Why were they so damn tight?
Reese cleared her throat, realizing she hadn’t actually given Brynn an answer. “It’s all good with Sydney and me,” she half lied.
“Okay, great,” Brynn said, relief evident in her tone. “I’m really excited for us all to spend more time together. Grant works so much, and it will be nice to have more people that I consider family around.”
Working hard? That didn’t sound like her brother. At all.
But maybe, even if she didn’t truly believe it, Grant had found his one in a billion with Brynn, the person who was worth throwing it all away to lead a happy life together.
In spite of all she’d learned about the business world, she’d never had her father’s willingness to do whatever it took to close the deal. Right now, he would want her to say whatever she needed to keep Brynn excited about her impending nuptials.
But that wasn’t who she was, and it wasn’t who she wanted to be. Still, even for the sake of peace, she couldn’t get close to promising that they’d all be one big, happy family one day.
Brynn was sweet, but she doubted that her future sister-in-law would be the glue that mended a lifetime of brewing resentment between Reese and the rest of her family.
Beyond that, it wasn’t fair to expect Brynn to be responsible for something of that magnitude. Hell, Reese didn’t even know where she’d start, if she wanted to fix it on her own.
So instead, she was stuck playing a part, biding her time until she could once again extricate herself from the Devereux family drama, something she’d successfully avoided for the last twelve years.
“It’ll be good for us to get to spend more time together,” Reese said sincerely, echoing Brynn’s words. She wasn’t going to sing her brother’s praises. She wasn’t going to lie and tell Brynn that she and her brother had a great relationship.
What she could do was promise that she’d be kind to Brynn, and until she knew what Brynn knew, which she wasn’t going to ask because she wasn’t a complete idiot, she’d keep her cards close to her chest.
“It means a lot to hear you say that, Reese. All right, I’ll let you go.”
“See you Saturday, Brynn,” Reese said as she hopped over to the end table and hit ‘End’ on her phone.
She looked down at her pants then, a still-tangled jumble of fabric that she hadn’t managed to get off.
With focus, she finally extricated herself from the tapered legs and let out a huff.
As she walked over to the bathroom, her phone began to ring again. She ignored it, set on running her bath, which was already long overdue.
Once she started the water, she checked her missed calls. It was her mom, but she didn’t have the energy to call her back right then. It would probably be more about what her father had been insisting, with firm directives to make sure this weekend went off without a hitch.
How had she suddenly become responsible for the emotional well-being of so many people? She’d found herself at a nexus of conflict with the lie that she and Sydney had spun, and she was wondering if the two of them had what it took to see things through to the finish line.
And what was that line, anyway?
When Sydney got her answers? When she realized that getting any type of closure from Grant was a fruitless endeavor?
When Brynn successfully made it down the aisle and became Mrs. Devereux?
When her dad found out she’d purchased the inn and officially disowned her?
As the days wore on, she was sort of looking forward to that last one. To forcing her father to finally say that he didn’t deem her worthy. Maybe this time, she’d actually do something to deserve it.
She willed her thoughts to float away as she dipped a toe into the hot water before lowering her entire body in. She leaned her head back against the edge and let out a calming breath, enjoying the gentle sloshing sound of the bath flowing around her.
Everything was going to be fine. Her dad would do most of the talking this weekend, Brynn seemed like she just wanted a friend, and she and Sydney would rarely be alone together.
It was all going to work out.
Her phone rang from the bedroom again, and instead of listening to it ring, she slipped under the water and let it envelope her senses.
Nine
“When I was a kid,Bingham felt like a world away,” Sydney said as Reese’s car meandered along the coastline.
