Page 23 of Twice in a Lifetime

She leaned forward and dropped her voice to a menacing hiss. “That piece of shit was playing house with another woman!” she whisper-yelled before flopping back in her seat and raking a hand through her hair. “My God,” she said on a sigh. “He might not have been my favorite person, but I never expectedthis.”

That was a testament to how good of a friend Sunny was. From the first time they met, there had been an underlying tension between them. Elliott hadn’t bothered to hide his animosity toward my best friend, and more than once we’d gotten into a fight over him acting like an entitled snob. But she’d never once said a negative word.

I should have seen that for the red flag it was, but what they said about hindsight really was true.

“You never told me why you didn’t like him.”

Her brows pulled together in a frown. “Of course I didn’t. You’re my best friend and he was your husband and the father of your kids. What kind of person would I have been if I talked shit about the man you chose to spend your life with? As long as he made you happy, that was all that mattered to me.”

My heart clenched as I picked up my latte and took a sip. “Well, I think if there ever was a time for you to tell me how you really feel it would be now.”

Her expression fell, sadness filling her gaze. “Honey, I don’t think?—”

“Please, Sun. I feel like I lived all these years with blinders on. You weren’t the only person I sensed who didn’t care for my husband, but no one ever said anything. Tell me now. I need to know.”

She let out a heavy sigh. “He was a pretentious ass,” she finally said, blurting the words like she was trying to get them out as quickly as possible. “He always acted like he was better than us whenever we came to visit, like being from a small town made us beneath him or something. He never came right out and said it, it was more like a feeling. He’d get these little digs in then act like it was all a joke. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that he would have been happy if you dropped everyone from your old life.”

I sniffled, her figure going blurry as my eyes welled up. I blinked the tears back, refusing to let them fall as I reached across the table and placed a hand over hers. “I’m so sorry he made you feel like that.”

She flipped her hand over and wrapped her fingers around mine, giving them a squeeze. “None of that mattered, B. He was arrogant, sure, but he was also a good father to those babies, and you were happy. You were so heartbroken after...” Her throat worked on a thick swallow. “After you and Rhodes broke up. I hated how sad you were all the time. You started smiling again when you met him. That was all I wanted for you.”

“God, I missed you,” I whispered. As bruised and battered as my heart was over the events of the past several months, I could feel pieces of it stitching back together, thanks to Sunny.

“I missed you too, B.” She quirked her head and smiled. “You’re my bestie for life. Things suck right now, but you’re going to get through this. I’m here for you. Your family is here. We’re going to make sure you get to the other side. I promise.”

I couldn’t have asked for a better friend than Sunny, and I didn’t want to think about where I’d be if I didn’t have her in my life.

“To be honest, I can’t believe you aren’t curled up in your bed right now. You’re so dang strong, Blythe. If it were me, I would have lost it.”

I let out a dry chuckle and rubbed at my temples. My crying jags had given me a headache that I hadn’t been able to get rid of. “Oh, believe me, I lost it. And it wasn’t pretty. After Lincoln...” I swallowed hard, trying to force down the ball of emotion making my throat tight. “I had to get out of there. I went to the lookout and screamed into the sky until my throat felt like it had been shredded by broken glass.”

Her face fell and her fingers tensed around mine again. “Oh, honey.”

I shook my head as I remembered how badly I’d broken down. “Rhodes was there. He witnessed the whole thing, but I’m too damn tired to be embarrassed about it.”

“First, you have nothing to be embarrassed about,” she said firmly, her tone brooking zero argument. “And second, I’m not surprised you ran into him there. He goes up to the lookout all the time.”

My heart kicked up and my spine straightened. Sunny knew about Rhodes’s and my spot because I’d told her about it, but she’d never been there herself, at least she hadn’t before I moved away. “He does?”

She nodded. “He won’t say it, but I think he goes there to feel close to you. It’s been that way since he got back. If we can’t find him it’s because he’s there. Sometimes he’ll disappear for a couple days, camping out up there.”

My mind raced back to what he said as he held me like I was made of glass and it was his job to protect me from anything that might break me. “He told me he still loves me,” I confessed quietly. I waited a beat for Sunny to have some sort of reaction to that, but it never came. “Why don’t you look surprised?”

She lifted her shoulders in a shrug and tossed a piece of shredded croissant into her mouth. “Because I’m not. I know my brother better than he knows himself. And even though I still want to kick his ass for hurting you, I know he ripped his heartout the day he broke up with you. I always respected your wishes not to bring him up, but there hasn’t been anyone for him since you.”

A bitter, unpleasant feeling rolled through me as I remembered back to the woman in the grocery store. I couldn’t stop the scoff that burst past my lips. “Yeah, I don’t buy that.”

“I’m not saying he’s been a saint. What I mean is that not a single one of them has been important. In twenty years, he hasn’t brought a single one of them around to meet us.”

The bite of Danish I’d just taken lodged in my throat. There was no one more important to Rhodes than his family, so the fact that he hadn’t brought a single woman around any of them spoke volumes.

I didn’t know what to think about that. All I knew was I wasn’t prepared for how that knowledge made me feel.

Chapter Thirteen

Blythe

You know the old saying: when it rains, it pours? I could personally attest to how true that was thanks to the past two weeks. It all started with Ainsley bringing home a nasty stomach virus that moved through the house at a rapid pace, leaving only myself behind. If I thought my kids were bad when they were sick, it was nothing compared to my six-foot-two, two-hundred-plus-pounds-of-muscle brother.

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