I could feel the alcohol coursing through me now, along with all my frustrations over everything that had changed in my life, and suddenly I couldn’t shut my damn mouth.
“Unlike you, I’ve had to leave my whole goddamn life behind. My business. My friends. And all for—”
“Your family?” Justin fired back, getting to his feet. “Yeah, what a damn sacrifice it is you’re making. You’ve walked back into the top job of a thriving business that—let’s be real—should’ve gone to Ryan, and you control everything. It’s like Harry rewarded you for turning out to be as big of an asshole as he was.”
I was about to lunge for Justin when a hand on my shoulder halted me.
“What’s going on here?” Ryan’s voice was instantly recognizable as both my brother and lifeline to some form of sanity.
“Nothing.” Justin took another swig of his beer. “We were just having a…brotherly discussion.”
I glared at him then turned to see not only Ryan but Willa standing behind me. I looked between the two of them and frowned, then blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“Are you two dating?”
Willa laughed and looked to Ryan, who was looking a lot less jovial. “No, we like each other too much for that. We were in the middle of Monday night Monopoly,” she said.
“Monopoly?”
Ryan’s jaw twitched as he crossed his arms over his chest, and I wondered if it was due to me and Justin or Willa’s answer. “Marty called, said you might need a lift home. What’s that about?”
Damn gossipy locals.
“It’s about nothing. I just wanted a few drinks, that’s all,” I said, and shoved by him. This was exactly what I’d wanted to avoid—questions.
I somehow managed to make it out the door and a little ways down the road when I heard, “Uh, Noah?”
I stopped and turned to see Ryan and Willa standing a few feet away. “Yeah?”
Willa stepped forward and indicated the road. “If you’re heading back to the B&B, you’re going the wrong way.”
I squinted in the direction I’d been heading, and when a car whizzed by, I stumbled back a step. Yeah, okay, maybe I shouldn’t be trying to walk home right now.
“Fine. Do you mind if I get a lift?”
Ryan smirked and walked to the parking lot, and I took that as no, he didn’t mind. As I followed behind him, Willa moved into my side and took my arm. “Are you okay?”
Her question was so genuine that it was difficult to ignore, and that was the only reason I admitted, “No. Not really.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No. Not really?”
She laughed and shook her head. “The second question was rhetorical. It’s obvious you need to talk about it.”
I grumbled but nodded. “You’re right, I do. But I’m still trying to, um, make sense of it. I, uh, I found out that Laurel has a kid.”
Both Willa and Ryan stopped dead in their tracks and looked at me as though I was crazy.
“That’s why you’re upset?” Willa grinned and patted my cheek. “It’s not like Jake’s a secret. He works at the winery.”
Well, I knew that now, didn’t I? “Jake? That’s his name?”
“Yeah.” Willa smiled. “He’s an awesome kid. Well, he’s pretty much an adult now, but Laurel did great with him. So what’s the problem? You don’t like kids?”
Ryan was being unusually quiet throughout all of this, which, had I been a little more sober, I would’ve thought was weird.
“No. I like kids just fine.” When Ryan unlocked the doors of the truck, I climbed in the back seat.
“Okay.” Willa turned from her spot in the front to look at me. “So if you don’t have a problem with kids, then why are you over here drinking yourself into a coma?”
I shifted my eyes to my brother, who was watching me in the rearview mirror. “Because I made a fool of myself, that’s why. I thought they were dating. I thought that’s why she wouldn’t date me.”
Willa started laughing hard. “Trust me, that’s not the first time that’s happened. Laurel had him young. She’s hot as hell, and Jake has grown up fast. I’m sure she doesn’t think anything bad of you.”
That might all be true, but now I was back to wondering why Ryan hadn’t said anything. “You didn’t think to mention that she’d had a kid, Ryan? Couldn’t slip it into a conversation somewhere in all these years?”
Ryan started the truck up and put it in reverse. “It wasn’t my business. And you never asked. Would’ve been weird to bring up out of the blue.”
“Yeah, well, a heads-up might’ve been helpful.” I slumped back in the seat feeling like the biggest idiot in the world, then something I hadn’t even thought about popped into my head. “Where’s his dad?”
Willa looked at Ryan, and when he shrugged, she turned back to me. “She never really talks about him. But you know how rumors and small towns go…”
“Right. There’s always a story. This is me asking.”
“He was a one-night stand,” Ryan said. “Not long after you left.”
Fuck. I hit the side of the truck with my hand and then cursed over the fact that I hadn’t drunk enough that my nerve endings were numb. Here I’d been so destroyed over being sent away from her that no other woman had ever compared, and it turned out the second I was gone, she found someone new.
Well, don’t I feel like a fucking idiot…
When Ryan pulled into the parking lot of Wilhelmina’s, I shoved open the door and climbed out. Today could just fuck right off as far as I was concerned. I stormed into the B&B and was halfway up to my floor when Ryan called out to me.
“What?”
“What we just told you on the way home just now? Remember, it’s just a rumor.”
“What does that mean?”
Ryan walked up a couple of stairs and lowered his voice a fraction. “It means exactly that. It’s a rumor. I work with Jake every day. I have for the last two years. Look at him a little closer the next time you’re around.”
What the hell he is talking about?
Before I could ask, though, Ryan was already jogging down the stairs. So I made my way to my room and lay down on the bed. That was when his words began to repeat in my head over and over again: Look at him a little closer… Look at him a little closer….
32
Noah
I DIDN’T SLEEP worth a shit last night. I’d tossed and turned until the early hours of the morning, and anytime my eyes did begin to close, Ryan’s voice woke me up again.
Look at him a little closer…
Bastard. What kind of thing was that to say to someone who was clearly not thinking straight and also alcohol-impaired? Didn’t he realize the kind of chaos that would set off in my brain? If he did, he clearly didn’t care, because I hadn’t slept a wink.
Look at him a little closer… That could only be interpreted one way as far as I was concerned, and the fact that I was even entertaining the thought was unbelievable. Because for that to actually be true would mean Laurel had lied to me for well over a decade.