Page 59 of Bonus Daddy
My elation was quickly replaced by confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I met Brian when we were 1Ls. He, Sully, and I formed a study group for torts. We became good friends, and it just kind of went from there. So I’ve known him at his best and his worst. We studied for the bar together. He held my hair when I threw up after more than one karaoke night. And I’ve even talked him into singing karaoke with me from time to time. To this day, those are some of my biggest achievements.” She laughed.
“When did you and Sully start dating?”
“Later that year. During midterms, I think. We danced around each other for a while, but when we finally hooked up, Brian wasn’t the least bit surprised. Apparently, he knew it was inevitable from the very beginning.”
“It was the accent, wasn’t it?” Lo asked.
The two of them grinned at one another.
“Yes.” Sloane giggled. “And because before him, I’d only ever dated boys. Sully was a man. He knew exactly how to care for me. He respected me. And the best part? He didn’t care one bit who my mother was. I’d had more than one bad experience connecting withso-called friends or love interests, only to find out they were only interested in me because my mother is a judge. Sully never once brought her up. And honestly, I was obsessed.” She sighed, her eyes going dreamy. “But,” she finally said, straightening, “what I was getting at is that for the almost twenty years I’ve known Brian, he’s always talked about this mythical unicorn woman from his past.”
My breath caught. No. That wasn’t possible. What we had was puppy love. Right?
“Jess,” she said. “The girl he always thought about and compared others to.”
Cheeks warming, I looked away. “It wasn’t like that,” I tried to explain. “We were kids.”
Sloane cocked a brow, unconvinced. “Maybe for you it wasn’t much. But you stuck with him.”
Her words hit me hard. I’d loved Brian. Of course I had. But we’d been kids, and when life had gotten in the way, we’d said goodbye. I’d thought about him off and on over the years, the memories always fond, and yes, maybe I compared other men to him. But that was normal for one’s first love, right?
“How did you meet him?” Lo asked, scooting closer.
My face was still burning. “Intro to psychology class. Freshman year,” I murmured, assaulted by memories. He’d sat next to me, his auburn hair shaggy and falling in his face. “We chatted and became friends. He grew up with some girls in my dorm, so I’d run into him occasionally at parties. And then we just kept hanging out.”
“Classic Brian.” Sloane laughed into her wineglass. “He’s not known for his seduction skills.”
I felt a pang of jealousy as I considered just how many girls had had crushes on him back then. And since. It was silly to feel this way, yes, but impossible to control.
“Until one day, during my sophomore year, he asked me to take a walk with him. We spent four hours traversing the entire city of Boston and ended up eating pizza while sitting on the Longfellow Bridge.”
“Aw,” Lo said. “And you fell in love.”
I shrugged. Basically, yes. It was that young, idealistic kind of love that songs were written about. Long walks and even longer nights spent talking about our lives and dreams for the future. Nights spent entwined with one another on a twin-size bed.
“He was one year ahead of me. The plan was that after he graduated, he’d get a job in Boston. I’d finish school, and then we’d apply to law school together.”
Sloane straightened. “You wanted to go to law school?”
I nodded wistfully. “Yes. We had all these dreams about changing the world together. Honestly, I would have hated it.” I exhaled, my shoulders lowering. “Eventually, I realized that social work was much more my speed.”
“So what happened with you and Brian?”
“His sister had a baby. The father wanted nothing to do with her son. He was a senior when it happened. I was still a junior. He moved back to Brooklyn the day after graduation to help her.” I couldn’t help but smile. It was admirable, the way he’d stepped up for Dylan and her son. “He helped raise his sister after their mom died, and there was no way he’d let her do it alone.”
Sloane nodded. “And Liam is an amazing kid.”
That made me happy. Brian had loved his sister deeply, and he’d been head over heels for his nephew before he was even born.
“We hadn’t figured everything out yet, but I assumed I’d finish school in Boston and we’d do long distance for a bit. But then my dad had his first heart attack.”
My nervous system kicked into high gear, just like it had done when I received the call, and my heart rate spiked. The fear and the panic in my mom’s voice had gutted me.
“My sister Jenn was in the marines and deployed, and my brothers were still kids. While Dad recovered, Mom ran the farm by herself. She burned out quickly, so after I finished school for the year, I went home for the summer to help. Pretty quickly, it became clearthat I couldn’t leave them. So I took classes at U Vermont to finish my degree.”
“I’m so sorry,” Lo said, gently squeezing my arm. “Did your dad recover?”
