CHAPTER SIX
Brett walked into the kitchen. Mary-Beth was standing at the counter, staring through the window. “Why didn’t you tell me about Liam?”
She turned and looked at him before answering. “Because you’re too overprotective. You would have given me a lecture about long-distance relationships and how they don’t work. Liam and I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but we’re still together.” She handed him a cup of coffee. “Drink this. It will make you feel better.”
He glanced at the plate beside her. “You found the cookies.”
“They’re your favorite. I need something to distract you from giving me a hard time.” Mary-Beth sipped her coffee. “You forgot to mention that Hannah is friendly, blond, and extremely attractive.”
The heat of a blush hit Brett’s face. “You’re deflecting the conversation away from you.”
His sister pulled out a chair and sat at the kitchen table. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’m twenty-six years old.”
“Liam is the same age as me. Doesn’t that worry you?”
“Does it worry you that Hannah is about the same age as me?”
“We’re not talking about Hannah.”
Mary-Beth reached for a cookie. “Not yet, but you must have thought about dating her.”
Brett looked down at his coffee. “It wouldn’t work.”
Silence fell across the kitchen.
“Has this got anything to do with mom and dad?” Mary-Beth asked gently.
Admitting he was terrified of falling in love wasn’t something he was prepared to do, even to his sister. They’d grown up in a battle zone. His parents used words like ammunition, firing shots into each other to see who would drop first. In their family, love was a weakness. It was a state of mind that was okay for everyone else but not for them.
Mary-Beth sat beside him. “Is that why you haven’t dated many women?”
“I prefer my own company.”
His sister’s small hand settled on his. “I felt the same way until I met Liam. He showed me that it’s okay to be vulnerable and let down your guard. He loves me, Brett. Sometimes I think it’s more than I deserve.”
“It could never be more than you deserve. I still remember the day mom brought you home from the hospital. You screamed blue murder for the first few months, but you were the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Mary-Beth wiped the tears from her eyes. “You looked after me better than mom and dad did. There wouldn’t be many fourteen-year-old boys who made sure their sister had food to eat and clean clothes to wear.”
He squeezed Mary-Beth’s hand. “You made me feel whole.” They hadn’t had much, but they had each other.
By the time he was eighteen, Mary-Beth had been placed in foster care and he was living on the ranch. If it hadn’t been for the McConachies and his sister’s foster family, they would have been two more government statistics.
“Don’t be sad,” Mary-Beth said. “We can’t change the past.”
“I shouldn’t have gone to Australia and left you here.”
“You did what you had to do. I had a good life with my foster family. When you went to Australia, I liked getting your postcards. You were on an adventure, thousands of miles away, and you never forgot me.”
“Did you think I would?”
Mary-Beth looked at their linked hands. “Mom and dad forgot about us.”
“They had problems long before we were born.”
“I know, but it doesn’t make it any easier to understand.”
“Have you told Liam what happened?”
