I nodded. “It is. But maybe he’ll come around. It had to be a shock to him to hear from her out of the blue.”
“I’m sure. And I can’t blame him if he doesn’t want to rekindle some relationship with her. But now she’s heartbroken and I feel like shit.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “Don’t. You did what you thought was best.”
“Yeah.” He gave me a sad smile. “Go. Go have lunch and plan your wedding to the man that is lucky enough to call you his fiancée.”
Blushing, I said, “Thanks, Connor. But I’m thelucky one.”
“I think you’re both lucky. Make sure you remember how lucky you are to have each other. Protect each other. It’s a bad world out there.”
I nodded and flipped him a final smile before making my way out to my car. My phone rang just as I was turning on the engine.
“Hello?” I said, turning the radio down.
“Hey, Kari. This is Brielle.”
What the hell?
“Hey, Bri,” I said warily. She’d never called me before and it made me uneasy. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no,” she said in a rush. “Nothing’s wrong at all. I just, uh, I wanted to...” Her voice trailed off. “I’m sorry, Kari, for not treating you as well as I should. I’ve been a child and I’m embarrassed about how I’ve acted.”
I didn’t know what to say, my mouth going dry. “Oh. Uh, Bri, that’s okay—”
“No, it’s not. I’m way too old to be acting like that and you’ve never been anything but nice to me. I’m sorry. You’re going to be a part of our family and I just want to...I don’t know. Start all over with you?”
I buckled my belt, both because I was getting ready to pull onto the road and because the conversation was making me a little unsteady. “Yeah, Bri. I’d like that.”
“Me, too. If you need anything with the wedding or whatever, let me know.” She quieted on the other end, the pause a touch awkward. “I’m really glad my brother has you, Kari. Welcome to the family.”
FORTY
MAX
“Hey, Max. It’s Nick.”
I was making my way through the city to a meeting when he returned my call about an hour after I asked him to look up Joe Dumas. If Bri was right and Sam had staged the whole thing, I didn’t know what I was going to do.
Was there anything I could do?
“Thanks for getting back to me so quickly,” I said.
“No problem. So, Joe Dumas has a pretty interesting record. He’s been arrested a number of times for B&E, theft, things like that. He’s currently in Maricopa County jail for grand theft auto.”
“But nothing in terms of assault or rape?”
He paused and I heard pages being moved around. “No, nothing like that. He’s more of the petty gangster type, it seems. Nothing violent.”
“Okay.”
“Anything you need me to do?”
“Nah, I just wondered what his background was, what kind of guy he is. But I think you’ve answered it. Just send a bill to Alexander Industries to my attention.”
He laughed. “This one is on the house, Max. How are things? How’s Cane?”
“Cane is Cane. Expecting a baby, so that should be fun.”
