hart went around the firehouse bragging on his someday grandson, and his mother-in-law, Kimberly, floated on clouds while crocheting afghans and making quilts for her desired granddaughter.
Brian started his car and pulled away from the curb. An ache sat low in his belly, and it wasn’t because of Grady’s fist.
Cait wanted the kind of love and romance her sisters had with their fiancés, and even though she hadn’t said anything to him, she deserved it with someone else.
Maybe it was time to let her go so she could find it. He’d split the house with her, because that was only fair. After twelve years of marriage, it was plainly obvious he could never be the kind of man she wanted.
He didn’t have normal emotions. He didn’t feel pain or happiness the way others did. He was a robot pretending to be a person. He had an invisible wall around him that no one could penetrate.
Almost no one, because the only person who understood him was Alana, and Alana was dead.
