His shoulders tensed. “You didn’t come.”
No, I hadn’t.
Mostly because Cannel hadn’t wanted me around, though she hadn’t really wanted anyone around, and I’d given her that freedom.
“She needed her family. Not some interloper,” I whispered.
His shoulders hunched, and I watched as his head dropped.
I frowned. “What?”
“That was our first mistake,” he announced. “We should’ve never treated you as anything but a permanent part of me. If I’m there, you’re welcome.”
I scoffed. “Your family doesn’t like me, remember? I wasn’t ever welcome. And they all thought I was weird, and they called me Dorcas, and I didn’t like being there.”
He said something quietly under his breath that I had a feeling was a vicious curse, and then said, “We’re going to fix this. This weekend. We’ll have a get together to celebrate the baby. Since we now know the sex, we’ll have one of those gender reveal parties.”
“Gender reveal parties are stupid,” I said, remembering a time when he would’ve agreed with me. “You remember how much shit you gave that friend of yours for having one? You hated it. He hated it. We all hated it.”
I’d never understood gender reveal parties.
Everyone else could have them, but I sure the fuck wouldn’t ever be having one.
At least, I hadn’t planned on it.
Until, apparently, now.
“I know.” Bram started to laugh. “I know. But it’s a good, happy, momentous occasion. We won’t do it big. We won’t even tell them that we’re having it. We’ll disguise it as a welcome home party, and not a gender reveal at all. They’ve all really missed you.”
I barely contained my scoff.
There was no way in hell that they missed me.
In fact, they probably celebrated the months that I’d been gone.
“You remember last Christmas how not a single person got me a Christmas gift?” I asked. “Not even your parents got me one.”
I felt him sigh.
“What’s with the trip down memory lane?” he grumbled. “Trying to remind yourself why you left in the first place? God, sometimes I hate my family.” He hesitated. “Sometimes I hate myself.”
I ignored him.
My belly grumbled, and that was his cue to take me to get a cupcake.
Even though we both knew it likely wouldn’t stay down.
But it was the thought that counted, right?
I curled into him more, and when the motor roared to life, I answered his earlier question.
“I walk down memory lane because that’s the only way I get to run into you,” I whispered.
What I didn’t realize was that Bram had heard.
CHAPTER 14
If you’re ever in an argument that you can’t get out of, take off one of your socks and hand it to the other person.
-Bram to Shine
BRAM
After introducing Dory to Jeremiah’s new cook, Gracelynn, and obviously other things that he wasn’t ready to admit to yet, I went to the front of the store when I heard a commotion break out.
Jeremiah was way ahead of me, and when we got there, it was to find Noel and Peter, Jeremiah’s counter employees, arguing with a camera crew.
“No, you cannot come behind the counter! Get back!” Peter cried.
I moved to block the camera dude with my body as I said, “You either listen to what the employees say, or I force you to get the fuck out.”
The man’s camera swung to me, and he grinned. “Are you part of the MC in town? The Battle Ravens?”
“Battle Crows,” someone that was standing quietly in line said. “And that’s Bram. He’s by far the meanest of the bunch. I would suggest getting out of his face as soon as possible.”
There was a reason that I was known as the ‘meanest’ among the town population. Mostly because I’d spent the last ten years in a perpetual state of anger, at myself, and there was no one better to take it out on than people that didn’t stay out of my fucking face.
Hell, my boss had told me for years that he didn’t like my attitude, but I did such good work, he wasn’t entirely willing to fire me because I always made him look bad.
“I just wanted to get a closer up look of the products for my Insta page.” He waved his hand in the air, indicating all the pastries behind the counter.
“Listen.” I pushed him out of the way until Jeremiah could get the gate closed behind me. “You need to leave. Now. Before I do it for you.”
The man didn’t take the hint, so when he tried to sidestep me and push me out of the way while he was at it, I’d had enough.
Since the guy probably weighed a buck fifty at most, I picked him up by placing my hands underneath his armpits and escorted him out of The Sweet Spot, Jeremiah’s bakery. Depositing him on the front step, I pointed at the other camera crew that was still recording their own version of the same shit outside.
“Keep the cameras outside,” I ordered. “And only come in if you’re willing to pay for something.”
They all nodded at me mutely, and I jerked my chin up to the girl that’d been patiently waiting for her pastries.
She smiled at me, then went back to the conversation she was having with her daughter, and I made my way back to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was staring at me with a look on his face I couldn’t quite decipher.
“What?” I asked as I pushed past him.
“You’ve changed,” he said as he followed me to where I was going—his office.
He closed the door to his office, then leaned his shoulders against the wood.
“I’ve… come to terms with a few things,” I admitted.
“And what are those things?” he asked. “You’ve finally pulled your head out?”
Meaning, I’ve finally admitted to myself that Dory meant the entire world to me.
“Yes,” I answered. “I’ve also committed myself to losing her at the end of all of this.”
He blinked. “What? Why?”
“Because.” I paused. “I don’t think there’s any way in hell that I can fix any of this. We’ve all been too mean to her. She was telling me stories today of all her memories when it came to me, and my family, and I think I’ve got a burning bridge I’m trying to repair with only my bare hands and no tools.”
“If you think that you’re going to fail, you will,” he said solemnly. “And I think that Dory deserves a chance. I think that, if you can figure it out, you two will mean the world to each other. She deserves the world. Don’t you think?”
I didn’t think.
I knew.
“Maybe we should move,” I thought. “That place in Florida, Accident… it was nice. Away from all of our family. And I know that it’ll be hard but… I could find a place to work there on the coast. Jobs pay better over there anyway. Maybe I need to allow her to get to know me before we repair whatever the hell we broke with my family.”
Jeremiah crossed his arms over his chest, but his face was open as he said, “I think that might actually be good for the both of you.”
A fresh start.