Page 89 of Never the Best

And if the worst happened, I had Rhett.

“Alright, you two.” I looked at my nieces. “Why don’t you head over to Aunt Hattie’s and see if you can sweet-talk her into some cookies or whatever she has stashed in her kitchen?”

Maddie perked up. “You think she’ll have those lemon bars?”

“If anyone can talk her into sharing, it’s you.” Rhett ruffled Maddie’s hair as he gestured for Alice to follow.

Alice looked at me, hesitation flickering across her face. “We’ll be back soon, Aunt Pearl.”

I forced a smile. “Bring me a lemon bar if there are anyleft.” I probably would not be able to eat it, not with how wound up my intestines were.

My nieces turned and followed Rhett down the steps, disappearing into the distance, their chatter fading as they made their way toward Aunt Hattie’s. I watched Rhett glance back at me once, giving me a quick nod as if to say,You’ve got this.

Did I?

“Are you going to stand there all night, or are you gonna take a seat?” I said, my voice sharper than I intended as I got comfortable on the sofa Rhett and I’d just been necking on.

Cash blinked, startled, and then made his way to one of the loungers, his dress shoes heavy against the wood.

“Sis,” he started, but his voice caught, and he stopped to clear his throat. “I should’ve come to see you sooner.”

“Should you have?”

He nodded, remorse evident in his eyes. “The girls, I know, they came, and they told me how you were doing.”

“You know you’re always welcome to visit,” I lied. He wasn’t. My mother wasn’t. Caroline, who stood there quietly letting Josie torture me, wasn’t. These were not nice people, and they didn’t make me feel good about myself, so by the Marie Kondo logic, they needed to be cast off.

Butthey were my family, and I loved them, still. According to my therapist, that didn’t mean I was stupid and weak, it meant I was strong enough to forgive those who had wronged me. I was a long way from believing that.

He nodded, his face tightening. “I didn’t know what tosay, and once I figured that out, I didn’t knowhowto say it. And honestly, I wasn’t sure if you’d even want to hear it.”

I folded my arms across my chest and waited.

He took a deep breath, his gaze dropping to the porch floorboards. “I was wrong, Pearl.” He raised his face to look at me.

That caught me off guard. Cash Beaumont admitting he was wrong? Well, that was new.

“What about?” I breathed.

“About a lot of things. I haven’t treated you the way a brother should,” he admitted, sadness lacing his words. “I was part of what happened to you. The way the family ignored you, judged you. I didn’t see you for who you were because I was too caught up in what I thought you should be. And I’m sorry for that.”

I blinked, stunned into silence. I’d expected excuses, defensiveness, and maybe even anger. But not this.

“When I found out about what happened to you,” his voice broke slightly, “that you almost died—it scared the hell out of me. I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want to wake up one day and realize I never tried to make things right, never got to know you.”

“Why now, Cash?” My voice trembled despite my best efforts. “Why, after all this time?”

He met my gaze then, his eyes raw and unguarded in a way I’d never seen before. “I was ashamed that it was Rhett and not me who stood up for you that night at the Soirée for Hope. Ashamed that I let myself get caught up in what everyone else thought instead of protecting you the way Ishould’ve. You deserved better from me, Pearl. And I want to do better.”

The knot in my chest loosened slightly, but it didn’t disappear. I licked my lips and gave him a wan smile. I didn’t know what to say to him. I didn’t forgive him. I couldn’t forget. In the present, there wasn’t a way in which we could have a relationship, I knew that, but in the future, if we both worked at it, maybe it would be possible. I just didn’t know, right now, if I wanted that, if I wanted to put the effort into building a relationship with my brother.

“When I first told Rhett I wanted to talk to you, he told me to stuff it.” Cash raked his hand through his hair in frustration. “He said that words are easy, and it’s actions that matter. I don’t expect you to forgive me overnight. Hell, I don’t expect you to forgive me at all. But I want you to know I’m going to try to earn your forgiveness.”

I looked away, blinking back tears that threatened to spill.

“I never thanked you, notreally,for giving up your part of the Beaumont inheritance so I could recover from my fuck up. But, as my wife likes to remind me, I’m good at ruining her life, and everyone else’s, with my incompetence.”

Your wife is an idiot, I wanted to say but didn’t.

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