Brooke watched as Heather poured them two glasses and then acting on impulse, reached out and gave the other woman a hug.
Heather hugged her back, smoothing her hair. “I’m sorry, babe.”
“Me too,” Brooke whispered. “He was supposed to be one of the good ones. Crotchety, but good.”
“Maybe he still is,” Heather said as they pulled back. “I mean, it was lame what he did. So lame. But I think we can give him at least a little teeny tiny point for his heart being in the right place, you know? He didn’t want his sister to marry a shithead. He didn’t want you to be dragged down by your shithead.”
“I guess,” Brooke said, swirling her wine. “I just can’t shake off the sting of betrayal. Two men in a row who don’t come clean. And if he didn’t tell me about his creepy little spying plan, who knows what else he didn’t tell me about?”
“True that,” Heather said, sighing and taking a large gulp of wine.
Brooke bit her lip. “Have you heard how things are going with the Tyler wedding?”
Heather shook her head. “Sorry, no. That’s all Alexis, and she doesn’t really mention it.”
After her fallout with Seth, Brooke had reluctantly abdicated her role as wedding planner for Maya’s nuptials. She felt terrible, but there was no way she could have faced Maya, knowing what she knew about Neil, or whatever his name was, and not saying anything. She kept expecting to hear that the wedding had been called off, but so far it looked like everything was moving forward as planned, though she couldn’t imagine that Seth would hold his tongue and actually let Maya go through with marrying that jerk.
She stifled another surge of anger at Seth. This was why you didn’t go meddling in other people’s business. Finding out things you weren’t supposed to know, knowing secrets that weren’t yours . . . it messed everything up.
“Has he called lately?” Heather asked over the top of her plastic wine cup.
Brooke shook her head. “Nope.”
“How do we feel about that?”
“Terrible,” Brooke muttered. “But seeing him would also be terrible, you know?”
“Sort of. Actually, no, not really.”
Brooke reached for a piece of chocolate and held it up for Heather to see. “It’s a bit like this piece of candy. It’s so good. And also so not good for you. You know?”
“Super eloquent,” Heather said, patting her knee before leaning back once more. “And don’t hate me for saying this, but are you sure that maybe you don’t need closure with Mr. Hotel Trillionaire? I mean, you didn’t get it with Clay, and look what happened with that. Breakdown city.”
Brooke laughed as she unwrapped the Hershey’s Kiss and popped it in her mouth. “I so love these little chats of ours. I have you to dole out the snarky straight talk, and Alexis to dole out the practical straight talk. Even Jessie is a straight shooter, she just coats it in sugar. Where’s the friend who tells me what I want to hear?”
“I think you’re that friend,” Heather said. “So when I fall in love and want to hear that I did the right thing by dumping a hot rich dude half in love with me, you come to my office and have one of these pep talks, ’kay?”
“Seth wasn’t half in love with me,” Brooke rushed to say.
Heather blew out a breath. “Okay, I know you don’t want to hear this, but if he didn’t care, he wouldn’t have done what he did. He was highhanded, yes. A little sketchy with his forthcomingness, yes. But did he tell you why?”
“No,” Brooke admitted. “I think he tried to, but his tongue got tied, and . . .”
“And . . .?”
“I walked away. And ignored all of his calls.”
Heather’s expression was kind but direct as she nudged the Hershey’s Kiss bowl in Brooke’s direction. “What do you think he was about to say?”
“I don’t know,” Brooke whispered.
Except Brooke was terrified that she did know, and it filled her with a strange swirl of elation and dread.
What Seth had done was wrong. Instead of talking to his sister about his concerns, instead of trusting her, he’d assumed that he knew best. Because he loved her. Which didn’t make his actions okay. That kind of love could be stifling and do a hell of a lot more harm than good.
And yet . . .
And yet, Brooke was certain that Maya and Seth would come through it. That Seth could learn