By the time I get up to her room, she’s mostly unpacked and is shoving her empty bag under the bed.
I close the door and lean back against it. “What the fuck is going on?”
She sits down on the bed. “Cassie’s getting divorced.”
“A divorce? They aren’t just fighting?”
“She’s packed her stuff and ismoving home.”
“Did she say what happened?”
Rory’s gaze drops to the floor. “Um, he works too much and doesn’t listen to her.”
“Ah.”
She takes a deep breath. “I don’t think right now is a good time to tell them that we’ve broken up.”
“I got that from you calling mebabe.”
“That wasn’t a plan, you know. That was just…I panicked.” She runs a hand through her hair, sending dark curls twisting in all directions. “Can you— Can we just take a few minutes here? Please?”
I shove my hands in my pockets. “Yeah, okay.”
“They’re gonna blame me,” she finally says quietly.
I stare at her, incredulous. “How is Cassie’s breakupyourfault?”
“I know my mom’s gonna be like, ‘Why didn’t you see this coming?’”
“Okay, well...” I scrub my brow. I really do love the Minellis—not as much as I love Rory, but her family came with her. It was a package deal, and there was a lot to be said for them. But they’re too hard on their oldest daughter. It isn’t her fault that her sister got married way too young.
Especially when Rory did the exact opposite. But I’m not going to think about that now.
I scrub my hands over my face. “Well, I was going to suggest that you say you want alone time with Cassie right now, and I’ll get out of your hair and go stay somewhere else.”
She gives me a panicked look.
“But I get now that would be a bad idea,” I add.
I also don’t want to lie to Rory’s family, though. Because lying to everyone else also drags us into the lie and that’s where everything gets murky. It’s way too easy to pretend tobe important to Rory. A dumb fuck like me could fall for that trap and start to think it’s true.
Fucking hell.
“We’ll figure this out,” I mutter, more to myself than to her.
The door behind me thumps as someone tries to push in.
“Oh, sorry Garrett,” Carmen says when I step aside and she bustles in, oblivious to the tension. “Dante said he brought your bag of presents up here. Do you want them under the tree?”
“Not those,” I manage to say. “But, uh, this one is for you guys.” I grab the wrapped cutting board and hand it over.
“Oh, that’s so sweet. Thank you. Are you hungry? You must be exhausted from that drive. Rory said you did it straight through?”
“Yeah, wanted to beat the storm.”
“Such a good man.” She pats my arm. “Taking care of our girl.”
Rory makes a sound that might be agreement or might be choking.
