It was still at least two hundred feet to the inn’s front porch, and the barn was way beyond that. With the door open, the just-above-freezing temp seeped into them fast. All three pulled gloves from their pockets and tugged them on.
Teague leaned forward, keeping his voice low. “Is this wallowing freak-out just about Brody? Or Sydney?”
Damn it. Teague was a lot more perceptive than he used to be.
“You’re losing me, guys. What do Nora and Sydney have to do with Brody breaking into your inn?” James asked.
It wasn’t fair to keep James in the dark. Not when he’d come along as backup, without hesitation. “The short version? I had an ugly situation at my last job. A burglary, right under my nose.”
Teague gave him—wow, a look he never thought he’d see on his friend’s face. It was a full-on, tight-lipped, half-headshake, parental version of you know better than that. “She did it to escape domestic abuse, Alex. The woman wasn’t just out for a quick score.”
That didn’t let him off the hook. “Still, I doubted myself after Elena took advantage of my trust by stealing that money. Thought that I’d lost my ability to get a read on people. In my business? That particular talent has to be overdeveloped, not lacking in any way. I’m responsible for all the people staying under my roof. I have to trust that I’ll tell if someone’s dangerous. Or even just up to no good.”
“You’re not responsible, Alex. We all are.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m not backsliding. I’m just talking about my problem. You’re Special Forces. You’ve been literally government trained to sense danger a mile away.”
“Trained?” Teague scoffed. “Nah. My talent’s innate.”
Either way, he knew his friend had instincts beyond reproach. That their guests would be safe under his watch.
“But Everleigh could be introduced to a terrorist wearing a suicide bomb strapped to their chest, and she’d still probably invite them out for coffee. Amelia knows there’s a balance, but chooses to see only the good in people.”
“Agree on Ever. I don’t think you’re giving your sister enough credit, though.”
“Because of that, I need to be twice as on guard, twice as ready to spot trouble. I can’t slip up again and lose us the inn.”
“Whoa. I know Easter’s right around the corner, and Father Mike would cringe if he heard me saying this, but—” James let out a long, low whistle. “That’s one hell of a savior complex you’ve got going on there.”
Teague clapped him on the shoulder. “Thank you! See, Alex? James is objective, hearing all of this for the first time, and still target-locks on your problem.”
They couldn’t be more wrong. “I don’t think I’m anywhere close to the inn’s savior.”
“Nope. But you think you ought to be. For everyone, for everything. You can’t be. No matter how hard you twist yourself into knots trying. And that’s okay. Go ahead and doubt yourself. As long as you temper it by knowing that if you do fail, if you do mess up, the world will keep going.”
Maybe…
Maybe he’d gone into overdrive when his parents died, worried about taking care of Amelia. Maybe he’d left himself revved too high on the responsibility front…
“What about Sydney? I thought I knew her. Trusted her.” Alex swallowed down the thickness in his throat. Told himself it was just a reaction to the cold. “Loved her.”
“You still know her. Whatever you loved in her, that’s all still there.”
So was the deep slash she’d left across his heart. “She got me fired.”
Teague thumped his forehead against the headrest. “Before she met you. Sydney got a total stranger fired with the article, sure. But to save the jobs of multiple people she cared about. Kind of like how you hid Elena’s burglary for a day to help save her.”
“It’s not the same,” Alex said, shocked that his friend would make that comparison. Whose side was he on?
“Isn’t it?”
No.
Maybe. But still… “She kept that huge secret from me.”
On a half-laugh, half-groan, Teague said, “Kind of like how you kept being fired from her. You two set up these asinine rules at the start of this whole weird fake engagement. You’re both to blame for how it turned out.”
Matt’s flashlight beam cut through the darkness. Alex would take it as an all-clear signal. Mostly because he was desperate to get out of the car and Teague’s unexpected pushback. Couldn’t a guy emotionally beat himself up in peace anymore? Without having logic thrown at him like a spear to disrupt