Page 56 of Off-Limits Silver Fox Billionaire

I had missed Iris, so I didn’t mind at all. I wanted us to go back to being friends, and I knew that would take time, but I was willing to wait. She walked to a table and sat before I joined her.

Iris accepted the plate of apple pie I placed in front of her, and I wiped my hands on my apron before sitting. “It’s a new recipe for my blog,” I told her. “I’m trying out new recipes because I want to have some named after me.”

She laughed, and my smiled widened. “This is amazing Bree,” she commented after tasting the pie. “I mean, Allison does a great job here already, but this is better than hers.”

“Hey,” Allison called from the counter because she had heard Iris’s excited chatter about the pie. “I’m right here and I can hear you”

“Sorry,” Iris apologized, and we both burst into a loud cackle.

We quieted down after a minute, and Iris wiped her lips clean with the napkin she picked from the table.

“Thanks,” she said to me, and I nodded softly. Iris sighed first, then touched my hand on the table. “About yesterday, Bree,” she began. “There’s something you should know.”

“About your mother?” I questioned, then shook my head. “You don’t have to explain anything to me, Iris. I mean this is probably best for both your father and me. He made himself really clear the last time we spoke.”

“No, Bree,” she corrected. “No, he didn’t make himself clear.”

I frowned, and she ran her fingers through her hair before continuing “I found out about my mom’s illness some months back. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s while treating her lung cancer, and I was hoping she would get better, but the chemo and everything…It didn’t work.”

“Oh,” I gasped, and my heart sank just from hearing her words. “Oh, Iris,” I cried out, then got up and walked over to her side to sit. “You should have told me.”

I hugged her because it was the only source of comfort I could offer at the time. Iris hugged me tight too, and I pulled back when she cleared her throat.

“Right now, all she remembers is her life up until the point when I started senior year. She still thinks I’m sixteen and she wants to spend every second she can with me and my dad because she’s been away for so long. I can’t break her heart, Bree. I can’t tell her that she has it all wrong. It’ll only cause her more pain and I don’t want to do that.”

I understood Iris so well even though my heart was aching too. This meant Josh had to be by her side. He had to be her husband and her friend…He had to be her partner.

It really is complicated,I thought as I brushed off my tears and focused on Iris.

“Don’t hate him too much, Bree. I put him in a tight spot, and it is selfish, but I want my mom to be the happiest before she dies. She’s spent too many years hating herself for her affair and for breaking up our family…I just want to give her a better life before it’s too late.”

She burst into tears after her last statement, and I cried too because I couldn’t bear to see her this sad. I didn’t know a thing about Alzheimer’s besides knowing that it was a severe form of memory loss.

Iris and Josh deserved to be with their family at a time like this and it would be horrible for me to come in between that.

“You don’t have to worry about me, Iris,” I said to her after a long time of her sobbing on my shoulder. “I don’t hate Josh. I can never hate him.”

She hugged me again. “Thanks, Bree,” she murmured, and I patted her back before releasing her.

I wiped my own tears and stilled my quivering insides. Showing Iris my own devastation was the last thing I wanted so I had to be strong for her.

“You want more of that pie?” I asked when she finally caught her breath.

“I sure do, this is amazing,” she said, and we both laughed before I left her and went into the kitchen. I needed to catch my breath, so when I entered the kitchen, I closed the door and leaned over it.

“I just need a minute,” I said to the chef who flashed me a weird look. “Just a minute.”

I dragged in a deep breath to fill my lungs and closed my eyes to soak it all in. When I re-opened them, it felt like I had better control of my emotions. I practiced my smile then walked out of the kitchen again and grabbed more pie for Iris.

When I joined her at her table again, she was fiddling with her phone. Iris leveled me with a curious gaze, then she asked. “What are you doing right now?”

“Noting…Just helping Allison out.”

“You think you can get out for a minute? I need to meet with my designer for the wedding dress fitting and I need you to be there, Bree because we’ve always tried on dresses together. It feels weird to try this one on without you.”

My best friend Iris was finally coming back to me, and I was too excited to let this one slide, so I nodded. “Yes, I’ll go with you,” I agreed.

“Yay,” she celebrated then pumped her fist in the air and got on her feet.

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