Page 101 of Beach Cottage Kisses
Sage’s glance at Gray, her knowing nod, clued him in. “She didn’t tell you,” he said then, reminding himself who he was talking to. Not just his twin, but a top-tier lawyer just like himself.
“We figured it out while we were still in Europe,” Sage said.
Scott’s gaze swung to Gray, pinning him. The other man threw up his hands. Shrugged. Shook his head.
As smart as always. Not getting in between the Martin twins.
“Don’t blow this, Scott. Your first marriage, she was a selfish daddy’s girl looking for someone to support her in style. And you were too young and focused on climbing the ranks in the prosecutor’s office. You needed a wife, she needed a husband, but you weren’t in love and it didn’t work out. But that’s not this. You’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime shot here…”
He nodded. Held his beer on his knee until he could be fairly certain he’d get the swallow down,and then took a long swig.
“I’d already worked through all that,” he said after a brief silence. “And I tried.”
He didn’t go so far as to say Iris had turned him down.
It hadn’t been that clear cut.
And was far worse than he’d realized.
Iris wasmoving?
He looked over at his twin, seeking not sympathy exactly, but in need of a dose of the compassion she’d been salving him with throughout their lives.
Sage’s look held little understanding. Eyeing him with determination, more than anything else, she said, “Fix it, Scott.”
He got it. The woman was losing her best friend because Scott had slept with her. Of course, the other side of that was that Iris had slept with him, too. He looked over at Gray, knowing his friend would at least try to back him up.
Gray met his gaze, and said, “Fix it, man.”
Scott quit looking at the other two people on the porch. He reached down to pet the girl at his feet, sat back and drank beer.
Finished off the can. And stood.
“Scott, please.” Sage glanced back at his chair. He didn’t sit back down. But he didn’t leave, either.
Sage’s gaze had softened as she looked up at him. “If there’s one mistake you made in the past it was that you didn’t fight.”
“She’s right about that, man,” Gray piped in, and Scott’s gaze swung in that direction, half wondering who the man was who’d invaded his buddy’s body. Until Gray said, “Your ex told you she’d moved out, and you didn’t ask her to reconsider. To move back and give the marriage a chance.You didn’t ask what you could do to make things work. You just took the blame—some of which was yours to take, but not all—and branded yourself a failure.”
That’s what he got for drinking too much one night at some bar in the city and pouring out his woes. Your best bud poured them back on you when you least expected it.
Sage sat forward, drawing his attention. Scott was beginning to feel like a Ping-Pong ball being batted back and forth between two paddles as Sage said, “Yeah and then when she served you with ridiculously one-sided divorce papers you just signed them. At the very least, the divorce needed to be an even split,” Sage continued. “But instead of fighting for yourself, you just walked away.”
When he’d done nothing wrong except work hard to begin to build a future for his family. And neglect his wife.
He’d had some fault in the matter.
As he was sure he had with Iris, too. Maybe if he’d chosen different words. Different timing…
Kept his mouth shut altogether…
Sage’s hand reached out to his, hanging loosely at his thigh, and held on. “Don’t just walk away again, Scott. You don’t get many chances like this in a lifetime. You and Iris are so good together. And for each other.”
Clearly Iris hadn’t told her anything about what had happened. Sage didn’t know she was preaching to the choir. “I tried, Sage. Trust me on that one. But the choice is hers to make. I can’t force her. I wouldn’t even try. And I’m not going to beg, either. She has to want to stay. Anything else would end up…ending just like this. Only sometime in the future. When we’d both be hurt even worse.”
Those words came rote. He’d been having the conversation over and over with himself for the past two days.
“No, Scott.” Sage stood, not as tall as him, but, he believed,every bit as mighty. “No.” Her eyes were inches from his. He couldn’t avoid their stare even if he wanted to. So he met her eye to eye. Strength to strength as she said, “Do you take the first no you get in court? Or the tenth? You listen to the argument. You process. You consider all the facts, and you come back again. Winning way more times than not.” Continuing to study eyes the same color as his own, read more than the intensity shining up at him, Scott sighed. Didn’t have any argument left.
