Crap.
Behind me, Cassie slinks past us and disappears up the stairs, but there’s furious whispering, and she quickly returns with Jules.
The silence stretches uncomfortably. No one’s looking at me directly, which means they’re all thinking about this morning.
“So I guess we should talk about it,” I say.
Carmen’s face turns neon pink. “We don’t need to.”
“Actually, we do.” I cross my arms. “Let’s just get it out there. That was awkward, right? Slightly embarrassing for me that you all know more about my anatomy than I thought you ever would. But it was mortifying for Rory.”
The silence that follows is telling.
“Most of the blame for that obviously lies with me. I thought—wrongly—that it would be a private gift between Rory and myself. My mistake was amplified by the teasing, though. Were you all oblivious to her distress?”
Mara looks at Tabitha, uneasy.
So maybe not completely oblivious.
“She doesn’t want to come back. She will, and she’ll put on a brave face, but that’s not the holiday that she wanted, and I don’t think it’s the holiday any of you wanted, either.”
Carmen looks genuinely confused. “What would she rather do?”
“Stay at the hospital. She threatened to sleep in an on-call room.”
“Is she allowed to do that?” Cassie asks.
“Can you imagine trying to tell her no?” Jules mutters.
Mara nods, though. “Let me guess. The hospital is the only place she feels like she’s good enough right now?”
I nod grimly.
“We weren’t trying to—” Carmen starts. Then shestops. And she makes a fluttery motion with her hands, and lets out a watery cry. “That silly girl.”
Dante comes in from the back room. “What’s this all about? Oh. Garrett.”
That’s a significantly colder tone than asking me yesterday if I wanted money for a diamond ring. Which is what I get for giving his daughter a customized vibrating eggplant in my likeness.
“Garrett is worried about Rory,” Carmen says to her husband. “He says she’s hiding at the hospital.”
“That’snotwhat I said.” But I could just as easily have said the same thing to Rory. Guilt churns in my belly. “Rory will come home tonight because she puts holding this family together above all else, including her own happiness. Ask yourselves, why does she have to be the one to do that?”
She blinks in surprise.
“You trying to make a point, son?” Dante grunts.
Definitely mad about the dildo.
Only way to get through it is to gothroughit, though. “At some point soon, Rory might make some choices that you don’t understand. And when she does, I want you all to support her no matter what.”
“Of course we will,” Dante says.
Except no, he might not. That’s not a given.
“We just want her to be happy,” Carmen adds.
“Do you? Or do you want her to seem happy no matter what?” I push off from the counter. “You guys need to step up and carry some of the happiness responsibility.”
