“Are you heading out?” Jake asked, interrupting my psychoanalysis of his brother.
“I was taking my dog for a walk.”
I started down the porch steps and yelled, “Let’s go, Brooks.” Of course, I had the stupid red leather leash in my hand.
“Can I join you?” Jake asked from behind my back.
“Sure,” I said without stopping.
Heading down the hill, my boots sticking to the spring mud, I glanced at Jake’s feet.
Brand new athletic shoes. Serves him right for bothering me.
“So, why are you here, Jake?” I said, cursing myself for saying the wordwhy.
“Lane’s not doing well.”
Not looking his way, I shrugged. “I don’t know what you think I can do about that, even if I wanted to do something.”
“Bess, he’s a mess, but I’m the only one who knows it. He’s got his suit on, all perfectly tailored, and he’s wheeling and dealing, playing the role of big, accomplished CEO. He’s got this Florida bimbo and that Southern babe on his arm, but I know Lane better than anyone. This is haunting him.” He was by my side now, easily walking down the hill, his wide shoulders taking up almost the whole path.
Southern babe...Florida bimbo. That stung.
“Sounds to me like he’s fine.”
“He’s never been fine.” Jake grabbed my shoulder and stopped me in my tracks, turning me to face him. “Lane hasn’t been fine since our parents died.”
I gasped as a shiver ran through me from head to toe.
Jake frowned at me. “What? He didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
Jake grabbed his forehead, looking so much like Lane on that day in the coffee shop, it pinched my heart. “Geez, I would have assumed.”
“No,” I said slowly, my mind churning as I processed what he’d said. “But I didn’t really ask. It’s something about me I realized that day after Lane sent the necklace. Apparently I’m pretty self-absorbed, but I’m working on it. I need to learn how to be there for others in a way that no one was ever there for me.” I felt a lone tear drip down my cheek, at first thinking it was a raindrop, but knowing better.
Jake grabbed hold of both my shoulders and shook me. “So, why are you shutting him out now? I know he was wrong, and it’s not my business to even guess what the whole lying to you thing was all about. But he needs you now. All this coming back north, it’s never been good for him, yet he did it for you.”
A thundershower was pouring down my face now. “Why?” I asked, my throat tightening on the one syllable.
“You need to go to him, Bess. That’s for him to say. He won’t accept my help, but he needs someone.”
“What’s his problem with the north?” There I went questioning again.
“Let him explain that,” was all Jake said before turning and climbing back up the hill to his ridiculous car.
Four days later, before leaving work, I changed clothes and took the elevator to the eighth floor, looking for my only ally who could be impartial and objective.
Camper, Shirley, and Jake were all pro Lane. “Help Lane,” they’d say. “Hear Lane’s side, Lane needs you.” Or the kicker, “You don’t know what he’s been through.” I heard their words in my sleep and when I was awake, and they drove me crazy.
Ducking my head inside room 802, I called out, “May?”
May, who had been wishing for me to meet Mr. Right longer than anyone, seemed to be the only person I knew who could take a neutral stance, not pushing or pointing me in any one direction.
Well, her and AJ. I’d seen him in rehab the day before. His green eyes were cold and lifeless, his posture aloof as he slumped on the window seat, barely tolerating my visit.
“May?” I called again, this time a little louder, pulling myself out of my negative thoughts.
