Page 91 of The Trouble with Runaway Brides

My mom smiles at him. “We didn’t give you a sibling. I loved that you shared that close of a relationship like that with them. But the minute Kenzie came into the picture, I worried. Because you and Easton couldn’t be more different, and I’m not sure you’ve ever really appreciated what you bring to the table. Easton was the jock, and you were—”

“The brain,” I fill in for her.

She shakes her head and shrugs. “Yes, but you’re also loyal, empathetic, thoughtful, and calculating—in a good way. You have all these good qualities and I’m not going to say that Easton doesn’t. He does, but he’s the jokester, the athlete. He’s a big personality and that’s great, but it’s okay to be the quieter one. The one who sits back and takes it in instead of jumping right into the mix. For some reason, it seems like you always felt inferior to him.”

I shrug and frown. “Only when it comes to Kenzie.”

She puts her other hand on our entwined ones. “Lance Whitmore, I want you to think back. Tell me, who was the girl who made signs for your class presidency campaign, who had little pin holes all through her fingers from staying up and making pins that said, ‘Vote Whitmore’? Who went with you to the sanitary district so you could write a story your junior year and actually went into the sewers with you? I never saw her sitting in the stands of a baseball game unless she was with you, and most of the time, she complained about how cold it was.”

I chuckle, remembering.

“And who was by your side when Gizmo died?” My mom gets a little teary then. “She got you that stuffed animal that looked like him. Remember?” She wipes her eyes. “That woman is madly in love with you, and if you storm up there, you’re going to ruin it, I promise you. I agree they could’ve been more discreet, but you know as well as I do they aren’t having an affair.”

I nod. She’s right. I do know that. I need to stop letting my boyhood insecurities play a role in my life as an adult.

“But I’m glad you’re here because I’ve wanted this chance to talk to you for a very long time. I know you have self-confidence in every other facet of your life, so it’s time we put this nonsense behind us.”

“I know. You’re right.”

“I get it, you were a late bloomer. So was I,” my dad says. “And sometimes those insecurities from high school stick with you, but you’ve allowed this one to carry on for too long.”

A knock sounds on the door and Easton peeks his head in. “Can I talk to him?”

My mom and dad stand.

“He’s all yours,” Mom says. She leans over and kisses my cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

They walk out and Easton joins me. I almost feel like I’m Scrooge with all the ghosts coming to visit me to give me their reflections on my life.

He sits where my dad was, running his hands down his legs. “That night I kissed her…”

I put my hand up and shake my head. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Easton lowers my hand. “No. You’re gonna fucking hear it.”

I’ve never seen him so serious, so I lean back on the couch and take it like a man. Maybe this is exactly what it’ll take to really put the past behind me.

Twenty-Nine

Lance

“I never told you how I would see her sulking around campus. She rarely had a smile, but I knew the pressures you were under at Columbia and I didn’t want to burden you with it.” He sits up with his arms on his legs. “There was this one time of the day that we’d always pass one another going from class to class, but I’m not sure she ever saw me. And I liked it that way because I knew how you didn’t like that we were going to the same school. You worried for no fucking reason because I never would have done that to you.”

I arch an eyebrow. “But?”

He nods. “I know, I know, but that morning when I woke up, I wanted to throw up. The last thing I wanted to do was call you. But I’ll get there… I’d see her on campus and wish every day that I’d see her with someone else or, at the very least, see her smiling, but she kept to herself. So when I saw her at the fraternity party, I was shocked. She’d already had a lot to drink by the time I ran into her, and I was already drunk too.”

I never allowed anyone to tell me this story because I thought it would hurt, but I’m just pissed at myself for breaking things off with her before we went to school and causing us all so much pain. I thought it would be easier, so if she did kiss someone—who wasn’t my cousin—we could say we weren’t together. But I was an idiot.

“I walked her home and she asked me in. All I could see was that sad girl I’d seen on campus, and I wanted to cheer her up. I felt like that’s what you would have wanted me to do in that moment. But I think we both missed you. I don’t know if I ever told you this, but it wasn’t an easy transition for me, suddenly not having you and Brinley minutes away. Being out of our town and surrounded by people we didn’t know. We talked about Lake Starlight and everything we missed, then we hugged.”

My hands clench into fists.

“One thing led to another and our lips met, but when we stopped, she still had her eyes closed and she called me Lance. She was either dreaming I was you or too drunk, but really I think it’s just that I was a reminder of home, something familiar. You have nothing to worry about with me. First of all, I’d never do that to you, and second, that woman loves you with everything she has.”

I nod. “I know.”

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