Chapter 39
Marc
My anger was only just beginning to ease when I arrived at Aunt Petunia’s. Then she opened the door and held out her arms.
“Oh, sweetie.” Those two words completely broke me.
I stepped into her embrace, my previous anger mixing with the hurt I’d fought like hell to keep at bay and revealing the messy disaster my heart had become.
She wrapped me in her thin arms, still strong from years of working at the shop, and rubbed my back as I clung to her like kudzu and sobbed like a damn child.
She quietly pulled me inside, shutting the door behind me, and guided me to the spare room she always kept made up for potential guests.
She set me down on the mattress, then retrieved my bag from where I’d dropped it in the front along with a glass of unsweet tea.
I sniffled as I drank it and ate the shortbread cookie she put in my hand.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Aunt Petunia asked gently while she petted my hair.
I shook my head, prompting a few remaining hot tears to streak down my cheeks. Despite that, I found myself saying, “The shop is ruined. I don’t know how we’ll ever recover.”
“What does James think?”
I flinched at the soft question. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks.
Nothing will change the big ass, fucking tree that took out the entire front or—” I bit my tongue to prevent my broken heart from bubbling out of me.
I honestly didn’t know what hurt more: seeing my future in ruins or learning what James really thought of me.
Aunt Petunia let out a heavy sigh and continued to stroke my hair. “I’ve found that time reveals most things are not nearly as broken as we believe them to be.”
I turned sullenly away from her. Much as I wanted to cling to her compassion and optimism with the grip of a drowning man, I knew better. You’d have thought I learned my lesson when I was taken. But no, I’d let myself believe what I wanted and, like always, it had bitten me in the ass.
“Get some rest, Tulip,” she said, pulling back the sheets for me to get under the covers.
I kicked off my flip-flops without a second thought and curled up on the bed without bothering to remove anything else.
She tucked me in and placed a soft kiss on my head, as she’d done dozens of times over the years when I’d come to her upset over something the other kids or my father had said.
“We can discuss next steps tomorrow. Can I get you anything?”
Rather than answer, I burrowed deeper under the plush comforter. I heard the soft pad of her slippered feet cross the floor, followed by the flick of the light switch, and finally the soft snick of the door closing. In the silence that followed, my bruised heart ached at being so alone.
When I’d decided to pursue things with James, I’d expected to end with my heart broken.
But not like this, not after deluding myself into believing we could truly be happy together.
I missed Alex. And for the first time, possibly ever, I missed someone else more than my twin.
I missed James. It was a shame he would never miss me that way.
There was no telling how long I’d slept when the mattress dipped with the presence of another body, though it was far from restful.
But not even the aroma of fresh coffee could entice me from the cocoon I’d made of myself.
It didn’t make sense that my body felt as bruised as my heart when nothing had physically happened to me. Yet here I was.
“Wow, really feeling the love, bro. And I even brought you your favorite coffee and everything.”
At the sound of my twin’s voice, I threw back the covers and attacked her with a hug.
“What are you doing here? When did you get in? You didn’t have to come.
” I’d have been embarrassed at how raw my voice was, except Alex was one of the few people on this planet who wouldn’t judge me for anything.
Twenty-four hours ago, I would have included JD on that list. I knew better now.
She squeezed me back just as fiercely. “Of course I had to come. I’m only sorry I wasn’t here for you when you first got to town.”
I shook my head as we pulled apart. “You were busy being an environmental badass.”
“Yeah, well, I still hate it. Aunt Petunia told me about the storm and what happened at the shop. I’m a little surprised you’re not there now.”
I gave her a weak smile I didn’t feel and shrugged. “What’s the point? There’s no way insurance will cover even half of what needs to be replaced. I’ll be rebuilding from less than what I started with, and I barely had the funds to do it the first time.”
“I’ll help, and so will Aunt Petunia.” She squeezed my hands when I didn’t respond. “You know that, right? We’re here for you, always.”
“I can’t take your money, Alex. This was my dream, not yours.”
Her mouth twisted to the side in a frown.
“You’re not taking anything. I’m giving it.
And I’m allowed to want my twin to be happy after four years of being miserable as hell.
” The way she said “hell” sounded a lot more like “hail”, and I couldn’t stop the smile from twitching on my lips. God, I’d missed her.
Before I could say anything, the telltale sting in my eyes returned. I swore I’d cried more this summer than I had in my entire adult life put together. Unfortunately, even being wrung out didn’t stop the tears from silently spilling.
“Oh, Tulip, don’t cry,” she said soothingly as she wiped my cheek. Then she gave me a knowing look because she was my twin and I couldn’t hide shit from her. “This is about more than the shop being damaged or even the money to fix it. This is about James.”
Try as I might, I couldn’t stop myself from stiffening. “What makes you say that?” She tackled me back down onto the mattress, and I let out an “Oof.”
We rolled to face each other, almost perfect mirror images, and she gave me a sad smile. “Because it’s been five whole minutes and you haven’t mentioned him once.”
