Standing on my side of the car, I fold my arms over the roof and drop my chin onto my forearms. “Why are you being so magnanimous? You hate Fallon.”
Melancholy creeps into his crooked smile. “Because you love him,” he replies and gets in.
I love you, too, I want to say, but I don’t. Because I know I can’t have both. That is one lesson Old Elizabeth taught me well.
Chapter Forty-Three
FALLON
Never Let Go
Elizabeth has been gonefor almost an hour. With Jay. Knox said he saw him in the passenger seat when she drove off. Whether it’s for an hour or forever, the waiting is suffocating. Then again, I’d been suffocating without her for two decades. I’d only just begun to start breathing the moment I saw her sitting at the café table in Venice.
Leaning forward, I bury my face in my hands, as if I can force the ache back into my bones. The thought of a future without her carves into my heart and hollows it out until there is nothing left. If she can’t forgive me, if she walks away for good, I’ll have no one to blame but myself.
Aurora comes out onto the front porch and sits down next to me on the bench swing. The party has been winding down, everyone passing out hugs, saying their goodbyes, and asking where Elizabeth is. Aurora and JD stuck around to help with the clean up.
“Want some company while you silently brood in the dark?”
“Not really.”
The swing creaks as she slowly rocks it back and forth. “Too bad.”
My sister can be the most infuriating woman sometimes.
“I can’t believe that our older brother is finally getting married. I’m thinking a grand wedding at the Montgomery estate. The gardens would be a perfect backdrop. They could arrive in a hot air balloon.”
I know she’s joking. Aurora isn’t that tacky. “Isn’t that up to him and Austin to decide?”
“And have them fly to Vegas for a quickie wedding? Hell, no. They deserve a proper wedding with all the bells and whistles and utter chaos.”
“Point taken.”
Aurora and I twist around when we hear giggles coming from the side of the house. Charlotte and Grant stumble into view, lips locked in a frenzied kiss, their groping hands all over each other.
“You get her pregnant before she’s twenty-one, and I’ll castrate you.”
They pull apart as if lightning struck them, guilty looks burning their faces red with embarrassment.
“Um…uh…when’s Mom getting back?” Charlotte asks.
“Soon, so I’d suggest you make sure the trash is put out, the food put up, and the kitchen cleaned before she gets here.”
“Marcus and Christopher are doing it,” she replies.
“Then go help them.” I narrow my eyes at Grant, a silent warning for him to keep his pecker away from Charlotte.
His Adam’s apple bobs when he swallows thickly. “Yes, sir.”
Aurora starts laughing as soon as they haul ass toward the backyard. “Look at you being all parental,” she says, patting my knee.
“Hardly.”
“You never see what I see. What our brothers and sisters see. What Elizabeth sees and those kids see. You are a good man, Fallon.”
I get angry, not at her, but at myself. “A good man wouldn’t keep breaking the heart of the woman he loves.”
Aurora appears thoughtful for a moment before replying, “Cam’s mom told me something when JD came back. When I told her that he broke my heart, she said,Then maybe he’s just the man to put it back together.”
