I do a quick scan of Ward’s calendar. “There’s a call with…” I don’t even get to finish my sentence before Carys interrupts me to say, “That’s fine. Just move it over to me.”
I shorten Carys’s previous meeting by five minutes and slide the meeting to her schedule. “All set.”
“Great.” Carys spins on her red-soled heel to head back inside, but something drives me to reach out much the same way she did to me.
“Carys?” She stops midstride but doesn’t turn around. I get to my feet. “Is something wrong?”
Her shoulders sag for just a moment before they square off. She turns around, and her face is determined. Her face is completely blank of any emotion. For just a moment, I’m startled because it’s just like looking into a mirror. “It’s just going to be a brutal day. Brace.”
“Right.” Since that tells me absolutely nothing, I slip into my own armor and turn around to prepare for battle, uncertain of who the enemy is or what direction they may be coming from.
I’m only all too aware they could come in beautiful packages bearing gifts, much like the Greeks did when they invaded Troy.
Eight
Ward
Is there anything more delicious than Beckett Miller? Watching him devour a pretzel covered in mustard on a city street is enough for me to get all hot and bothered. Okay, maybe if his abs were drenched in that mustard. That would be even better.
— Moore You Want
“I should kick your ass right now. We both know I easily could,” David informs me as he slides into the booth across from me.
I rub a hand across my forehead. The lingering nausea and fogginess when I woke today led me to send an email I would be out of the office. I immediately received a reply from my brother-in-law telling me if I wasn’t at the ER, then to haul my ass to our favorite diner within the hour. “Nonnegotiable” was the way he phrased it in his message.
“Yeah. You probably could. Want to start?” I cock my chin out a bit.
“Don’t tempt me.” He rubs his hand over the scruff on his chin before admitting, “I don’t think it’s going to surprise you to admit, Becks annoys the fuck out of me sometimes.”
I scoff. “Did you seriously drag me away from my perfectly good hangover to discuss this?” I pause as a waitress comes by with mugs of coffee for each of us. “Thanks.”
“Thank you,” David repeats before turning back to me like a wolf on fresh meat. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you made my wife cry. Therefore we’re going to discuss why.”
“We can’t.”
“Why the hell not?”
My hand slaps down on the table, causing our coffee to leap dangerously close to the lip. “Because I don’t think you hold our parents’ deaths against me. Do you?”
“Do you really think that’s what Carys is doing, Ward? Or is that what you’re doing to yourself?” David lifts his mug to his lips and takes a drink.
My lips part, but no sound comes out.
“Let me tell you something I realized about your sister within three minutes of meeting her.
“What’s that?” I bristle immediately, ready to rise to Carys’s defense since I know Carys politely tore into her now husband moments after meeting him.
“She could take over the world if she had a mind to. She’s intimidated by no one and nothing. If she doesn’t like something, she changes it.” A rueful smile lifts David’s lips. “How do you think she managed to get my attention?”
“By leaving Wildcard,” I fling out.
“No, it was long before that. It was when she was involved with damned Becks. God, I hated him. But worse, I despised her for being splashed on every news magazine at his side.” David holds my gaze for a second as if he’s trying to tell me something before he starts to doctor his own coffee. Shaking his head, he says, “You’re assuming your sister has nefarious reasons for allowing Becks to be friends with Angie.”
There’s that word again. Friends. I can’t prevent my lip from curling.
David chuckles. “These women aren’t playing with our hearts or our minds. They’re waiting for us to use ours to not hurt them. I hurt Carys first by not realizing she was right in front of me, and again by trying to leave LLF.”
I trace the lip of my mug. “Then tell me why I was warned off Angie but Becks has free rein?”
He sighs. “I can’t do that.”
“Of course not.” I scoff.
“No, because it’s not my story to tell. Riddle me this. How would you feel if someone who had no idea who you are was speculating about you behind your back?”
“It’s a moot point. I know Angie. And Becks.”
“Right there is your faulty logic, Counselor,” David shoots back. “You don’t know either of them. Not the way your sister does. Until you spend the time to build the relationship with each of them, you won’t understand why Carys encourages their friendship. Stop letting the past rule your present.”
My voice is jagged when I whisper, “You have no idea what you’re asking me.”
“Yes, I do, because your sister has to do the same thing every day. She wakes up, she lives. She goes to sleep all without your parents. And on top of that, she managed to love, be loved, and create love. But you? You’re letting your assumptions poison everything about your life.”
His words hit directly beneath the arrogance I wear. “I was an ass.”
“Trust me, I’m well aware of that. Now, tell me, what set you off?”
With a sigh, I let David in about how when I met Angie the day they got engaged a few years ago, it was like I’d been struck in the heart. I then recount Carys’s warning.
He winces. “I’m not certain she meant it like that, Ward. She’s…protective…of her.”
“And there’s Becks.”
“Becks… Listen. All I’ll say is he’s no threat to you, Ward. Not if you’re serious. If you’re just playing, well, there’s plenty of women out there who would jump if you did this.” He snaps his fingers.
I can’t deny the truth in his words. I wonder what it would be like if Angie anticipated my arrival in the office instead of dismissing it as easily as she does every day.
David coughs to get my attention. “Put more time into the relationships you want if you care about the outcome. That includes your sister, by the way.”
My cheeks heat like I’m being scolded by a parent instead of my brother-in-law. “I owe Carys an apology.”
“You owe her your life.” The easy way he says that makes me realize there are no secrets between them. Not that there should be. “Your sister loves you, Ward. She played the grown-up for you at a time when she should have been able to have curled into a ball and crumbled. Don’t ever accuse her of not loving you. That’s bullshit and complete disrespect. Plus, your parents would be ashamed of you, and you damn well know it.”
With that, David slides out of the booth and strides out of the door, leaving me to think about his words. All of them.