“What? Why?”
“He wants me to go back, said he would do everything in his power to ruin Howling and any surrounding countryside he could get his hands on if I didn’t.”
“Fucker!”
Jake whistled. “He sure is a peach, that daddy of yours.”
“He can’t hurt us, Brad, and you’re not going.”
“Don’t be naïve, Ethan, of course he can hurt you and this town, and he will.”
“So what? You’re like a sacrificial lamb or something?”
“It’s not like it’s a bad life, don’t be dramatic. The biggest obstacle will be having contact with him, but I’ll cope.” Brad shrugged and tried to act like it was no big deal, when in fact it was. He would be turning his back on the man he’d become, the man he still wanted to be.
“I won’t let him hurt her, and this, damaging the place she loves, will cause her pain.”
“Her?”
“He knows about Macy… called her a whore. Knows I… shit, he just knows, okay.” Brad wasn’t ready to open that particular vein in front of his brother and friend.
Ethan stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
“No.” Brad reached for it. “You can’t contact him. I need to go, this has to stop.”
“You are not sacrificing yourself for me or this town. We’ll work it out another way,” Ethan said.
“No!” Brad grabbed his brother and hugged him hard. “Leave it alone, Ethan, and I… ah, I love you.”
Brad turned and ran. He didn’t stop until he was on his bike. Firing it up, he roared down Jake’s driveway without looking back.
Chapter 19
Macy dropped Billy at daycare early on Monday morning, two weeks after Brad had left Howling, because she didn't want to stay home a second longer than necessary.
She shouldn't have told him she loved him; it had made him run scared. Ethan had said he’d left for personal reasons that concerned their father, and that he would be making sure he wasn’t gone long, but Macy knew better. He’d gone because of her.
“You should have eased him into it, Macy,” she said, entering the back door of her shop.
If she'd worked up to it, maybe he'd have been more receptive and less like a scared, wild animal.
No. She moved through the shop, checking everything was tidy. He’d told her in the beginning that nothing was going to happen between them other than sex, and she'd agreed. Then she'd gone and fallen in love with him. The problem was that she truly believed he felt something for her too.
Reaching the front door, Macy found her mother looking in through the glass. They hadn't spoken since the funeral, and she had begun to accept that this was how things were going to be between them now her father had gone.
“Mother,” Macy said as she opened the door. Her mother sailed in, reeking of her scent and dressed in an immaculate emerald-green suit.
“I'm going on holiday.”
“How wonderful for you.”
“A cruise,” Delany Reynolds said. “With friends.”
Macy didn't respond, just made her way to the counter.
“I will be gone a month.”
“Excellent, have a great time.” Macy's words were clipped. “No better way to mourn the loss of a loved one than sipping margaritas and partying,” she muttered.
