Page 88 of A Twist of Faith
“Okay, I really must be dreaming,” Rainey walked into the kitchen, red flannel pajamas and wild mess of hair a before breakfast welcome. “Did Reese admit he was stupid … out loud?”
Oh great. His shoulders sagged. Now he had to elaborate in front of two people? “What are you doing here?”
“Did shaving off your beard take your good mood with it?” Rainey rolled her eyes. “Sarah wanted to have a sleepover with your two. So we stayed here. What are you doing back so early?”
“That’s exactly what he was fixin’ to tell me.” Mama stared at him and he squirmed in his seat.
“She was using me.” Reese pushed the words out through gritted teeth. “She had been all along, ever since the first day.”
Rainey joined him at the counter. “Using you? What on earth are you talking about?”
Reese took in a deep breath and told his mama and Rainey what happened at the Ball as plain as he could. It hurt just as bad the second time through as it had the first, especially when he piled it up against the hundreds of sweet moments he’d shared with Dee over the past three months.
His brain hurt as badly as his heart. No clues. No hints to her duplicity. He was the biggest idiot on the face of the planet.
Not even the Trigg-in-his-head was laughin’.
Rainey’s chin rested on her hands as she listened, looking like a little girl, scrunched brow and all. “So, she agreed to fix your accent for free so she could impress the professors at Charlottesville with her skill and fulfill her lifelong dream of getting a job there?”
“Exactly,” Reese answered, and then played her phrase back in his head. “No, wait, it ain’t that simple.”
“She didn’t agree to fix your accent for free?”
“Yeah, but—”
“And she told you she wanted to move to Charlottesville?” Rainey’s brows rose.
“Well, sure, but—”
“And she even mentioned that you were part of her research, didn’t she?”
Reese slammed his palm on the table. “Now Rainey, you’re making it sound a whole lot simpler than it really is. She made a bet about me. All the time she spent with me, with us,” he waved his hand around the room to remind both women how Dee had trickedthemtoo. “It was all part of a game to her. We were all being used.”
The truth should make them as mad as he was.
“Taking care of you when you’re sick isn’t a game I ever want to play,” Rainey’s frown made him madder. “And weeping to Pastor Brian was probably part of her conniving plan to use you too, right? When you weren’t even around to impress?”
“She made a fool of me, Rainey. Made a bet with her little uppity friends and used me to get what she wanted.”
“Would you listen to yourself?” Rainey pushed herself away from the counter and rolled her eyes. “Reese Mitchell, what’s hurt worse? Your heart or your pride?”
“Now Rainey,” his mama’s words were soft. Caring. She understood, of course. “Don’t be too hard on your brother. He’s never been real good with women.”
Reese shot up from the table. “Listen here you two. This ain’t got a thing to do with me and women. It has to do with right and wrong. I’m not the one who pretended to be nice to somebody, pretended to love somebody, just to win a bet. I’m not the one who put on a sweet face to the children when all the while lying to us. I didn’t betray anybody.”
Mama stepped to Reese’s side and rested a hand to his arm. “Is this about Dee? Or Jana?”
Reese blinked against the blow of her words. “Jana’s been gone for over two years, Mama. We’re talking about the present.”
“Are we?” She squeezed his arm. “You’re a smart man, Reese. Think.”
He pulled away from her. “Mama, I don’t—”
Her sharp squeeze stopped him. “Don’t talk. Think. All you’re seein’ is red because you’re so mad. But what are you really mad about?”
“I’ve already told you? I told you the whole story.”
“Who saidyesto Dee’s therapy?”
