Page 42 of When We Were Reckless
“When’s the wedding?” Mason asked.
“October.”
October? I’d be in California in October. That was only a few months away. How long had they been dating? It couldn’t have been that long unless he’d kept it from us. “Isn’t that… kind of sudden?”
“When you know, you know.” He winked at Camilla.Winked. My father never used to wink like that. I was so tempted to punch him in the face and tell him I wanted my old dad back. Not this suave stranger in a tailored suit who winked at sexy women who were too young for him.
“I want to make her my wife before some other rogue comes along and claims her,” he said with a chuckle.
“Never.” Camilla placed her palm on his cheek, a loving gesture and a little too intimate for a family dinner. My father wrapped his hand around her wrist and looked at her like she was the only woman in the world. “You’re the only man for me.”
Suddenly, I’d lost my appetite.
The dinner was a disaster, and not only because my French burger was so rare, it could have practically walked off my plate, but because I just felt so betrayed.
My dad and I used to be close. I was his Bean, and he was my hero. When I was a kid, I’d been a daddy’s girl. I used to believe he could fix anything, make everything better.
But I didn’t even know who he was anymore. It felt like one day, my dad decided he didn’t want to be a family man anymore. When Dad left, Declan was in his first year of culinary school in New York, and Holden and Mason were in college. So it was just me and Mom in that big old house that felt so empty without my brothers and dad.
“Remember how Mom and Dad used to slow dance in the kitchen?” Mason asked on the drive home.
We were reminiscing about some of our happiest family memories. Annual camping trips, summer beach vacations, birthdays and anniversaries, and holidays. I felt like I’d missed half of them. And I didn’t even remember them dancing.
“It was always that one song,” Holden said.
“I fucking hate that song,” Declan muttered.
“Which song was it?” I looked at Declan, who was next to me in the back seat. He didn’t even bother answering.
“A Bryan Adams song,” Holden said.
“‘Everything I Do, I Do It For You,’” Mason said.
A wave of sadness washed over me.
My brothers had memories of my parents slow dancing in the kitchen, like two people who were so in love that even years later, they were still keeping the romance alive. They’d been together since their freshman year at UT Austin. So how could they erase all that history?
“When did they stop dancing?” I asked because it seemed important.
“I don’t know.” Mason glanced at Holden before returning his eyes to the road.
“We must have been young,” Holden said.
Declan snorted. “We used to make gagging noises and tell them it was gross.”
My brothers laughed, but I couldn’t join in. After Dad left, I remember thinking that maybe I really had been an accident. I was so much younger than my brothers, and whenever I used to annoy Declan, hetoldme I was an accident.
What if I had been the one to kill the romance?
Now I was home, sitting cross-legged on my bed, my fingers flying over the keyboard. Fiction was a good escape from the real world, from the anger I felt inside, and this story was shaping up to be a good one. I was wearing my headphones, the Bryan Adams song playing on repeat. I’d never listened to it before, but now I thought it was just about the most romantic song I’d ever heard. It made my heart ache, and I poured all those emotions into my story.
My music cut out, and I answered my phone without even checking the name on the screen.
“Hey. You okay?”
I’d expected it to be Evie calling me back. But the low voice was definitely male and definitely not Evie. “Jesse?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Sorry. Did I wake you?”
