I also noticed he was alone. "Where's Jacks?"
Brody frowned. "Her mom asked if she could have her for the weekend. Jacks wanted to go, so I said yes."
I inhaled sharply. Yet more evidence he was a good dad. He wanted his daughter to be happy more than he wanted to stick it to his ex.
He lifted the bag between us. "I was hoping you would take pity on me and eat the dinner I brought rather than forcing me to eat with my parents in their enormous dining room."
I took the sushi from him and waved him inside with my other hand. "I'll take pity on you, you poor wretch. Even though you called me a little pig."
Brody smiled, but I could still see the worry in his eyes. He played along though. "Oh, beautiful, kind mistress. Thank you for your mercy."
"Okay, that's enough," I muttered as he shut the door and locked it. "Why don't you explain your comment about gossips?"
I set the bag on one of the stainless steel counters and began to remove container after container of sushi. Lots and lots of sushi. When I pulled the sixth plastic tray out of the bag, I glanced at Brody, who was still silent.
"How hungry did you think I would be?" I asked, staring at the feast before me.
"I was hoping you'd share," he murmured.
"I guess I will if I have to, but don't think I didn't notice you changing the subject."
"I didn't change the subject," he said. "You did."
"Just answer the question, Brody."
He sighed and started popping lids off the trays. "I might have gotten a call from your mother, asking me how long we'd been dating."
I dropped a handful of soy sauce packets all over the kitchen floor. "What?"
"Apparently, when I came by to apologize last Sunday, a group of people from your parents' church saw us together here and witnessed you waving at me as you drove by."
"So that means we're dating?" I knew Farley was a small town, but this was insane. A wave and a conversation now meant we had a relationship?
"I guess so," he replied.
I shook my head. "That's just great. Now, I'll be even more undateable."
"That's the second time you've mentioned that."
"Mentioned what?" I asked, crouching down to pick up all the sauce packets that scattered all over the floor.
"Your, uh, love life."
"Or lack thereof?" I straightened and piled the soy sauce on the counter. "Sorry, it's been...a while since I dated anyone."
I rummaged around in the bottom of the bag, looking for chopsticks.
"How long is a while?" Brody asked.
I glanced up and saw that he was studying me closely. My eyes narrowed. "A while."
He leaned back against the sink and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll show you mine."
I mimicked his posture. "If I show you mine?"
He nodded.
"You've only been divorced for, what, six months?"
"Eight, but we were separated for a lot longer than that."
"How long?" I asked, skeptical.
"You first."
Was I really going to do this? Was I going to share with him how pathetic I was? I stared at Brody. I always hated to be vulnerable in front of him.
But things were different now. Weren't they?
So I inhaled deeply and took the risk.
"Eighteen months," I admitted. "He lived near Dallas, worked there, and he asked me to move in with him but—"
"You would have had to give up the shop," Brody said.
I nodded.
"Damn, that sucks. I'm sorry."
I shrugged. "It is what it is."
"I've noticed people always say that when it's something they really don't want to discuss."
I couldn't help the huff of laughter that escaped me. "Yeah, it's not my favorite subject. I really cared about him."
"But why haven't you dated anyone since then?" he asked.
"The dating pond here isn't exactly teeming with fish."
Brody nodded but didn't say anything else.
"Your turn," I said.
"Two and a half years."
My eyes widened. "But you weren't separated that long, were you?"
He shook his head. "No. We were separated for about a year before the divorce was final, but after I found out she was cheating on me, I wouldn't touch her."
I wracked my brain for a delicate way to ask, but couldn't find one, so I just spoke my mind. "You didn't, you know, look for someone else?"
"Absolutely not. After everything I went through with Monica, I wasn't exactly interested in starting up something with another woman."
"Not even sex?" I asked, almost shocked. Two and half years was a long time for anyone, but Brody exuded such a strong aura of masculinity, I guess some would call it virility, that I almost couldn't believe it.
"Sex was how I got into that mess with Monica." His eyes glittered, hard and angry. "I don't regret having Jacks, but I hate that I managed to get myself so twisted up that I married Monica instead of just shelling out child support. Or fighting for full custody." He laughed but it was harsh rather than humorous. "I'm fairly certain that if I'd offered Monica enough money, she would have signed away her parental rights from the get-go. Instead, I had it in my head that I needed to do the right thing. That a child needed both parents to be successful."
I understood that attitude because I'd had two great parents who were still crazy in love with each other. But I'd also seen the other side. Kids I went to school with whose parents fought constantly or treated each other like crap. "If the child's parents are miserable together, do you think it's helping in the long run?"
Brody's eyes were nearly piercing when they met mine. "It doesn't help. It makes it worse. And I'm pretty sure that's what you were trying to tell me the day of my wedding."
"Have you been beating yourself up about this for a while?" I asked, grabbing a couple of paper plates from the stack I kept on a shelf above the cabinet.
"Only about five years," he muttered.
Those words hit me right in the chest. Made my heart ache for him.
I decided to tell him exactly what I thought. It might be a mistake, considering we'd just started getting along less than a week ago, but I didn't think it would be. Brody could handle my bluntness. He always had.
"Brody, you probably won't like hearing this but you're human. You made a mistake. We all do that. But I can tell you learned from your mistake."
"And how can you know that?" he asked. I couldn't read the expression on his face. It was one I'd never seen before.
"A lot of men would have gone out and chased the first piece of tail they could find if they discovered their wife was cheating on them. Or at least started dating after they separated and divorce proceedings were underway. You didn't. You focused on your daughter. Now, I'm not saying you don't deserve to find someone you care about, but you didn't go out looking for a revenge fuck. Your attitude and actions are coming from the right place."
He cocked his head and stared at me, but this time I could decipher his emotions.