Chapter 39
39
[Vale]
T hat night, Cort has his way with me in his Tennessee Terrors jersey, despite the seriousness of Josh’s sudden appearance.
In the morning, he makes all three of us pancakes before I go home.
The secrecy of our relationship is coming to an end, and the revelation is a tad bittersweet.
Our time alone has been something special, something just for me.
But I also don’t want to hoard Cort.
I don’t want to hide our relationship.
Deciding the women in my life should be the first to know, I call an emergency meeting of the Sylver Sterlets.
Enya and Cadence. Halle and Mavis.
And our newest addition, Genie Webster, Judd’s sudden fiancée, whom we met only six weeks ago.
While Stone should be the first person I tell, I value these women for their advice on the best way to explain to my brother I’ve done the forbidden.
I fell in love with Cortland Haven.
Picking Milton Roadhouse as our emergency meeting place, Genie, Enya and Cadence all arrive together.
I’ve ordered pitchers of margaritas and water in a margarita glass for Cadence.
“Is this meeting about what I think it’s about?” Genie asks, taking a seat at the table I picked near a wall.
The wavy hair of her chocolate and vanilla bob gives her a jovial glow.
My brother calls her Firefly.
“What do you know?” Enya asks, sitting beside me but turning toward Genie.
With surprise on her face, she glances between another future sister-in-law and me.
“Who knows what about who?” Cadence counters, after taking the chair across from her sister, and glancing between all of us.
Ford’s very pregnant fiancée is practically glowing as well.
Pregnancy agrees with her and soon Ford will be a father of four.
“I love good gossip,” the superstar teases, sarcasm in her tone, while she rolls her eyes.
“Vale is gossip,” Genie adds, playfully wiggling her brows.
“ Vale has some explaining to do,” Enya adds, keeping her eyes on me, sensing the pressure inside me.
The need to talk. The reason for this meeting.
“Can I just add, I love our new name? Sylver Sterlets.” Cadence wiggles jazz hands toward all of us.
“We need a uniform. And a team motto.”
I groan, but the smile on my face eases the tension of what I have to say.
“We need to make a special date. Just for us,” Genie adds.
She loves calendars.
“I think . . .” Enya places her hand on my forearm.
“We should let Vale talk. ”
When Halle and Mavis arrive, I’m an open well, pouring out all that’s happened minus a few private details.
The basics are covered.
My long-standing crush.
My recent transgression.
“I love him,” I finish, sounding like a love-sick girl, begging for their understanding.
“God, it’s so fun to watch you Sylvers fall,” Cadence teases, a gleam in her eye at the latest of us to be in love.
“Yeah, well, I’m worried about Stone,” I admit.
A heavy haze covers the table, the truth weaving between all of us.
I’m going to hurt my brother.
“I think you just need to talk to him,” Enya says after a few quiet seconds.
She has a special place in her heart for my brother.
A bond formed when Enya had trouble shortly after she met Sebastian.
“Keeping secrets is never a good idea,” Mavis adds, another sister-in-law with a soft spot for Stone.
Her secrets once almost got her killed, so she knows how important honesty is.
“The truth might hurt, but love heals all wounds, right?” Halle offers, her encouragement full of sympathy as her own love story is full of compassion.
“Stone only wants the best for each of his siblings.” Enya keeps her eyes on me.
“That means he wants them to be happy. And it sounds like Cort makes you happy.”
“He does,” I interject, glancing down at the silver bracelet with a little bee charm dangling from my wrist. Fingering the delicate jewelry, I smile to myself.
However, happiness has levels, and passion for my job doesn’t compare to passion for his former best friend.
“Stone values honesty above all else,” Enya adds.
The statement is a reminder of Cort’s past with Stone.
He came to Stone after everything that happened and admitted his fault.
It destroyed their friendship.
And if anyone has lied recently, it’s been me .
“You just need to tell him the truth,” Genie reiterates.
“Lies never lead anywhere good.”
Says the girl who faked an engagement with Judd, only to learn they actually were in love with one another.
“I’m not saying it will be easy,” Enya tries to soothe.
“Just tell him what you told us. How happy Cort makes you.”
“And now is your opportunity.” Mavis nods and I look up to see my brother in his sheriff’s uniform entering the Roadhouse.
“He’s probably on a dinner break.” I hesitate.
“I should wait until we are somewhere private.” Then again, in a public place, Stone is less likely to make a scene.
Not that he is a scene-making kind of guy, but you never know about those silent types.
“No time like the present,” Cadence encourages.
“You got this.” Halle reaches across the table and gives my arm a reassuring squeeze.
“I got this,” I state, slowly rising and taking a final gulp of my margarita.
This is Stone. My oldest brother.
A man who has loved me unconditionally from infancy to ornery teen to single motherhood.
He’s been by my side literally every day of my life.
