“Months? You’ve been doing this behind my back for months? And you actually believe her crap?”
I swallow a tired sigh. “She’s trying, Coop.”
“You’re pathetic.” When he spits out the words, it’s like he’s had them sitting in his mouth for twenty years. “The time for getting over your mommy issues was when you stopped sleeping with a night-light.”
“Dude, I’m not the one flying off the handle at the mention of her.”
“Look at what you’re doing.” He advances on me, and I take another step back, only because I was just praising my self-restraint to Gen earlier. “One drunk, deadbeat woman walks out on you, so you go fall in love with another one. Man, you can’t hang on to either one of them, and you never will.”
My fist itches to put a dent in Cooper’s face. He can say what he wants about our mother. He’s earned his anger the honest way. But no one talks like that about Gen while I’m around.
“Because you’re my blood, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” I tell him, my voice tight with restraint. “But if you feel like you got too many teeth in your mouth, go ahead and try that shit again.”
“Hey, hey.” Mac wedges herself between us and manages to walk Coop back a couple paces, though his glare still says he’s thinking about my offer. “Both of you take it down a notch.” She puts both hands on Cooper’s chest until he drops his gaze to hers. A few breaths later, she’s got his attention. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but maybe give Evan the benefit of the doubt.”
“We tried that last time.” He flicks his gaze to me. “How’d that turn out?”
“Okay,” she says quietly. “But this is now. If Evan says Shelley’s making an effort, why not trust him? You could go have a look for yourself. If you’d be open to meeting her.”
He tears away from Mac. “Oh, fuck off. Both of you. This ganging up stuff isn’t cute most of the time, but about this?” Cooper levels Mac with a withering glare. “Mind your goddamn business.”
At that, he storms off, marching back up to the house.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time he’s lost his cool over Shelley, and it’s not likely to be the last. Mac has more experience with his tantrums than she should. Which is to say, she isn’t fazed.
“I’ll work on him,” she promises me with a sad smile before going after him.
Well. No one walked away bloody. We might call that a success, under the circumstances.
I don’t hold out much hope for Mac’s mission, though. Cooper’s been burned one too many times, so I can’t say his reaction is entirely unwarranted. In our family history, Shelley’s done more wrong than right, the worst of it practiced on Coop, as he was always the one trying to protect me from her latest betrayal. His self-imposed, older-by-three-minutes big brother complex insisted it was his job to shield me from the awful truth: that our mom was unreliable at best and downright malicious at worst.
So I get it. Because now it feels like I’ve betrayed him, thrown all the brothering back in his face to take her side. But the thing is, while he reached his tolerance for her a long time ago, I’ve still got some left. And I have to believe people can change. I need to believe it.
Otherwise, what the hell am I doing with my life?
CHAPTER 27
GENEVIEVE
Trina is a piece of work. We met in detention in the sixth grade and became fast friends. She enjoyed skipping class and smoking cigarettes in the baseball dugout as much as I did, so really, it was inevitable that we’d cross paths. And while I have more good memories of Trina than bad, I’m still nervous when I walk into the bar to meet her. Even when we were kids, she always had an infectious quality about her. Like she was having so much fun, you wanted in on whatever she was getting up to. Insatiable and alluring.
Evan’s right, though. If I can survive Trina’s temptations, I’ll most definitely be cured.
“Damn it, Gen.”
Winding through the crowded high-top tables, I turn at the familiar voice. Trina sits at a table against the wall, an empty highball and a bottle of beer in front of her. She hops to her feet and gives me a tight hug.
“I hoped you’d gotten hideous since the last time I saw you,” she says, brushing my hair off my shoulder. “Would it have killed you to sprout some heinous zits for the occasion?”
“My bad,” I laugh.
“Sit down, slag.” She looks over my shoulder and waves for a waitress. “Catch me up. What the hell have you been up to?”
We didn’t really talk after I left Avalon Bay. As I did with most of this town, I quit cold turkey. Other than some texts here and there, I’d kept my distance, even muting her on social media so I couldn’t be tempted by her exploits.
“As it turns out, I start a new job soon. Cooper’s girlfriend is reopening The Beacon Hotel. I’m the new manager.”
“For real?” She’s incredulous at first. Then, apparently realizing there isn’t a punchline coming, she throws back a swig of her beer. “That means the next time I come to town, you’re hooking me up with a room. I think me and my dear mother have exceeded our quota of quality time.”
I grin. “Didn’t you get in last night?”
“Exactly.” Her eyes widen. “Shit, I’m sorry. I heard about your mom. You okay?”
It seems like ages ago now, though it’s only been a few months. The reminders of Mom are fewer and further between. “Yeah,” I say honestly. “I’m good. Thank you.”
“I’d have been at the funeral if I’d known. But I only heard recently.”
I don’t think she means them to, but the words come out like an accusation. She’d have been there if I’d bothered to tell her, is the subtext. If I hadn’t all but ghosted her a year ago. But that’s probably my own guilt talking.
“It’s fine, really. Was mostly a family thing. She didn’t want a big fuss.” Least of all from her kids.
Trina gets a menacing glint in her eye as she sips her drink. “You seeing much of Evan lately?”
I swallow a sigh. For just one night, can’t something be about anything but him? My head’s been on backwards since I came back to town. I’m my favorite self when I’m with him—and also my worst. Everything at both extremes wrapped up in this volatile cocktail we become.
“Sometimes, I guess. I don’t know. It’s complicated.”
“You’ve been using that same line since we were fifteen.”
And I don’t feel much better equipped than I was then.
“So what’s up?” With another mouthful of beer, she plasters on her usual irreverence when she reads the heaviness closing in. “You back for good now?”
“Looks that way.” It’s strange. I don’t remember making the decision to stay. It just snuck up on me, the ties reattaching overnight while I slept. “Dad’s selling the house, so I need to find a new place soon.”
“I’ve given some thought to sticking around too.”
I snort a laugh. “Why?”
Trina always hated this town. Or rather, the people. She loved her friends fiercely, the few she kept. Beyond that, she’d have lit a match and never looked back. Or so I thought.