‘Better to not take the risk at all.’
‘My parents divorced too. But they were never really that happy. She had affairs. My father passed away not so long ago.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Brodie offered this automatically.
Jess shrugged lightly. ‘We weren’t so close. He was an academic, he was pretty focused on his work.’
He glanced at her, but she was looking out the window again. ‘My folks are both still alive,’ he said. ‘My mother living in Switzerland with her current husband, my father is in Scotland. He’s a writer, so I understand what it’s like to have a parent whose focus is elsewhere.’
‘Siblings?’ Jess asked.
Brodie couldn’t help smiling. ‘I have a younger sister. Skye. She’s in Dublin. She’s in the family home; she’s overseen the renovation and now she hosts events, mainly weddings.’
Chapter 17
Jess
Iwas mesmerised by Brodie’s smile and the way his face lit up talking about his sister. And I was still getting over the shock of hearing he’d actually done manual labour, but then I’d remembered how his palms had felt rough on my skin. A little nugget that had been too inflammatory to dwell on.
He was looking at me as if waiting for a response.Crap.I felt my face get hot again. What had he said? Something about hosting events?
He went on. ‘She got married there recently, my sister. Her husband is a landscape gardener – they met when she was starting the renovations and hosted the first event, her best friend’s wedding.’
‘More happy couples?’ I remarked.
‘Hmm.’
Brodie didn’t sound so sure. I couldn’t help a short laugh. ‘You really are a cynic.’
He looked at me. ‘And you’re not?’
I felt like scowling. I’d walked into that one. He seemed to be happy to wait for a response. After a while I sighed and said, ‘I don’tnotbelieve in love, but, like you, I’ve lived through myparents’ divorce, so I’m not under any illusions. They didn’t tear each other apart, but it still turned our lives upside down.’
He stayed silent. I kept talking, against my best instincts. ‘But I feel hopeful for my brother and Lucy. They seem really...happy.’
Yet even as I said that I knew that that sort of naked vulnerability made me want to crawl under a stone and hide. It was too...big. Too potentially devastating.
I’d made myself vulnerable once – trusting someone with my heart – and it had backfired spectacularly. It had only made me determined not to be vulnerable again.
But it wasn’t just the pain of being hurt romantically. There was something else. And Brodie was still silent as if he could intuit there was more coming. ‘Actually, I had another brother. He was older.’
‘Had?’
There was something about being in the cocoon of Brodie’s car, and how smooth it was, and how his deep voice was, that made it feel easy for me to say stuff. Stuff I never usually talked about.
‘Callum. He died when Jamie and I were twelve. He was fifteen. Tall, strong. Gorgeous. Kind. The best kind of big brother.’
‘Shit, Jess... I’m so sorry.’
I swallowed the lump rising in my throat. ‘It’s OK, it was a long time ago. He was our half-brother. The product of one of Mum’s affairs. She adored him.’
‘Your dad knew?’
I nodded. ‘I think he just put up with her having affairs because she was so beautiful and he didn’t want her to leave. He never treated Cal any differently, which was commendable.’
And then it hit me, everything I’d just basically vomited out to Brodie. Someone I barely knew and yet we’d had sex, so Idid know him intimately. My face felt hot. ‘Sorry, that was more information than you needed.’
‘No, it’s fine – after all, we’re meant to know this stuff about each other. Ask me some questions.’
