“You and I both know part of Mom’s reason for playing this charade was because she wanted us happily settled, but she also wanted—”
“Grandchildren,” Rick said, stating the obvious. After all, Raina had drilled the idea into their heads for ages now.
“Right. And I didn’t think after faking her illness that she deserved to have her heart’s desire—grandchildren—come so easily. I wanted her to sweat a little. If I told her Charlotte was pregnant, I figured she’d . . .”
“Back off of myself and Chase?” Rick asked. “That would be the obvious assumption, right? So why not tell her she got what she wanted, that Charlotte was pregnant? Then blow the whistle on her scheme and give Chase and me some peace?”
“Because Raina isn’t most mothers and you can’t make obvious assumptions when dealing with her. I happen to know for a fact that she wants us all settled and happy. Not just one of us. If she knew Charlotte was pregnant, she’d just be more certain she knew what was best for us all and go after you and Chase even harder.”
Recalling Lisa’s dominatrix outfit, inspired by his mother’s words of encouragement no doubt, Rick shook his head hard. He saw stars. Damn, he had to stop doing that. “I’m not sure Mom could have gone any harder,” he muttered. “And if you’d been living here, you’d know that.”
Roman’s gaze darted away from Rick’s. “Well, I didn’t know how bad it had gotten. So I told Mom that Charlotte and I wanted time alone together before we started working on a family. So I wanted to make her sweat a little.”
If Rick’s head was spinning before this explanation, things were even worse now. But one thing finally jumped out in his mind. Charlotte was pregnant with the first Chandler grandchild. Pride and pleasure for his baby brother suffused him along with a fair amount of envy he figured was normal and he refused to analyze. Instead he glanced at his sister-in-law. Other than the beautiful glow in her cheeks, he never would have known. He started to rise, to wrap her in a huge hug and congratulate her but his head refused to cooperate.
She came to his side and placed a stern hand on his shoulder, chuckling as she said, “Congratulate me later. Get better first.” Then she settled in beside him. “Rick, there was more to our silence than just making your mother pay for manipulating us. I know we should have told you. But once we got home, I realized that my mother’s mental health was still shaky. Her depression . . .” She shook her head. “The medication wasn’t working yet. And I wanted to wait a few months to reveal the pregnancy. Until she could appreciate the news. So then I asked Roman to wait before telling anyone about Raina’s health. Or my pregnancy.”
Rick turned to this woman who’d made his brother’s life complete. She stared at him with wide green eyes, apology and regret etching her features. How could he remain angry at her? He exhaled a groan and put a comforting hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. “I don’t blame you.”
She shot him a grateful smile. “We were still wrong.”
Roman nodded in agreement. “And by the time we were ready to tell you everything, you’d met Kendall. There was no way in hell I was going to tell you that Mom had been faking her heart condition.”
“Why the hell not?”
Roman rolled his eyes as if the reason were obvious. As if anything about this situation could be obvious, Rick thought with no small amount of frustration.
“I couldn’t tell you once you met Kendall because she was the first woman you’d trusted since Jillian. The first one who really interested you. You seemed to have a shot at what we have.” Roman gestured back and forth between himself and Charlotte. “And I wasn’t going to be the one to give you an easy excuse to claim distrust in women and back off from Kendall. Not when it was so obvious you were already head over heels. So when Mom wanted to tell you the truth, I put a stop to it.”
Rick shook his head in disbelief. “Mom wanted to come clean?”
Roman raised his hands in the air. “What can I say? She’s had it with pretending to be sick because it’s putting a crimp in her social life. So I told her to keep her mouth shut. I figured making her keep up the charade of being sick was damn good punishment for meddling in our lives.”
Rick pinched the bridge of his nose. Thank God the aspirin had begun to kick in and the pounding had lessened enough for him to relax and think more clearly. “I don’t believe this. You played psychologist and match-maker.” He wanted to throttle Roman.
But as brothers, they’d always understood one another and thinking about the whole messed-up situation, Rick supposed his younger sibling’s reasoning made sense. In an ass-backward sort of way. “You do realize this makes you no better than our mother?”
Roman actually flushed red. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” he muttered.
Charlotte sighed, placing a hand on Rick’s shoulder. “So here we are.”
Rick groaned. “Yeah. Here we are. Did you know you two could give a sober man a headache?”
Roman laughed and though Rick glared, he joined his brother. Putting all the pieces and reasoning together, he couldn’t hold Roman responsible for a situation Raina had created and one he’d believed he had no choice but to perpetuate. After all, Chandler brothers stuck together when they could. Nothing would change that—except a woman. In Roman’s case that was Charlotte and knowing what Rick would do for Kendall, he wasn’t about to pass judgment on his younger sibling.
“I take it the family feud is over?” Charlotte asked, staring at Rick until he was forced to meet her bright-eyed gaze.
“I’ll think about it.” Let Roman wallow a little while
