33. Rex
THIRTY-THREE
REX
Tammy ended up engaging Travis’s services and left jail not long after Abigail. The rest of us spent Sunday night in the cell. My mom bailed us out on Monday morning—me, Donny, and Gabe. She dropped Gabe off first. As soon as he was out of the car, she rounded on us.
“I am so ashamed of you two.”
“Mom!” Donny whined. “It’s my wedding that ended in disaster. Haven’t I been through enough?”
From my spot in the back seat, I rolled my eyes and stared out the window. I was tired and sweaty, and I felt like death. There was an itchy feeling under my skin, like I wouldn’t be able to fix what had been broken.
“You couldn’t just marry her on Saturday like you were supposed to?” Mom snapped. “People are talking .”
“Is that all you care about?” I asked. “People talk, Mom. It’s not the end of the world. ”
“Oh, easy for you to say! You, who couldn’t keep your hands to yourself.”
“For the last time, she came on to me !”
“I don’t want to hear this,” Donny sulked. “Let’s just go, Mom.”
“Not until you two hear what I have to say,” Mom replied. She spun around so she could look at both of us. “You have made a fool of me in front of the whole town, and I?—”
“So this is about you now?” I cut in. Anger gurgled through me, growing by the second. “Donny’s fiancée tries to cheat on him, his wedding falls apart, his football career is essentially over, I break up with the only woman I’ve ever really cared about, my best friend hates me…but you care about people whispering behind their hands when they see you at the grocery store?”
“You watch your mouth, Rex.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I thought I could count on you. I thought you, of all people, would be responsible?—”
“No.” I unclipped my seatbelt. “No. I’m not listening to this.”
“Rex William Montgomery?—”
“Mom, stop.” Suddenly, I was exhausted. The weight of expectations crashed against my shoulders. She was expecting me to fix everyone else’s mistakes…for what? “I’ve spent my whole life trying to be responsible. I’ve built my career, my reputation, on being the guy that people can rely on. And for what? For it to be thrown in my face? Why the hell should I bend over backward when no one even considers doing it for me? When was the last time you actually took care of me, Mom?”
“I am your mother ?—”
“You care more about looking like my mother for everyone else’s benefit than actually being there for me. That’s why you stayed married to Dad when his anger made it impossible for us to have friends over. When we had to hide in our rooms when he would rage. When he’d sulk for days.”
“Your father did those things to me ,” she replied, blinking rapidly.
“Yeah, and you should have protected us ,” I spat. “After all, you’re our mother.”
Tears filled my mom’s eyes, and I felt like the biggest piece of shit on the planet. Ever since I was old enough to remember, I’d wanted to protect her. I’d built my life on being the kind of son she wanted. The kind of man that my father could never be.
And in the end, I was just like him. I hurt Abigail when I should have stood up for her. Beside her. I lashed out at my mom when it became too much.
I wasn’t a stand-up guy. I wasn’t the glue that held the family together. I was just another fraud who only existed to keep up appearances.
“I’ll walk,” I said, and got out of the car. My mother called out my name and Donny yelled after me, but I didn’t look back. After a few moments, I heard the car start up and drive away.
I still wore my tuxedo pants and shirt, although my bowtie had been lost at some point in the tussle and my jacket was still upstairs at the winery. Sweat stained the underarms of my white shirt yellow, and my pants were dusty and marked with dirt from jail.
A shower was what I needed, but my feet took me to Abigail’s. I had to talk to her. I had to set things straight. I banged on the door, calling her name. But she didn’t answer. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I called her once, twice, three times. No answer. Winston poked his head out from behind the curtain, and I was actually happy to see the little guy.
I went to the window and tapped the glass. “Hey, Winston. It’s me. Can you get your mom to answer the door?”
Winston stared into my eyes, then hissed at me so fiercely that I jumped back. Then he ran off. Shit. I knocked on the door again. But when she still didn’t answer my calls or the door, I knew she wasn’t coming.
Dejected, I walked home. My feet ached in my shiny dress shoes, but it was nothing compared to the pain in my chest. I stripped off my filthy clothes, got in the shower, and tried to wash off the memory of the weekend, my night in jail, and the shame of how badly I’d treated Abigail.
The dirt came off, but the guilt didn’t.
I ordered food and sat on the couch. My phone stayed silent. No invitation from Gabe to hang out. No text from Donny. No word from Mom.
