Lowering myself into a chair on her patio, I wondered how one brother could be so warm and free with his emotions while the other seemed to be made of stone. And lucky me, I got the latter.
Chelsea replaced my empty beer with another one as shesat in the chair next to me. Staring out into her small backyard, she said, “I’d ask how life is, but based on what’s going on up there—” She waved her hand in front of my face, no doubt addressing the dark circles and bags under my eyes. Knowing I was a mess was one thing, having her point it out was another. “So not much better with Rob, then, huh?”
“Same.” Sighing, I stretched my arms outbefore folding them behind my head. Letting the warm sun seep into my bones, I thought about what to say. Deep down, I knew she would never compromise our friendship by telling Alex about mine and Rob’s issues, but I hated having to put her in the middle of it.
“Liar,” she called out as she raised her beer to her lips.
Her “I’m not going to take any of your bullshit” tone reminded me that withher, I didn’t have to choose my words carefully. I didn’t have to conceal the truth simply because she was marrying Rob’s brother. Long before she was his fiancée, she was my friend—a truth of which she’d reminded me time and time again.
“It’s shit,” I admitted. “It’s like we’re just roommates. He still hasn’t talked to me about…” I paused, taking a swig of my beer to help bury down the emotionssimply thinking about their death brought to the surface. “About them,” I added quickly, before continuing. “And it’s been, geez, like two months, I think, since we even touched each other.”
“Have you tried talking to him?” While there was compassion in her voice, she was cutting through the bullshit with the glare in her eyes. “I’ve known you for a long time, Doctor Carpenter,” she joked withmy new title, her lips pulling into a soft smile. “And you’re not always the most open about what you need. Do you think, maybe, just possibly, there might be a chance Rob isn’t sure how you’re feeling?”
Chuckling for the first time all morning, I felt a smile spread across my face. “I hate when you’re right.”
“So maybe you should try talking to him. Open up a little. You guys have been together,what? Three years now? I mean, sure you’d hope he could figure out when you’ve hit a rough patch, but he’s not a mind reader, you know?”
“I know. I know.” And as much as I knew she was right, at least partly, there was a voice nagging in the back of my head, telling me it was much more than a simple miscommunication. And that was the scary part.
Because no matter how much I couldn’t stand himright now, I knew there was still a part of me that loved him.
With that thought in mind, I left Chelsea’s in the hopes that when I came home to Rob, we could patch up whatever it was that was beginning to tear us apart.
