“Will you just tell me, woman…please?” Ethan added.
“I’m not real big on sharing things about me or my family, Ethan. I…I hate pity and weakness.”
“And telling me will make you weak and you think I’ll pity you?” He stroked her cheek.
“No…I know you won’t, but like I said, I’m not good at sharing this kind of thing, because I’ve always dealt with my problems alone.”
“But you’ve never been alone, Annabelle. You’ve always had your friends,” Ethan said, holding her eyes steady.
“I know, and it’s bad that I haven’t shared everything with them, but when I was younger I just got sick of the pity.”
Her eyes were so sad that Ethan leaned forward and kissed her softly, their lips clinging until he reluctantly pulled away.
“One day you’ll tell me about your life, like I told you about mine, honey, but for now tell me Cooper’s story, okay?”
She nodded, lifting a hand to touch his face briefly before letting it drop back into her lap. “All right, but don’t tell Bran or Jake, and definitely not Buster, because they’ll get all bent out of shape because I told you first.”
“Scout’s honor,” he said, lifting his fingers.
“You were a scout?”
He didn’t answer, just gave her a steady look, telling her he knew she was trying to delay the conversation.
“All right,” she muttered. “Cooper’s not doing well. in Vegas. In fact, he’s been doing drugs and gambling for a few years now.” She took another deep breath. “It started out okay for him, and he was in high demand, considering his skills. Coop’s really smart and can do amazing things with software and write programs and things like that, and then it all went wrong.”
“I’m sorry, honey.” He ran his thumb under her eyes as the first tears began to fall.
“I’ve tried to help him.” Her hands gripped the one he had on her thigh. “Zach and I have given him money, flown out there to try to get him home, then found help, and he always says yes, he’ll change, and that he’ll get help, and then he doesn’t.”
“So why aren’t you taking his calls?” Ethan knew there was more to this story. The softhearted Annabelle he knew, under the hard façade she showed the world, would never turn away from anyone, least of all her brother.
“He hacked into my bank account and stole my savings, Ethan. Twenty-five thousand dollars. That day in Brook, when you found me in the water, I’d just found out about it.”
“Ahh, baby, I’m sorry.” He pulled her into his arms, uncaring of who saw. Not many people were focused on him so late in the evening anyway. She grabbed the front of his shirt and he knew she was crying so he simply held her and whispered comforting words into her ear until she calmed down.
“I’m alright,” she said finally, when she’d stopped. “It just hurts because I parented him as best I could, and I thought I’d gotten it right. He was well mannered, and seemed responsible, and he was so excited to be going to Vegas, and then it all turned ugly.”
“And he’s been calling you ever since?” Ethan said, wiping her eyes with a napkin. He wanted to know more about her, more about her raising her brothers and how she had managed it, but he kept those questions to himself for now.
“Yes. He said he stole from me so he wouldn’t get in trouble with the law, He owed people, so he had no choice. I knew then that he would keep doing it, keep stealing from me and Zach, and I couldn’t allow him to, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to keep making my mortgage payments. So I cut him off. I told him I wanted nothing more to do with him, but he just keeps calling.”
If she’d really wanted to cut Cooper off, she wouldn’t have kept the same phone, but Ethan didn’t point that out. She wasn’t ready to hear that yet. He picked her up and settled her on his lap.
“Ethan, we’re at your sister’s wedding!”
“Everyone’s either drunk or too tired to care, Annabelle. Relax. I want to hold you, comfort you like you’ve been comforting me all weekend.”
She didn’t struggle; instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. It felt natural and right for him to have her in his arms, and she had to be comfortable with him or she would never have allowed it.
“How about I take the next call and talk to him if you don’t want to, just to make sure he’s doing okay? I know that even though you’re not taking his calls, you’re worrying about him.”
“I am,” she sighed. “I lie awake at night wondering where he is and if he’s alright. I have these visions of him lying on a street somewhere calling my name and I’m not there. But I can’t expect you to do that, Ethan, and it would probably freak Cooper out anyway.”
“Let me dance with your girl, nephew.”
Uncle Mitch was standing before them looking bright-eyed, which told Ethan he’d been into the whisky, but he still was steady on his feet and would be a total gentleman to Annabelle.
“You want to dance with him, honey?” He kissed her forehead.
