Funny. Good dad. Great son. Upstanding man of the community. He’s perfect, right? Like a prince?” Her eyes shift to me.
“Perfect,” I mutter, only he doesn’t want me. “But Prince Charming might have a thing or two on your brother.”
“How’s that?” Tricia asks.
“Well, for one, as perfect as your brother might be, he isn’t interested in me.”
She stares at me, incredulity written across her face. “Girl, are you blind?”
“Look,” I say harshly. I stop walking and look directly at her. “Your brother has been very clear he doesn’t want anything from me. Not my love for Katie. Not my interest in him. He’s fine to just fu . . . sleep with me for a few days, but he’s not offering more.” I can’t believe I’ve just said all this to his sister, admitting that I’ve slept with her brother, but we’re adults. It happens.
“Did he say that? Say not to love Katie?”
“Yes.”
Tricia stares at me, blinking rapidly. “I . . . I’ll never understand men. What an idiot.” She chuckles as she shakes her head in disbelief. “I’m going to tell you something about my brother even though I probably shouldn’t. He won’t shut up about you. From the moment you entered town, it’s been Emily this and Emily that. First, you were always pissing him off, and that’s because he didn’t know what to do with you. Said you were always showing up wherever he was. When Katie took an interest in you, it just confused him more. Then his tune shifted, and he started acting like you’re some miracle worker by introducing Katie to sign language and the communication app. Then he sang more praises about you and smiled more often and started sneaking off to see you. He’s included you in every family function lately, which he has never ever done with a woman, and he’s . . . he’s fucking happy . . . so I do not understand. If that’s not an interested man, I don’t know what is.”
I quietly retort, “There are those lies we wish were truths.”
+ + +
After returning to Nana’s, I couldn’t seem to concentrate on any one task, so I gave up. With a beach bag over my shoulder and sunglasses on my face, I decide I deserve some beach time before I leave Elk Lake City. I exit Nana’s through the screened-in porch and walk around the house to find Jess sitting on the front porch steps. He’s wearing board shorts, a T-shirt, and dark aviator sunglasses over his eyes. He’s a beach boy dream today, and I marvel at the many variations of Jess Carter.
“What are you doing?”
“I knocked, but you didn’t answer.”
“I was upstairs, I guess.” How did I not hear him? He reaches beside him and holds up a Styrofoam container. “I brought you lunch. It’s the Rotary Club’s famous barbecue chicken and coleslaw.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Tricia said she couldn’t convince you to come to the tent.”
“Was she supposed to?” I question. She hadn’t mentioned lunch.
“My family is sending in reinforcements because apparently, I’m an idiot.” He pauses and gazes out at my yard. He avoids looking directly at me. “They aren’t wrong. I’m always apologizing to you.”
He shifts his attention and glances up at me from behind his sunglasses.
“I can’t believe I accused you of wanting Gabe when I know you’re too smart for a man like him. And I shouldn’t have blurted out to the entire fucking bar his indiscretion with my wife. I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing I still held it against him.”
“It’s a pretty big thing, though,” I admit as I recall my own surprise at his forgiveness.
“I knew if I told everyone, it wouldn’t be him who looked like an ass, but me. I’m the one who failed so much at my own marriage that another man took my place in our bed.” He sits straighter and exhales. “Only I didn’t fail Deb. She failed me. We had vows and promises, and we should have sought therapy. Hell, we probably should have never been married, but I can’t undo the past. I can only live in the present.”
Live for now.
I step up the few treads and take a seat next to him on the porch. My stomach rumbles, and he turns to me.
“Eat. That’s the best chicken ever.”
I open the lid, ripping away the top to better balance the square container on my lap. Jess makes no movement to leave,