The nerves didn’t leave completely. “I’ll pay you back when I start work. It’s not until next week, and then I’ll have a couple of weeks before I get paid. I actually start my online training later next week, and I’ll get paid for that. I was surprised I could do that. Technically, I’m two hours from where I work, but they said I can work remotely most of the time. After the online module, I’ll have to go in and meet everyone, learn the equipment, and get trained in—and tell them I’m pregnant.” My laugh came out thready. “I’m rambling. Sorry.”
“Why?” He angled the vehicle down the driveway, his big hand clamped at the top of the wheel.
My cheeks heated. “It’s annoying.”
“For you?”
“Elijah said?—”
“That’s your first clue that it’s bullshit.”
Another laugh burst out of me. I needed that reminder. “Do I need to be deprogrammed?”
“Yes.”
He said it with a metric ton of granite in his tone. I really did need to rethink my whole time with my ex. “Oh.”
“My family isn’t, how do I say this? Nice? They aren’t normal.” The corners of his jaw bunched. “Maybe they’re more normal than I think, since they keep getting away with how they behave.”
“You aren’t close?” I had seen it for myself, but I wanted to hear what he said.
He let out a bitter laugh. “No. When I realized we never were, I made some changes.”
“Can I ask…” It was none of my business, but Van hadn’t said a kind word about his brother or his parents, and he’d been living with them. He wasn’t giving many specifics, but his tone filled in the blanks.
“Why I was living with my mom and dad?” When I nodded, anger flashed through his eyes. The air crackled in the pickup. “Because I know exactly how you feel.”
What did he mean— Oh. He didn’t have to share that part of his life with me, but he did, and I didn’t like the tension that created in him. “You just found out you’re pregnant too?”
His laugh was so sudden I flinched, but immediately grinned with him. The corners of his eyes crinkled when he smiled, and I was almost glad he wasn’t looking at me, or I’d get lost in those eyes of his.
“Close. I, uh, was engaged, and we started a business together. She wanted to be done with me, and I was forced to dissolve the company.” He rolled his eyes toward me. “We had investors to pay, overhead, and somehow, she got all her student loans and debt paid out of the deal.”
“That’s awful.” I’d only heard from Elijah that Van had failed and came crawling home.
“Yeah,” he said flatly. “It was.”
Businesses sprang up on either side of the road. A physical therapy office. The gas station and grocery store. A small movie theater. He passed the soccer fields where I’d watched Poppy and her husband, Jensen, coach.
It only took a minute once he turned off the highway until we were parked in front of Haven Furnishings. An insurance agency and a legal office were on the same street. He parked in front, and I was out of my seat before he could walk around and open the door for me.
I wasn’t going to make the same stupid mistake and think that we were more than two strangers helping each other. When I had asked him about dinner, it wasn’t like I thought we were really married. We lived together, and he was doing me a giant favor. Maybe I underestimated how badly he wanted to get out of his parents’ place. But the message was clear. We weren’t a thing.
Regardless, he held the door to the furniture store open for me.
A short, older woman with dark hair scattered with gray smiled at us. “Welcome. I’m Hattie. What can I help you with?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I wasn’t buying, so I had no say. I snapped my lips shut and stepped to the side so Van could take charge.
He shoved his hands in his jeans, and his shrewd gaze swept the assortment of dressers, recliners, rocking chairs, couches, and, in the far back, beds. “We need to modestly furnish a small, two-bedroom house.”
She clapped her hands together. “Let me show you what I have, tell you what I can get, and then I’ll ghost you two so you can chat about what you want.”
Hattie did just that. I relaxed the longer we were there. Van wandered next to me, or in the narrower stretches, he let me take the lead. We didn’t touch, but the moment was comfortable. He didn’t interrupt as she cruised through her offerings, all quality stuff that wouldn’t fall apart in a couple of years, but it came with a price tag. I kept peering at Van to see how much regret was etched across his face. There was nothing but calculation.
One time, Elijah had waxed poetic about how he wished he was closer with his brother, like I was with Poppy. But I understood Van’s role now more than ever. How could he be open with someone who habitually lied and insulted him?
Unless Van was the one lying?
