“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“What happened today.”
“I’m the one who should apologize,” he admitted. “I got him all worked up because I just couldn’t let anything go.”
“No, you were right. He was hell-bent on poking at everyone and I knew as soon as I looked at you that you were upset and I should have said something then. He just kept going on and on, but it was the first time he seemed so…mean about it.”
“Yeah, well…”
“Then you went into the study with him and I was left in the dining room to try to make excuses, but…all hell broke loose out there too.”
His neck practically snapped as he turned to look at her. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, my goodness…Charlene was livid. She was snapping at Travis and when he tried to calm her down, she attacked poor Leanna!”
He saw red and remembered the look on Leanna’s face when he went to get her before lunch and how she mentioned Charlene getting under her skin.
“What did she say?” he asked, forcing himself to stay calm.
“It was awful, Brody. Simply awful. She ranted on about how the two of you were faking the relationship to steal the spotlight from her wedding. Then she started spouting some sort of ‘I told you so’ about your promotion. It was all very confusing.” She let out a weary sigh. “Travis was trying to calm Charlene down and I was trying to calm Leanna down, the servants were clearing the lunch dishes and…next thing I knew, everyone was leaving.”
“Leanna came with me, Mom. Did she actually leave with Travis and Charlene?”
“No. They left first. I went to the kitchen to get us something to drink and when I came back, she was gone.” Resting her head in her hands, she let out another long breath. “I went to go look for her and all I saw was a car pulling away from the front of the house. Then you called out for Travis and…I’m so sorry.”
Swallowing hard, he reached over and wrapped his arm around her and hugged her close. “It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.”
“I hate to think of how upset Leanna is,” she said, sniffling.
Placing a kiss on her forehead, he said, “Me too.”
Actually, it killed him.
They sat in silence for several minutes before either of them spoke. “Do you think someone will come out and talk to us soon?” she asked.
“I hope so. But I can go up to the desk and ask if you’d like.”
“No, I don’t want to bother anyone. I’m sure someone will come out when they have something to tell us. I just hate not knowing. And if I know your father, he’s arguing with everything they’re trying to do.”
Brody couldn’t help but chuckle because it was true.
His phone vibrated in his pocket and he hoped it was Lea, but when he looked at the screen, he saw it was Daren. Carefully, he sat up straighter so he could text with him and after several messages back and forth, it was decided that no one needed to come until they talked to the doctors and knew what was going on.
Once he got done talking to Daren–who, in turn, was going to reach out to Travis–Brody decided to text Leanna…just in case she opted to ignore his voicemail.
Brody: Hey. I am so sorry about what happened earlier. I had no idea things were going to get so out of hand. And I’m really sorry that Charlene upset you. We definitely need to talk.
He hit send and waited a minute and then realized he probably should clarify some things.
Brody: In case you didn’t listen to my voicemail, I’m at the hospital with my father. We think he had a heart attack. We’re waiting to hear from the doctors but who knows how long it will be. Please text me back and let me know that you’re okay. Please.
Brody: And please disregard everything your cousin said. All of it. I promise you she has everything wrong. Hope we can talk later.
Then, with nothing else to do, he slid his phone back into his pocket and tried to get comfortable. His mother’s head rested on his shoulder and he did his best to think positively about all of it.
But unfortunately, he knew he was in for a long wait.
Chapter 16
It doesn’t matter if you win or lose; it’s how you bake the cake.
Her phone pinged with an incoming text and she ignored it.
Sitting at her desk, Leanna kept her focus on the estimate she was typing up for a wedding cake that would feed 250 people.
Then the phone pinged again.
“Oh, for the love of it, Leanna!” Josie cried. “Can you please respond to his texts?”
Waving her off, she finished typing her estimate, attached it to an email and hit send before responding. “You don’t even know who it is, Jos. For all you know, my mother is texting me.”
“Your mother never texts,” Josie reasoned, “because she thinks it’s uncivilized and still mourns the death of the rotary phone. Plus, whoever it is–and I think we both know that it’s Brody–has been consistently texting you every five minutes for the last thirty minutes! Can you please just cut the guy some slack and answer him? How long are you planning on punishing him?”
Actually, Leanna read every text Brody sent and responded to most.
After she left his parents’ home that Sunday, she ignored everything–both calls and texts. But Monday morning her curiosity had gotten the better of her and then she felt awful for being spiteful.
So she’d responded with a text of her own telling him she was fine and wishing his father a full recovery. But other than texts, they hadn’t spoken since he excused himself from the table after that god-awful lunch.
Which was two weeks ago.
It was totally unlike her to be this way, but she was in self-preservation mode. As much as her heart told her to believe Brody and not her cousin, she was having a hard time with it. Each of their stories sounded believable and the only way she was able to try to come to grips with everything was to stay away.
And it was killing her.
His father had a heart attack and had to undergo a triple bypass. Things had been a little touch and go, but now he seemed to be doing better. Brody was dividing his time between being with his mother, taking her back and forth to the hospital, and trying to handle things at the office. She understood it and even felt bad for everything he was going through, but for as much as he kept saying how they needed to talk, he also wasn’t offering to come and actually talk to her.
With a sigh, she picked up her phone and saw the text was indeed from him.
Brody: Dad is coming home today. Mom’s thrilled. We’re all exhausted. Thank you for sending her cupcakes. They made her day.
There had been about a half a dozen texts before that one–several of them were simply pictures of his mom with the box of cupcakes Lea sent over for her–the others were simply asking how she was.
Which had been their standard line of communication: he’d ask how she was, she’d ask how he was, he’d say they needed to talk and then…they wouldn’t.
For almost two weeks, Leanna held herself together.
Work had been more than a little crazy and she loved having little to no time to obsess about the demise of their relationship. And even though he had told her in those first few texts how wrong her cousin had been, their current situation said otherwise.