“I’ll take a look.”
“I have it on my phone.”
“You can read it to me while I make drinks. Coffee?” he asked me.
I shook my head. “I’m good, thanks.”
He lifted a brow at Jen in question.
She smiled. “Coffee would be great. Two sugars, no milk.”
Dane dropped a kiss on my mouth. “I’ll just be a minute.” He left the room with his brother.
I retook my seat on the sofa, which placed me across from Jen, who sat with her back so straight I would bet it ached.
Crossing one leg over the other, she pasted a smile on her face that didn’t reach her eyes. “Your family seems very nice.”
“They are. I’m lucky.”
She cleared her throat. “I asked your wedding planners if there was any way I could help with the preparations for the reception. They said to ask you.”
“The planners have it all covered, but it’s nice of you to offer.”
She squinted, watching me closely. “You don’t trust me not to sabotage anything,” she guessed.
“No, I don’t.” I saw no need to deny it. I wasn’t being a bitch; I just wasn’t going to insult my intelligence or hers by drumming up silly excuses.
“I suppose I can understand that. But I’m asking you to give me a chance. I just want to make up for what I did and said.”
“Why bother?” I asked without heat. “Let’s be honest here, or we’re not going to get past this. You don’t like me at all. I can feel it in every interaction we have, so why offer to help with the reception plans?”
“Dane isn’t just my brother-in-law, he’s my friend—he has been for a long time. He matters to me. He’s never been angry with me before. Now that he’s giving me the cold shoulder, everything feels … off.”
“You can’t really blame him for being mad at you.”
“I don’t blame him at all. This mess is on me, and I want to fix it. I want my friend back.”
“I don’t see that happening unless you shake off how determined you are to dislike me. It’s not really an issue for me, but it is for Dane. Put yourself in his position. I doubt you’d want to be around someone who so strongly disapproved of Kent.” Then again, maybe she wouldn’t care. In all the times I’d seen them together, they never behaved like a couple—there was no handholding or cuddling or even a tiny “spark,” but there was esteem there. Like they were close friends.
She frowned. “So I have to like you if I want him to forgive me? That’s hardly fair. We can’t always help who we do or don’t like.”
“We can if we’re finding reasons to dislike someone rather than giving them a chance,” I argued. “Look, you and I are never going to be BFFs. But we can at least be civil to each other. For his sake, if nothing else.”
“I can do ‘civil.’ Like I said, I want to fix my mess. But that can’t happen if you’re standing in the way.”
I felt my brow furrow. “How am I standing in the way?”
“I’m asking you to give me a chance to make up for what I did, but you won’t.”
“There are plenty of ways you could try to fix your fuckup,” I pointed out. “I won’t get in the way of them, but I also won’t trust you with plans for the reception. Find another way.”
“And you’ll support my friendship with Dane?” she challenged, folding her arms. “You won’t feel threatened by how close he and I are?”
Threatened? Was she serious? “I don’t think you two are quite as close as you’d like me to believe.”
“And why not?”
“Because people share their happy moments with those who are closest to them. He never called you to tell you about our engagement. He never called you when we stood outside the chapel. He didn’t even send you text messages. And I heard him tell you more than once that what you believe is irrelevant to him. That kind of says it all.” So it was downright insulting that she expected me to think differently.
Color rose in her face. “You just don’t like that he and I were once an item.”
“An item? Oh, Jenny, this shit’s just petty.”
“It’s Jen.”
“You and Dane slept together. Once. The end. Why do you want me to think it was more than that? I honestly don’t see what you’d get out of that on a personal level. Unless you have none-too-platonic feelings for him.”
Her eyes sparkled like chips of ice. “I’m married to his brother.”
But maybe she’d wanted to marry a different Davenport. Maybe she’d settled for Kent. Or maybe she just felt some sense of ownership over Dane due to their past one-night stand or long-term friendship.
“I love Kent,” she stated.
That didn’t necessarily mean she loved him as a wife should love her husband, or that she didn’t have feelings for Dane as well.
“I care for Dane, he’s family to me,” she added.
“Coming into his home and acting this way toward his wife—that’s not what family should do to family.”
Jen went to speak again, but then she stilled at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. She plastered a butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth expression on her face and let the tension leave her posture in a rush.
The brothers entered the den, talking amongst themselves.
She smiled sweetly at Dane when he handed her the cup of coffee. “Thanks, Dane.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. It seemed he wasn’t buying her act. He sank on the sofa, retaking his earlier spot beside me, and draped his arm over my shoulder. “You all right?”
I pouted and forced my lips to wobble. “No. Hold me.”
He gave me a droll look.
Kent’s mouth quirked. “I like that you don’t take him too seriously. He needs that. Who knows? You might even help him develop a sense of humor.”
Unlikely. “Let’s not expect miracles.”
“I have a sense of humor; I’m just not easily amused,” said Dane. “Unlike some people, who’ll laugh at the most inappropriate moments. Like during their wedding ceremony.”
The memory made my shoulders shake with silent laughter. “It wouldn’t have been half as funny if you weren’t so annoyed.”
“You still haven’t showed me the video of the ceremony,” Kent said to him.
Dane pulled his cell out of his pocket. “I downloaded it onto my phone.”
I blinked. He did? I’d saved it on my laptop, but not my phone. I honestly figured Dane would have stuck the thumb drive in a draw somewhere and shoved the recording from his mind once he’d showed it to the relevant people.
Taking the phone, Kent scooted closer to Jen on the sofa. As they watched the video, he snorted and chuckled and shook his head in disbelief. Jen actually smiled, amused in spite of herself.
Kent handed the cell back to his brother. “God, Dane, your expression was priceless.”
Dane pocketed his phone. “Hmm.”
“Well, it’ll be something to show the grandkids,” said Kent.
It was only by sheer force of will that I didn’t drop my smile. There’d be no kids, no grandkids. Not for me and Dane. I’d be gone in under twelve months. That was almost as sad as the thought of him living in this big house alone, year after year, growing older and older.