“You’re thinking Sue Storm. Fantastic Four. And it depends which version of the movie you watch as to whether or not you’d call her a superhero.”
“Okay. If you can’t see Sue Storm, then assume I’m alone. Aside from my Frosty-In-Progress here.” Alex patted the round ball. Flattened out a spot at the top to hold the next one. But he’d wait for Amelia to come back to go any further. Like she’d said, the best part was doing it together.
“I need to talk to you.”
Teague was acting…weird. Which was not something he so much did. At all. Teague had two settings. Focused or chill. Now he was all awkwardly stiff. Snapping words out. Like he expected a surprise inspection from his colonel at any second.
Make that his ex-colonel who was about…what…six thousand miles away in the Middle East?
What was with him?
“Are you having trouble sloughing off the military? Do you need me to give you permission to approach?”
Teague scowled, his brown eyebrows coming together into almost a single line. The three days of scruff covering his face only added another layer to his pissed-off demeanor. “The last thing I need is you telling me what to do.”
“Okay. Geez. It was a joke.” Now that he wasn’t engaged in snow cardio, Alex felt the cold. And not just the emotional Arctic front pumping off his best friend. He shoved back into his coat.
“I don’t like what just went down.”
Had Teague been watching out the window?
Not that Alex cared. No chance it was a secret that he and Amelia had a dust-up. He’d texted all of them so they knew not to worry when he didn’t come back during the storm. Amelia for sure had vented to the others the moment their fight ended.
Besides, there shouldn’t be any secrets. They’d agreed to that back when news of his fake engagement broke.
But how was him clearing the air with Amelia not a good thing?
“Uh, I don’t know what you think you saw, buddy, but we just made up. Groveling went down on both sides. Big hug. We’re all good. She’s coming back out to finish this snowman with me in a few.”
“Glad to hear it. I’m talking about before that.”
Having zero clue, Alex lifted his shoulders to his ears. “What?”
Teague crossed his arms across his fleece-lined denim coat. It was identical to the one he’d worn constantly in high school—just upgraded in size a couple of times since then to make room for his Special Forces honed physique. “You hurt her. Amelia.”
“I’m not denying it. Hence the groveling.”
Teague’s usually bright hazel eyes were now a flat, muddy brown. Almost as flat as his tone. “You yelled at her. You made her feel small and stupid.”
Ouch. It was true. Hearing it laid out like that made Alex regret how he’d done it even more. Didn’t at all impact his feelings that the talk had been necessary; just that he’d done it in a half-assed, poor choice of a way.
“I know I was wrong in the manner I shared the information. I should’ve communicated better.”
Teague’s mouth dropped open in a soundless laugh. “You think what you did was communicating?”
“Well, it wasn’t my best stab at it. Which is why, I repeat, I apologized.”
Why was this so hard for his friend to absorb? Yes, Alex had screwed up. But he wasn’t making excuses. He wasn’t shifting blame. He’d acknowledged the mistake and made amends. What the hell else did Teague want from him?
“You questioned how much you could trust her. Your own sister.” Teague’s right arm swept sideways, pointing over at Amelia’s cottage. “You basically told her she had no business making decisions without your approval.”
“That was a slip in context. I meant that she shouldn’t make a unilateral decision. Something that big as committing to an event prior to our scheduled opening? It needed to be run by all of us. Period. I’d say the same to you and Everleigh.”
Teague licked his lips. Then slowly worked his head side to side. “Man, I’ve known you two for most of your lives. You’ve never talked to your sister like that. I sure as hell hope you never talked to a colleague like that. It’s not cool, Alex.”
Hands up, fingers spread, he said, “I know.”
Sure, there was a chance Amelia had, well, exaggerated what went down. Her side of the story probably had a different shading to it than the one he’d told Sydney. Which was to be expected.
He just hadn’t expected the shading to paint him