It figured, didn’t it? As soon as I stopped being useful to them all, they dropped me. All I ever was to them was someone to do their dirty work. Need a hand moving? Call Rex. Need a quick loan? Rex is your man. Need some chump who will shovel shit for you and do it with a smile on his face? Rex all the way.
I’d been used by everyone. Everyone except for Abigail. And now she was gone.
That thought rattled around my brain all day. I mulled it over as I made my way back to the wedding venue to pick up my truck, and when I drove around aimlessly while the streetlights came on. I went to sleep questioning everything about who I was and how I’d lived my life. By morning, I was bleary-eyed and exhausted, but sleep was fitful and hard to catch.
I needed to do something. I couldn’t go to Sullivan’s, because I was pretty sure Gabe still wanted nothing to do with me, and I couldn’t go to Abigail’s, so I decided the fire station was the only place left where I’d be halfway welcome.
After getting dressed, I made my way to my truck. That’s when Donny pulled up outside in our mom’s car.
“What are you doing here?” I asked when he got out.
“Can we talk?” he asked. Normally, I would’ve dropped everything for my brother. But I’d decided that phase of my life was over. He would always be my brother, but he wasn’t a little kid I needed to take care of anymore. So he’d have to man up and wait.
“Not now, Donny, I’m heading over to the station,” I said, circling back to the driver’s side door.
“Then I’ll be quick,” he said, right behind me. “I just came to say that I’m sorry. You were right.”
God, I was tired. I just looked at him. “Sorry for what?”
“All of it. You were right, I didn’t consider you the way I should’ve when I started up with Blair. She was just so hot, and when she came onto me I?—”
“Donny,” I interrupted.
“Right, sorry. What I’m saying is that I wasn’t thinking. I never think. I’m like that stereotypical meathead.”
“Yeah, you are,” I said. “But you don’t have to be.”
“I know. I don’t want to be. I want to be a good guy. I want to be a better brother to you. You deserve that after everything you’ve done for me. That you’ve done for our family. I’m sorry I did that to you.”
His words eased something inside me, and I leaned against my truck. Scrubbing my nails against my scalp, I let out a long sigh. “Thank you for saying that.”
“Mom sulked all day about what you said.”
I groaned. “I should apologize.”
“I don’t know…” Donny kicked a pebble and watched it land in the middle of the road. “I think… I think you were kind of right. When Dad would blow up, you were always rushing to protect her. Protect both of us. But no one was there to protect you.”
“Part of me liked being the hero,” I admitted.
“I get that,” Donny said. “It’s like in football, throwing the perfect pass to get a touchdown in the last play of the game. Makes you feel like a million bucks. But with football, someone needs to catch the ball. Defense needs to do their job. Everyone—coaches, physios, even the fans. You were on your own.”
Our eyes met. For the first time, I felt like someone understood. Someone other than Abigail. Gulping, I nodded. “Thank you for saying that.”
Donny let out a sigh. “I’m sorry I brought Blair here. I never should’ve been with her in the first place. I’m just glad I called it off before we actually got married.”
I frowned. “You called it off? She said she called it off.”
Donny scoffed. “What? No. When I was running after Tammy, I realized I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t deal with my whole life being on video. Couldn’t deal with pretending that everything was okay when it really wasn’t. We did that enough as kids.”
I grunted in agreement.
“Tammy found Blair, and I just straight up told her I wasn’t going to marry her. I told her it wasn’t right between us, and…”
“And?”
Donny cringed. “I might’ve mentioned that I would be lucky to have what you have with Abigail. I think that set her off.”
I wanted to correct him and say had with Abigail, but I stopped myself. Donny wasn’t here to listen to my sob story. Things with Abigail were done. She wasn’t the type to forgive, and I knew I’d hurt her too deeply to fix.
Not wanting to go down that path in this conversation, I joked, “You’re not gonna try to go after my girl again, are you?”
He shook his head fervently. “No. Never.”
“Good. And Donny? You did the right thing by breaking it off with Blair. I know it took a lot of courage to call off the wedding.”
Donny gave me a lopsided grin, and suddenly it felt like we were kids again. “Yeah, I’ve already been getting backlash online.” He shrugged. “But I guess that’s what happens when you break up with an influencer.”
“So what are you going to do now?” I asked.
Donny shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I know I have to figure it out on my own.”
Pride burned through me. “You will.”
“See you later?”
“Yeah,” I said, and got in my truck. As we drove away from each other, I exhaled. My brother would be okay.