Chapter 8 #2
“And still, he threw it all away.” A lump formed in Reese’s throat as she forced out the words. It was guilt, that she was happy that Sydney was out of Grant’s clutches, even if it had come with considerable hurt.
“Exactly. Which brings me back to my central point,” Hallie said, growing serious again. “Sydney King is my best friend and the best person I know. If you do anything to put her in harm’s way, let alone hurt her yourself, there will be hell to pay.”
“Erm… got it.”
Then Hallie smiled brightly, and it was the strangest thing to see, juxtaposed with her threatening demeanor mere seconds ago. “ Okay, good. I’ve never done the whole ‘threatening someone’ thing, but I feel like it went well. You agree?”
Reese shut her eyes and nodded, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Yeah, Hallie. You did great, though I don’t know if it always includes a request for feedback from the person you’re intimidating.”
“Always room for improvement, I guess.” Hallie rapped on the doorframe. “Okay, well, your coffee’s getting cold. You’d better drink up. We have a busy afternoon of check-ins for the long weekend. See you in the lobby in twenty?”
Reese leaned back in her chair, letting the soft movement soothe her. “I’ll be there.”
Hallie bounded out of the office, treating threats and intimidation the same way she treated a pep talk, and maybe to her, they were the same.
Yet again, though, the idea had been reinforced, by someone other than herself this time, that her situation with Sydney wasn’t something she should take lightly.
Later Thursday night, Reese was dragging herself back to her room when her cell phone rang.
She answered the unknown number. It could be any of about a half-dozen vendors she’d called earlier that morning regarding quotes for some of the bigger projects she was considering at the inn.
“Reese speaking.”
“Hey, Reese. This is Brynn.” There was a pause before Brynn unnecessarily added, “Fitzpatrick. Grant’s fiancée. Your mom gave me your cell number; I hope that’s okay.”
All she wanted to do was shed her clothes and take a long, luxurious bath, but instead, she let herself into her room and plopped down on top of her unmade bed, where Reese pursed her lips. “Sure thing, Brynn. What’s up? ”
“So my mom let me know that you’ll be joining us this weekend, which is great,” she said, like she genuinely meant it, her voice taking on that airy, excited quality Reese had become familiar with the weekend before.
“I wanted to get your dress size so that I could bring a bridesmaid dress for you to try on.”
Reese stifled a groan. She’d been trying so hard not to think about her upcoming inclusion in the wedding event of the season.
Instead, she pasted on a smile she hoped came through in her voice. “That’s so thoughtful. I’m a six or an eight, depending on the brand.”
She could hear Brynn scribbling on a piece of paper. “Got it. I’ll see if I can get one of each for you to try on, just to make sure you like it. It’s this local dress shop, so I can swing by tomorrow.”
Brynn was already being extremely thoughtful, and Reese was suddenly steeped in guilt at her complete ambivalence to the woman’s existence.
It wasn’t Brynn’s fault that Grant was good at hiding who he was. If Reese used dating her brother as a litmus test for how much she respected someone, she’d have run the other way from Sydney. Probably screaming.
“I really appreciate it, Brynn. Thank you.”
“Reese?” Brynn said quietly, then was silent as she waited for acknowledgement.
Reese had placed her phone on the end table before getting up and starting to undress, the call of a hot bath becoming too much to resist.
“What’s up?” she asked, distracted at the fact that her pants wouldn't cooperate.
“I want Sydney to know, I hope there are no hard feelings. You two are lovely together, and I hope Grant breaking up with her is all water under the bridge. I’m just excited to have a relationship with you, maybe even with Sydney if she’s open to it.”
Reese stopped, falling over sideways on her bed when she misjudged how far she’d gotten her pants off. “Wait, what?”
She could hear the uncomfortable catch in Brynn’s voice. “Oh, um… just that I know things are complicated, and I wanted to make sure everything was good between the four of us.”
“Yeah, right.” Reese was trying to catch up with what Brynn was saying while trying to shimmy out of her pants, which she’d gotten down to mid-thigh.
Why were they so damn tight?
Reese cleared her throat, realizing she hadn’t actually given Brynn an answer. “It’s all good with Sydney and me,” she half lied.
“Okay, great,” Brynn said, relief evident in her tone. “I’m really excited for us all to spend more time together. Grant works so much, and it will be nice to have more people that I consider family around.”
Working hard? That didn’t sound like her brother. At all.
But maybe, even if she didn’t truly believe it, Grant had found his one in a billion with Brynn, the person who was worth throwing it all away to lead a happy life together.
In spite of all she’d learned about the business world, she’d never had her father’s willingness to do whatever it took to close the deal. Right now, he would want her to say whatever she needed to keep Brynn excited about her impending nuptials.
But that wasn’t who she was, and it wasn’t who she wanted to be. Still, even for the sake of peace, she couldn’t get close to promising that they’d all be one big, happy family one day.
Brynn was sweet, but she doubted that her future sister-in-law would be the glue that mended a lifetime of brewing resentment between Reese and the rest of her family.
Beyond that, it wasn’t fair to expect Brynn to be responsible for something of that magnitude. Hell, Reese didn’t even know where she’d start, if she wanted to fix it on her own.
So instead, she was stuck playing a part, biding her time until she could once again extricate herself from the Devereux family drama, something she’d successfully avoided for the last twelve years .
“It’ll be good for us to get to spend more time together,” Reese said sincerely, echoing Brynn’s words. She wasn’t going to sing her brother’s praises. She wasn’t going to lie and tell Brynn that she and her brother had a great relationship.
What she could do was promise that she’d be kind to Brynn, and until she knew what Brynn knew, which she wasn’t going to ask because she wasn’t a complete idiot, she’d keep her cards close to her chest.
“It means a lot to hear you say that, Reese. All right, I’ll let you go.”
“See you Saturday, Brynn,” Reese said as she hopped over to the end table and hit ‘End’ on her phone.
She looked down at her pants then, a still-tangled jumble of fabric that she hadn’t managed to get off.
With focus, she finally extricated herself from the tapered legs and let out a huff.
As she walked over to the bathroom, her phone began to ring again. She ignored it, set on running her bath, which was already long overdue.
Once she started the water, she checked her missed calls. It was her mom, but she didn’t have the energy to call her back right then. It would probably be more about what her father had been insisting, with firm directives to make sure this weekend went off without a hitch.
How had she suddenly become responsible for the emotional well-being of so many people? She’d found herself at a nexus of conflict with the lie that she and Sydney had spun, and she was wondering if the two of them had what it took to see things through to the finish line.
And what was that line, anyway?
When Sydney got her answers? When she realized that getting any type of closure from Grant was a fruitless endeavor?
When Brynn successfully made it down the aisle and became Mrs. Devereux ?
When her dad found out she’d purchased the inn and officially disowned her?
As the days wore on, she was sort of looking forward to that last one. To forcing her father to finally say that he didn’t deem her worthy. Maybe this time, she’d actually do something to deserve it.
She willed her thoughts to float away as she dipped a toe into the hot water before lowering her entire body in. She leaned her head back against the edge and let out a calming breath, enjoying the gentle sloshing sound of the bath flowing around her.
Everything was going to be fine. Her dad would do most of the talking this weekend, Brynn seemed like she just wanted a friend, and she and Sydney would rarely be alone together.
It was all going to work out.
Her phone rang from the bedroom again, and instead of listening to it ring, she slipped under the water and let it envelope her senses.