“In love!” His eyes widen. “Well, that’s a bonus, but yeah. Basically. I’ve had to watch you moon over her for so damn long. Listen to you blabber on about her to Mom and Dad for too many hours. It was painful. This needed to be done.”
I laugh bitterly. “Do you hate me that much?”
“No,” he says, shaking his head. “Believe it or not, I love you. And I’m so sick of watching you deny yourself the life you want. You have a real shot at happiness and you’re too damn scared to take it. So yeah—I nudged things a little. Or a lot. Knowing that if I made you jealous, you’d finally step up to the plate.”
“What are you expecting me to do with this news? Thank you?” My nostrils flare. “She’s not a game, Tommy. She’s not some chess piece for you to move around for your entertainment.”
“It wasn’t for my entertainment. It was actually pretty annoying having to remember to send shit and text her.”
I take a step closer. “You messed with her feelings just to manipulate mine.”
I’m still waiting for him to deny it somehow. Show a little remorse. Anything.
Instead he shrugs. “Relax. She didn’t like me back. No harm, no foul.”
I stare at him, stunned. “That’s . . . the shittiest thing I’ve ever heard.”
He lifts his hands likeit is what it is.“I’m kind of a shitty person who also possesses a heart. You already knew that.”
My voice climbs. “She deserves more than that, Tommy. What if she had liked you back? What then?”
“She didn’t.”
I’m getting closer to him now and he doesn’t seem to be as alarmed by the action as he should be. “That’s not the point! And with Dad—what if you had really hurt him with the way you dropped the news about the farm and me and Madison? Did you stop for even one second to consider that real people’s feelings were at stake here? No. Because in the end, you always take off and leave it all behind.”
“Again. Nothing bad did happen. You got the girl and she gotsome pretty flowers and a whole entire restaurant out of the situation. So no big deal, right?”
“Wrong.”
BAM.
I punch him in the face.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Madison
I hear my front door open tentatively from behind my hands, which I’ve been crying into for the last five minutes.
“Go away. I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
“Well, damn,” says Mabel, making me look up. “That’s not a nice way to greet an old lady.”
“Sorry. I thought you were James.”
“A fair reaction then. That boy needs to be punished for that foolish display back there. Mind if I sit?” she asks, already making her way to the bed.
I scoot over and pull my knees to my chest, suddenly feeling ten years old again. Wishing Iwasten years old again.
“Well,” she sighs. “That was an event.”
“Mabel, please forgive me for how rude I’m about to be, but I’m not in the mood for sympathy. I’m angry and sad, and I don’t want coddling or to hear how I’ll get it next time.”
“Oh, good. Because that’s why I told your sisters they couldn’tcome in. I’m not here to baby you. I’m here because I know—and you know—that you’re strong as hell, child.”
I cut a glance to her.
“There’s no waiting for next time. Honey, you have a restaurant full of people waiting for their orders. You have a staff trying to stay afloat without you, and right now, they’re underwater. It’s not the day you dreamed of, but it’s the day you got. And now . . . you’ve cried, which is good and makes a person feel better. But you know what comes next. It’s time to get up and show what you’re made of.”
