Page 22 of An Unexpected Everything
“I’m fine,” I lied. I wiped the sweat off my brow, once again annoyed that here I was, stressed out and sweaty over a man. I rubbed my hand over my chest and glared at the man. He had the sleeves of his Henley pushed up to his elbows, so his tattedforearms showed, and he brushed his hair back from his face so his eyes brightened even as he glared at me.
“Bella. Did I hurt you? Fuck. I just wanted to talk to you, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t scare me.”A total untruth.Then I swallowed hard and shook my head. “Okay, maybe. Did Hudson tell you?”
“Of course Hudson told me. He’s my best friend.”
“I wasn’t aware you two were best friends until like twenty minutes ago.”
“Well, there’s a lot of things we’re not aware of. It’s been eight years, Bella.”
“I really wish you would stop calling me that. I’m Isabella. Nobody calls me Bella anymore.” Not since you left me.
“It’s hard for me to call you anything else.” He ran his hands through his hair, the muscles in his biceps bulging. “I’ll try, but I’m not good at it.”
“I can’t handle this right now.”
“You should have texted. Called. I’m sorry you went through that. Everything. Are you okay?”
“Did he tell you everything?” I asked, my voice low. The entire family knew about the attack now. Both of them. They had needed to, and frankly, they deserved to know. Secrets weren’t good for us anyway. Though, then again, my mom didn’t know yet. Because I didn’t want to talk to her. I couldn’t.
“He told me about William.” I flinched at the name, and he sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t know if he was supposed to tell me all of that, but he and the rest of your brothers wanted me to keep an eye out for you. He didn’t know. That I knew you. About everything.”
“They don’t know that this world is so infinitesimally small I can’t get away from people connected to the brothers I never knew about? How are you here? How are you Hudson’s best friend?”
“He would visit, the same with the rest of your brothers, and we just got along. Then he moved back to stay after he got out of the military, and things just happened. He’s just as much of an asshole as I am, so we get along,” he said dryly.
I studied his face, trying to see the man I used to know and thought I loved. He had been twenty-seven, I had been twenty-one. A baby now that I thought about it. But he had been everything to me. A flash, heat, a spark so quickly ignited that it had been everything. Yet it hadn’t been a fling. I knew that. Only...
“Why didn’t you tell me about your family.”
He stiffened, his face paling. “Hudson told you that too. Seems like he’s talking a lot more than he usually does.”
I raised my chin, not letting him get out of this so easily. “He doesn’t know that we know each other. So he didn’t realize that he changed everything. Why? Why didn’t you tell me that your parents died, Weston? And you had to come back here and raise your sisters and brother. I know you told me about them. And I remember their names, but I don’t know anything else about them. There wasn’t time back then. I thought we would have more time. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Anger shocked me, and my hands shook. I moved forward and put my palms on his chest. His heartbeat vibrated against my hands, and I let out a breath. “You just left. A single note by my pillow. And you didn’t answer my calls. You did nothing. I don’t understand. Why couldn’t you tell me?”
He was silent for so long I was afraid he wasn’t going to say anything. I was ready to take a step back, to walk away once again, but then he lowered his head and put his hands on my wrists. Over the bruises settling there.
“I didn’t know how. I really wasn’t thinking.”
“And after?”
“After there wasn’t time. I couldn’t come into the city and start my own business or work for someone else. I couldn’t expand Caldwell’s. I couldn’t do anything that we planned. Because I had to be the one to step up and watch two ten-year-old girls who were shell-shocked and scared. I had to figure out how to keep my brother in college because he was ready to drop out. To try to figure out how to help out with money. Because life insurance only goes so far, and I had no idea how to raise three kids. So I didn’t think. I wrote a note, wondering if I was going to figure out how to come back, and I just left. I left you sleeping in your bed, and I had to somehow be a dad. So yes, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being an asshole.”
Emotions clawed for purchase within me as I tried to come to terms with his revelations. I wanted to reach out and hold him, tell him that I was sorry. But I wanted to scream and shout because nothing made sense, and I felt as if I were three steps behind. I needed to sound sure. Sophisticated. Not as if I were still broken remnants of the woman I’d once been. “You had a good reason to leave. I get that. But I don’t understand.”
“There’s not much to understand.”
My breaths came in ragged pants, matching his.
He had lied when he’d said forever, he had hurt me, and I hated the fact that the man that I hated, that I resented, wasn’t that man anymore. Now there was a glimmer of reason. Of the why of it all.
And I couldn’t think.
“Bella. That man hurt you. I don’t know what I would do if you got hurt again. Please, stay safe here. Let us help you.”
“Weston,” I whispered.