I screwed up my face in a scowl. “I don’t talk about him that much.” She raised an eyebrow, and I huffed. “I don’t.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being in love, Marc. I’ve loved hearing how excited you are when you talk about him. So, I’m really concerned that you’re here, and he’s definitely not.” I had to look away from the understanding, the knowing, in her eyes. “Tell me what happened.”
I heaved a sigh that felt like it came from the depths of the Gulf, then, even though I wasn’t sure if my heart would survive it, I told her.
I told her everything. I told her how he came to be in Fairhope instead of Jones.
How I was a complete sucker for his ridiculous thighs.
The way he made me feel when he stopped everything to hear me.
How much I loved it when he called me “baby boy”, even though that should probably be weird.
I filled her in on the dirty details of when and how we’d hooked up.
How he was vers and apparently I was too.
Admitted how much I loved the way he teased me.
The day slipped by as I shared how much I’d fallen for him.
Aunt Petunia checked on us, and we periodically paused for bathroom breaks, food, and rehydration.
Then I got to the storm and what had followed, including me storming out of the shop and essentially telling him to fuck off without looking back.
“Wow, Tulip. That’s… a lot,” Alex said once I finished my winding tale. She flopped onto her back to stare up at the ceiling, and I mirrored her.
“Yep.”
She smacked me in the stomach with the back of her hand, and I grunted. “I wasn’t just talking about him.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
She huffed and levered up to her elbows to look down at me. “Really, Marc? Nowhere in that story did I hear where you told him how you feel.”
I scoffed. “Kind of feels like I dodged a bullet.”
“You sure about that? Because from what I heard, it sounds like a lot of this drama could have been avoided if you’d been upfront with him.”
“Wasn’t like he said anything either,” I grumbled petulantly.
“Christ on a cracker,” she fussed, flicking me on the forehead for good measure.
I sat up and batted her away. “What the hell was that for? You’re supposed to be making me feel better, not abusing me.”
“No, I’m supposed to help you pull your head out of your ass.
Look, I get it. Putting yourself out there is scary.
” She held up her hand before I could interject.
“Especially with your dating history. I know you’ve been burned before, but it seems like James did everything short of put a ring on it to make sure you knew he was there for you.
Then your stubborn ass goes and blows up because he said one wrong thing in an already stressful situation. One thing.”
“It wasn’t just one thing,” I argued.
“Close enough. I love you, Tulip, I really, really do, but I think it might be time to revisit talking to a professional, maybe even taking medication. You can’t keep letting your darker emotions rule you like this.
It’s destroying your life.” She swivelled around until she was sitting cross-legged to face me.
“Please hear me when I say I’m only bringing this up because I want you to be happy. You deserve to be happy.”
Everything in me wanted to argue with her.
This wasn’t… that. Except, maybe it was?
She was right that I’d been especially keyed up by the time the sheriff got there.
James had tried to get me to stop engaging multiple times, but I hadn’t listened.
I’d kept pushing and pushing like I always did.
When we’d been kids, our mom used to joke that I’d stick my hand in an alligator’s mouth just to see if it would bite.
Only this time my “alligator” had been Sheriff Beechum.
I groaned and buried my face in the pillows. “What is wrong with me?”
“Nothing is wrong with you, Tulip. Not anymore than the usual amount, anyway,” she added cheekily and ruffled my hair.
“Why are you so evil?” I mumbled, my voice muffled a bit by the pillow.
“Because I’m the evil twin,” she responded without missing a beat, and I snickered, rolling to look at her again. “Besides, if I were truly evil, would I have brought you coffee? I get it was yesterday, but it still counts. Besides, I heard Aunt Petunia making a fresh pot.”
My heart twinged at the near-perfect echo of what James had said to me. God, was that really only two days ago? “I love him so much, Alex. What if…” I swallowed thickly, all my fears right on the surface. “What if he doesn’t feel the same?”
“There’s one way to find out.” She wrinkled her nose. “But first, you need a shower. No one is going to want you smelling like that.”
“Oh yeah?” She was midway through opening her mouth when I tackled her again. “How bad do I smell, huh?” She squealed as she tried to get away from me and my pits, which I was trying to shove in her face.
“Oh my God, you’re so gross!”
“You’re no better,” I clapped back.
“Damn right. Don’t make me get my smelly shoes.”
“No! Not the shoes. You could kill a horse with those things.” We continued pushing and shoving, our smelly threats escalating, until Aunt Petunia appeared in the doorway.
“That’s enough, you two. We’ve got a man to help Marc get back.” Her confident grin made my heart surge with love. Even if things with James went sideways, they always had my back. “But first, breakfast. Ups-a-daisy. That bacon’s not gonna eat itself.”
“Biscuits?” Alex asked eagerly.
Aunt Petunia gave her a derisive look. “You really think I’d let my favorite orange blossom come to town and not make biscuits?”
Alex flashed me a grin of pure joy. “Oh, hell yeah!” she exclaimed, then scrabbled to get off the bed.