He wasn’t my father; he’s been so much more, and that’s why this situation felt so much worse.
But I also believe what every important woman in my life has told me.
My brother only wants the best for each of us.
He wants us happy and whole, loved, and I am all those things .
. . with Cort. And honesty is the best way through this situation.
“Hey, big brother,” I tease, slipping into a chair across from Stone.
He took a seat at a high-top table closer to the bar and he holds a menu like he hasn’t eaten at Milton Roadhouse enough times to have memorized their offerings.
“Hey.” He gives me a slow, kind smile.
One that feels reserved just for family.
“I was wondering if I could?— ”
“Hey there. I didn’t know we’d have company.” Andy Whitehall sneaks up behind me and rounds the table, pulling out a stool next to my brother who shifts to accommodate Andy’s position.
Shit .
“You joinin’ us for dinner?” Andy adds, offering a smile that makes my blood boil.
After how he botched up the Stanton situation and believed Henry over Hudson, I don’t want to even look at him.
“I was just looking to speak to Stone a second, but it can?—”
“Are you kidding me?” Andy mutters, glaring over my shoulder.
His harsh undertone forces me ramrod straight.
Then I get a sense of what Andy is looking at, or rather who, as he takes a seat behind me.
The tables are tight in this section, and I heard a chair scrape against the wooden floor behind me but hadn’t given it a thought.
When I catch a whiff of balsam fir, man, and asphalt, I know exactly who is seated at my back.
With Josh witnessing us straight out of the shower, we realized it was only a matter of time before rumors would start.
We could hardly keep our eyes off one another during Haven Hitters’ practices or games.
Keeping our hands to ourselves has been torture.
When I’d told Cort I was going to come clean to the females in the family, he’d asked if I needed moral support.
I hadn’t known how badly I might need him at my back until this moment.
“We can do this another time.” Because now might not be the ideal time to speak.
With Andy present, and Cort behind me.
Plus, this is a public place, and I should have this discussion privately with my big brother.
Stone immediately stands despite what I’d said.
“I’m going to wash my hands.”
This leaves me awkwardly seated at the table with Andy, knowing I shouldn’t leave until Stone returns, but desperately wanting to slink away.
“My, my, my, isn’t this complicated,” Andy smirks, glancing over my head at Cort behind me.
Then he leans forward, lowering his head and his voice.
“Because sister here has a secret.”
Andy’s like a villain in a B movie, with poor acting skills and exaggerated motions.
When he licks his top teeth, I want to punch him like my brothers have taught me.
But I’m also curious what Andy thinks he knows, and I hold still a moment, knowing a man on a power trip, like him, is all too eager to share.
“I know all about you and the late night visits during your son’s sport camp.”
Initially, I have no idea what Andy means.
Seconds later, I recall that Andy was the night patrol during the Haven Hitters weekend on Ford’s property.
And of course, I remember what I did with Cort.
Which means?—
“Since you’re spreading your legs for just anyone, maybe you could spread them for me.”
I gag.
And everything happens lightning fast.
A stool falls over.
The table jostles. And I’m catching Cort’s arm as he leans over the table, reaching for Andy.
Fumbling off my stool, I stand while still clutching Cort’s forearm.
“You fucking watch your mouth,” Cort snarls, pointing at Andy.
His finger nearly underneath the deputy’s chin, like Cort intends to throat punch him.
“He isn’t worth it,” I whimper, still trying to process that Andy might have seen Cort and I together.
He was watching us.
I’m going to be sick.
Cort and I have discussed Andy’s incompetence and grudge against Sebastian.
We’ve also talked about how he mishandled the Stanton case.
But this infraction is on an entirely different level of disturbing.
“Is there a problem here?” Stone is suddenly standing near the opposite side of the table.
His gaze falls to where my hand grips Cort’s arm.
As Cort stands to his full height, he nudges me behind him, and I keep my hand on his arm, sliding it up to the crook of his elbow.
The last thing I want is a physical altercation between my boyfriend and the sheriff.
“Maybe Andy would like to share the problem.” Cort sneers in Andy’s direction.
The edge in his voice as sharp as a knife.
“Want to repeat that disrespectful, vulgar shit you just said to Stone’s sister?”
“It’s Deputy Sheriff Whitehall.” Andy stands, ignoring all the rest of what Cort said, and runs his hands along his belt, before settling it on the gun holstered at his hip.
With a gasp, I glance at Stone.
How does someone like Andy work with my brother?
However, Stone hasn’t taken his eyes off Cort.
The two of them are locked in some battle of wills, or worse, a conversation of truths.
Eventually, Cort tips up his chin.
“Alright,” he mutters, slipping out from underneath my touch without a glance in my direction.
As he spins and disappears behind me, I stare at Stone a second before glancing at Cort’s retreating back.
Swallowing hard, I make the only decision I can. I follow Cort.