So she doesn’t have a car at the hospital.
“You know your father will call the moment anything changes.” Her lips tip on one end. “And I don’t doubt Dozer has a present waiting for me at home by this hour.”
“Sorry, Mom.”
“No worries, but while you’re there, I’ll let you do the honors.”
Fair enough.
“Why don’t you spend the night? You don’t want to drive across town to your place so late, and Dozie would enjoy a visit.”
Dozie, huh? “Sure, Mom. I can stay with you tonight.” And I suspect I’m in for a mom talk once she and I are alone.
Sure enough, the car’s tires are barely out of the hospital lot when she readjusts her seating and settles her gaze on me. “How are you, Knox?”
We had a lengthy phone conversation a few nights ago, covering multiple topics. Other than Honey’s fall, of course, there’s been only one material change in my life since—at least that she’s aware of—so I know to what she refers. I feel my mouth flatten into a stiff line, and I allow the silence to settle like the wintry haze that’s challenging the defrost function on my windshield.
“Why wasn’t I told sooner?” Seems like I, of all people, had a right to know.
“We were afraid of how you’d react.”
I snap around. “How I’d react? What, you guys thought I’d explode all over everyone? You know that’s not my way.”
“Of course not.” She rests an elbow on the door. “Your father and I have been hounding Rand to tell you. It wasn’t our place.”
My heart processed Becca’s abrupt cancellation of our relationship—not to mention the elaborate wedding everybody and their dog was invited to—as a giant betrayal. Now, my own brother has, well, betrayed me, too. Am I wrong to see it this way? When did their relationship start, really?
“Knox?”
My hands massage the wheel. “It hurts, Mom.”
She squeezes my arm. “And that is the real reason you weren’t told. No one wanted this for you. Rand and Becca have been sick about it.”
I snort and huff—two or three times—as my brain mucks through the situation. I’m doing my best to moderate the ugliest thoughts before they can exit my mouth.
A kernel of understanding pops. Mom’s tone. I snatch a peek from the highway. “You support their relationship.”
The shift of her expression answers me so she doesn’t have to.
Talk about betrayal.Mom has too much restraint to have ever told me she wasn’t a fan of my relationship, yet some things can’t be hidden. Dad too. But now this? What? Rand is good enough for Becca, but I wasn’t?
“You’re wrong about what you’re thinking, Knox. No, I was never thrilled about the idea of you marrying Becca, but that was only because I knew she wasn’t right for you. With Rand…they’re good together.”
Of course. Because my brother is the star of the family.
“So they’re serious?”
She nods once. “Yes.”
My hands squeeze the life out of the steering wheel.
When my fingers cramp, I move them in circles around the building thrum in my jaw before it creeps its way up my temple and into my head. Insult piles upon injury. Surely I won’t be expected to throw a bachelor party. Offer a toast. Not when every eye in the room will be telepathing thepoor losermessage as I lift my glass.
A pat on my sleeve ends with a parting squeeze. “Sweetheart, you’ll find someone too.”
Platitudes suck, although, from the lips of a beloved mother, the most dubious source of all, sometimes they’re almost believable.
Chapter 10
