“Everyone’s scared. Sitting in front of her door won’t change that. It’ll only make things worse. How did you think this would fix anything?”
“Moira said Kathy saw me with Marnie. I had to tell her I didn’t cheat. I wouldn’t do that to her. I promised her I wouldn’t hurt her again. I had to tell her.”
“And you told her.”
“But it wasn’t enough.”
“Come on.” Jimmy stood and grabbed Kevin’s arm to haul him off the floor. “You need to sleep it off and come up with a better plan. This just makes you look pathetic.”
“I am pathetic. I love her.” He stumbled as he followed Jimmy down the hall.
“I know.” He held Kevin’s shoulders to keep him steady. “Does she know?”
“I keep telling her. Don’t know if she believes me.”
Jimmy pushed the door open and a blast of night air hit them. Kevin’s stomach was still churning, and he paused next to the car.
“If you’re gonna be sick, do it before you get in.”
“I’m not gonna be sick. I’m fine.” He turned to tell his brother to stop being an asshole, but the sudden movement was just enough to disturb his stomach the wrong way, and all the alcohol made a trip up his throat. The whiskey was definitely worse coming up than it was going down.
“Fuck,” Jimmy said. Although he’d jumped out of the way, puke had splashed on his shoes.
Kevin held on to the front of the car until the vomiting passed and his stomach stopped clenching. Jimmy returned and handed him a bottle of water. “Here.”
Always prepared. Always perfect.
“You’re a fucking asshole. You know that?”
“Me? I just handed you a bottle of water so you don’t dehydrate. How does that make me an asshole?”
Kevin swished water through his mouth and spit. Then he took a drink. “You never fuck up. You do everything right. You’re always there to catch us when we screw up.”
“I’m your brother. It’s my job to be here. Drink the water.”
Kevin did as he was told.
“Better?”
“Fine.”
Jimmy opened the door for him and then got behind the wheel. “For the record, I’ve done my share of screwing up. I’m not perfect. I look at you guys—you, Sean, Tommy, and Norah—and I think I messed up pretty bad. You guys don’t know how to have normal relationships and that’s probably my fault. I wish I knew how to help you fix this, but I don’t.”
“Take another look at them. They all figured it out. They’re happy. It might’ve been rough, but they found someone to love who loves them. What more could you want?”
“Nothing.” Jimmy started the car. “Does she love you?”
“She hasn’t said it, but she does. I know she does.” He leaned his forehead against the cool glass of the window and let his big brother drive him home.
Chapter Twenty-One
It had taken all of Kathy’s willpower not to sit by her door to listen to Jimmy and Kevin talk. She’d known the minute Jimmy had gotten there because she’d had to buzz him in. Their deep voices murmured through the door for a while, but she couldn’t make out the words. She tried to convince herself that whatever they said didn’t matter. Kevin didn’t matter because they were over.
But she had never been very good at lying to herself.
Instead, she left through her back door to go to the flower shop and work on the centerpieces she’d promised her mother for the engagement party. Even though her mother had hung up on her, Kathy knew she would still expect to be able to pick up the flowers. Darcy Hendricks was not the kind of woman who made a promise and then didn’t deliver. It would make her look bad to the rest of the family.
Kathy worked by the glow of a couple of low lights. She laughed at her thoughts. She’d never cared much about what her family had thought about her. She’d only gone to family events because her mother expected her to. At this moment, she began to question all of the expectations. Kathy always did what was expected of her. Even now, making these centerpieces for a cousin she didn’t like.
She stared at the sprig of baby’s breath in her hand. Why was she doing this? Her mother had hung up on her and hadn’t attempted to contact her since.
With the finishing touches on the centerpieces, she stood back and admired her work. They were simple, but pretty. Then she decided it was time for a dose of reality. She came here to avoid Kevin. Her therapist would say that she worked on the centerpieces to avoid thinking about how hurt she was. She was devastated.
Fighting with her mother scared her. Seeing Kevin with another woman freaked her out and triggered irrational thoughts. And now she was paying the price for all of it. She sank into the chair in her office and cried. She allowed herself to feel everything she’d been avoiding, the deep hurt and anger and confusion. All of it hit her and she was miserable.
At some point she’d fallen asleep with her head on her desk. She heard movement in the store and she checked her phone. Anna was right on time to open. Kathy scrubbed her hands over her face, knowing there was no disguising the fact she’d been crying or that she’d slept in the office.
“Hey, Anna,” she called from the office door so she wouldn’t scare her.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were heading for your weekend away.”
As if she needed the reminder of where she was supposed to be. “I came in last night to work on those centerpieces for my mom in case she decides to come in to get them. I don’t even know for sure if she will.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine. Give me a call if you have any problems.”
“I won’t be calling. Enjoy your weekend.”
Kathy just nodded and left. When she got home, she crawled into bed and cried some more.
