CHAPTER 11
Ben cleared his throat. “I actually just came to drop off the work schedule for next week. I'll leave you all to catch up.” He set a folder on the counter. “Kate, I'll pick you up at seven?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
“He seems nervous,” Tom observed.
“Anyone would be nervous with all eyes on them,” Kate snapped.
“I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Since when?” Kate shot back. “You haven't been protective in years. You've been absent.”
“That's not fair.”
“Nothing about this is fair,” Kate said. “You two swoop in now that the crisis is over, acting like concerned brothers when I needed you years ago.”
“We had lives,” Tom said defensively.
“So did I. Or I would have, if I hadn't given it up to take care of Pop and the inn.”
“No one asked you to.” Tom started.
“Someone had to!” Kate's voice cracked. “Someone had to stay. And now you want to judge my choices?”
“We're trying to help,” James said quietly.
“I don't need help. I needed it years ago. Now I just need everyone to stop acting like they know what's best for me.”
She stormed out, going to her room and slamming the door like she was sixteen again.
A few minutes later there was a knock at her door. “Katie?” James's voice. “Can I come in?”
He entered without waiting, sitting on her bed like he used to when they were kids and he was scared of thunderstorms.
“I'm sorry,” he said. “You're right. We weren't here when you needed us.”
“It's fine.”
“It's not. I was in my twenties when Pop started to show signs. I could have come home. I chose not to.” He picked at her bedspread. “I was scared, I think. Of seeing him decline. Of being trapped here like…”
“Like me.”
“I didn't mean…”
“Yes, you did. And you were right to be scared. It's terrifying watching him disappear little by little. It's exhausting being responsible for everything. It's lonely and hard and some days I wanted to run away too.”
“But you didn't.”
“No. I didn't.” Kate sat beside him. “Someone had to stay.”
“It shouldn't have been just you.” James bumped her shoulder. “For what it's worth, I'm here now. And I actually like Ben.”
“You interrogated him.”
“That's what brothers do. But he didn't run, so points for that.” James paused. “Tom's being weird about Lillian.”
“Tom's being a lawyer about Lillian.”
