“Why is that rubbing it in? Not everything is a personal attack, you know,” he says. “I can be happy, and you cannotbe, and we can still coexist.”
I don’t have anything to say to that, and he turns around to face me.
“What happened with my sister?”
I stare at him carefully for a few beats, and ultimately I decide…why the fuck not just go for honesty here? “We fell for each other. She got me to open up about things I never told anyone. She came to my mom’s funeral with me.” I shrug. “And then, well, you know the rest. We’ve been over it.”
“Spell it out for me,” he says.
“I was at the Legacy underground casino the night it was busted. I was told the DA would go easier on me if I named the operator, that they might even drop the citation before I took flak for it from the team. I asked Everleigh for her permission to name your father, and she declined. End of story. Why are you making me relive this shit again?”
“I’m looking for a loophole.” He shakes his head. “I’m not finding one. Ains ended it with me, you know. She felt I was putting her and my son in danger because of the lounge. I had to make a choice, too.”
“But you chose her,” I point out.
He shakes his head. “I didn’t at first.”
“So you’re saying there’s hope that your sister will change her mind?”
“I don’t know what I’m saying. Our family history…it’s complicated. And now with Mom sick, surely you could understand the situation Ev was in. She’s a protector, Mav. Always has been. Hell, she tried to protect you, too, with her brand shit. But you asked her to choose between the family she’s known her entire life and a man she’s known all of a couple months. What would you have picked?”
“Anyone over my own father, that’s for damn sure,” I mutter.
“Okay, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. There are seven of us Bradley kids that she’s looking out for. There’s one of you. Can’t you understand that?”
“Why are you talking to me about this?” I ask, my voice gaining in volume. “She walked away. She chose your goddamn family over what we had built. All this bullshit…it’s a big part of why I never wanted to get involved with someone again.”
“Again?” he asks.
I nod. “Again,” I murmur. “I was married once. It’s complicated, but I found out too late that she’d been cheating on me.”
“Jesus, Mav. I had no idea.”
“Nobody does. I’m notoriously private because I don’t show weakness to anybody.”
“Getting cheated on isn’t a weakness,” he points out.
“Sure as fuck felt like it weakened me. I found out at her funeral after I found out she’d been pregnant when she died in a car accident. Imagine trying to move on from that ordeal.”
His brows are raised, and there’s sympathy in his eyes. “Fuck, dude.”
I nod toward him. “That look. That right there. The sympathy.” I make a face of disgust as I shake my head. “That’s the shit I don’t want.” My voice is venomous as I say the words. “That’s why I don’t tell anyone. It’s why I shut everyone out. It’s why I let everyone think they’re my enemy. It’s easier to go through life like that than to feel what I’ve felt the last week we ended things.” I press my lips together and shrug like it doesn’t affect me even more than the accident that ended my first marriage.
“My sister cares deeply, and you forced her into an impossible position. I’m sorry you didn’t like it when you got your answer, but sometimes loving someone means understanding what they’re faced with and fighting with them rather than against them.”
I blow out a heavy breath as I get up and walk toward the door to indicate that it’s time for him to go. He did his welfare check, and we’re done here.
“You’re right,” I finally say. “And sometimes it means letting them go when they walk away.”
CHAPTER 44: Everleigh Bradley
Wallowing
“Another scoop?” Penny asks the following Saturday night.
I nod, and she gets me a big one filled with goodies before plopping it into my bowl. She pushes it across the counter to me with a spoon before she makes her own bowl.
She made me come over after she got the boys to bed. I’d rather be at home wallowing under a blanket in front of my television as I watch some sappy rom-com, but instead I’m at Penny’s place for a girls’ night eating Snicker’s ice cream and drinking a tequila sunrise.
