He stilled. “You like Brooke better?”
“It’s not my life—” her voice faded off. “I don’t want to interfere.”
“Wrong, you called me to do exactly that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Now spit it out.”
“Fine,” Mom huffed. “I like Brooke better. Anyone who dumps my son then leaves without even an explanation is off my list. Shelby is only interested in you now because she’s divorced, alone, and finally realizes what a fool she’s been. But a mother never forgets how someone treats her child.”
“Okay.” His phone kept buzzing with incoming text messages from Danielle. “Then can you get Danielle off my back, she keeps pushing me to go out with Shelby, but I’m not interested.”
“I’ll talk to her. You know they were friends back in high school.”
“I know,” he sighed. “Still, I need you to talk to her for me. I don’t have the time or energy to deal with her. I need to call Brooke, things didn’t end great last night, and I need to hopefully fix things.”
“I’ll get Danielle to stop,” Mom sighed.
“Thanks.”
Logan said goodbye to Mom and ended the call. A long string of text messages had come through from Danielle. He chose not to respond. The one person he wanted to hear from, Brooke, remained radio silent.
He inwardly groaned as he trotted into his bathroom to shower. The entire time he showered he devised his plan on how to fix things with Brooke. He only hoped it worked.
CHAPTER 14
After the house call for Lily, Brooke stopped responding to Logan’s text messages and placed them on mute. She didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to be tossed back and forth while he figured out things with Shelby. She only hoped he still planned on holding up his end of the bargain by coming with her to Aubrey and Ian’s wedding.
But Brooke never went to dinner with Logan’s family. She wasn’t sure if they cancelled or went ahead without her, or if he took Shelby, which meant him coming to the wedding was most likely off. She busied herself with work and pretended like the wedding date wasn’t approaching.
Two days before the wedding, Brooke ate junk food with Aubrey as they watched a chick flick. She hadn’t explained what had happened with Logan. Instead, anytime Aubrey brought up the subject, she maneuvered the topic of conversation back to some part of Aubrey’s wedding plans. It worked like a charm.
“What’s Ian doing tonight?” Brooke popped a handful of M&M’s into her mouth.
Aubrey bit off a chunk of her red vine licorice. “Some sort of top golf thing. I think it was a last-minute bachelor party.”
Last weekend, the women had headed to a cabin of Aubrey’s parents up in the woods. They had a great time utilizing the hot tub and hanging out. It meant she was out of cell phone range which made her enjoy the time even more.
“Isn’t it a little cold for top golf?” Brooke plunged her hand into the shared bowl of popcorn.
“It’s one of those inside, digital ones,” Aubrey explained.
“Ahh, cool.” Brooke snuggled back under her blanket, finding the most comfortable position. “Sounds fun.”
“I can’t believe I’m getting married on Saturday,” Aubrey remarked. “It seems a bit surreal. I feel like we’ve been talking about it forever. Boom, it’s finally here, and now I don’t know what to do with my wide range of emotions.”
“What emotions are we talking about here?” Brooke shoved another mouthful of popcorn into her mouth. “Happy? Scared? Nervous?”
“I feel mostly excited.” Aubrey picked at the end of a licorice piece. “I’m ready to be married and start the next chapter in my life. Ian even talked about buying a house outside of the city. Then it makes me realize everything is changing, in a good way, but still, I’ll be someone’s wife. Life will be different. Better, but different.”
Brooke’s stomach twisted. She tried not to think about being left behind. Everyone always left her. What made her so dang unlovable? Would anyone ever find her interesting enough to stick around for?
Her throat grew tight as tears tickled the corners of her eyes. She cleared her throat and blinked the emotion back down. “I’ve heard there are some great suburbs around here.” Brooke tried her best to keep her voice upbeat and happy. “It certainly would be nicer with kids to have more space. I know Ian is anxious for you to start a family.”
“I know.” Aubrey ate her licorice slowly. When she finished, she snatched another one out of the package. “I want those things too. I want a picket fence, a big yard, and kids. But mainly I want Ian.”
“See?” Brooke smiled brightly. She playfully shoved her. “You’re going to get everything you ever wanted. I’m happy for you. Plus, I think the suburbs could be fun.”
“Liar.” Aubrey released their embrace. “Nobody wants to live in the suburbs.”
Brooke shrugged. “Some people do. Logan’s family seems to like it.”
