“An omelet so spicy that sour cream, a glass of milk, and five antacids didn’t help,” Jade said.
“How do you know that?” Garrett asked.
“Because he told me. I gave him the antacids,” Jade said.
“Well, she just likes spicy foods,” Jolene said. “It’s her heritage. Just like Nic who has red sauce flowing through her veins. They are good at making what they grew up on.”
“Oh yeah. That’s it,” Jade said. “Not that he called her a wuss because she couldn’t handle his coffee.”
Carolyn laughed. “That a girl.”
“What’s he doing here?” Jade asked. “What the hell, he’s on crutches. What happened?”
Brock James just came hobbling in. Brock was Travis’s best friend and had been the best man in their wedding last September where Jade met him for the first time as the maid of honor. Where most of the family met him the first time, as Brock was some special op Navy SEAL who took his leave for his best friend’s wedding.
“You didn’t know?” Jolene said. “Brock got injured when a bomb exploded. He’s on leave right now while he tries to figure things out.”
“No,” Jade said, her voice dropping, her eyes not leaving his. “No one said anything to me. How come no one did?”
“I didn’t think anything of it,” Carolyn told her daughter. “You only met him that one time.”
“That’s true,” Jade said and straightened up then looked away. “I’m going to see if I can get my hands on one of the babies.”
They waited until Jade was out of earshot. “Did you see the change come over her when she saw Brock?” Jolene asked her.
“Yeah. I guess you were right. I wasn’t paying attention at the wedding. Why the heck were you paying attention to that when your own daughter was getting married?” she asked.
“Jolene has a special talent for finding people,” Gavin said. “Too bad I started it all and she can’t accept that.”
Jolene narrowed her eyes at her husband. “It’s not a competition. It’s about finding mates for the next generation.”
Gavin started to laugh, followed by his younger twin brothers Garrett and Grant. “It’s true,” Carolyn said, siding with her sister-in-law.
“That’s right,” Diane said.
Garrett shook his head. “No one believes you, Carolyn. You want to win this just as much as Adriana wanted to kick Wyatt’s butt in basketball.”
“And look at how happy they are after that. A little competition is good for the soul.”
“So is knowing when to let your spouse have the last word,” Grant told his twin Garrett, causing everyone to laugh again.
36
Haze of Fury
When everything is going great is when things start to crumble like a twenty-day-old cookie left on the counter.
At least that was how Adriana felt when she was leaving work on Monday and heard her name called.
She turned and saw the last person she ever expected to see again. Least of all in Durham, North Carolina.
“Spencer? What the hell are you doing here?” she yelled. Her face was flaming red. It had to be because she felt like she could start kindling on fire just being within one foot of it.
“I needed to see you. To talk to you. I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“How did you know where to find me?”
He looked uneasy for a second and finally said, “I went to talk to your mother.”
“My mother told you where I was?” She was going to strangle the woman...if she ever talked to her again.
“I told her I loved you. That I was wrong. Everything I said was true about my wife and me. We’ve split. We split almost a year ago, but she didn’t have anywhere to go and moved with me.”
Adriana narrowed her eyes not believing it. “I don’t care. Those are things that should have come up on, let’s say the first or second date. Not for me to find out from your wife when she walked in looking for you. When she went up and gave you a kiss in front of everyone. When I had to hear about it from coworkers who had no idea you were married, let alone we had been dating for six months!”
“Well, she wanted to stay married, but not me,” he said, ducking his head a bit. She used to think it was a sweet move. That most doctors were cocky and arrogant. And though he’d come off that way at first with her, once she got to know him more, he’d turned sweet and romantic. Not like anyone she’d ever been with before. Maybe she fell for that when she should have stuck to the type of guy she really liked to be around.
Men like Wyatt. Men that liked to get out and enjoy life. Not hide. Not play games. Ones that were honest and in your face.
“You are just digging a hole and I’m ready to look for a shovel to help make it bigger and push your lying cheating ass into it.”
“You don’t get it though,” he said, reaching for her hand.
She shook it off and looked around. Thank God Wyatt was held up in surgery or he might have sought her out and they would have walked out together like they had so many times.
Their relationship was no longer a secret anywhere, especially at work. No one said much to her. The gossip and whispering were still there from time to time, but she was learning to ignore it. It wasn’t worth it in her eyes if they were both happy.
And she was.
Until she saw this prick and it brought back all the mistakes she made.
“Just leave,” she said. “What I understand is you’re an asshole and I want no part of you. I said all of this to you months ago. You tried to tell me the same things then and I didn’t want to hear it. You tried to convince me for months I was wrong and you were right and I should give you another chance.”
She’d left because she
