Page 22 of Always Be My Baby

“What?” I shouted because the situation called for it, and pushed up from my comfy spot to look him in the eye.

“Listen, Lee…” He wore every word he was about to speak on his face. Pain and guilt and worry, they all flashed in his narrowed eyes and the tightness of his jaw. When he sat up, I knew I hadn’t heard the worst of it yet. The way his usually plump lips thinned into a flat line except from where they turned down slightly on each side. He held his body rigid except for the shoulders which sort of slumped forward. Whatever he was about to say, I knew I wasn’t going to like it. Exhaling slowly, I closed my eyes to swallow and center myself, and then I opened them again, finding him staring at me. I nodded once, short, to tell him I was ready for him to continue, and he did. “he was born before your parents’ divorce.”

“Before?” Nope. I really didn’t like it. Not one bit. Not at all.

“I’m sorry.”

“My dad got rid of one family to start another?” I asked, though we both knew it wasn’t really a question.

“It appears so,” he answered sullenly.

I sucked back my emotion—stiff upper lip and all that, then asked, “Okay, so what happened to this man, my br—my brother?” A stupid sob ripped on the wordbrother. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I was Marilee. I was the strong one. But despite that, I couldn’t hold it back if I tried, and in the heat of the moment, I wasn’t really trying. Girard held me to him and let me cry it out all over his bare chest. He didn’t bother to try to shush me, knowing I needed to get it out.

But he did answer. “I don’t know where he is. I got a bad feeling off him and kicked him out of the bistro.”

“Youkicked him out?”

“Lee, I knew just meeting him would hurt you, but I got a bad feeling, like he wasn’t there just to meet his long-lost oldest sister, so yeah. I kicked him out.” He took in another breath. “You’re going to say it wasn’t my place, but I love you. It’s my job to shield you from any of the blows life decides to throw your way, if I can help it.”

“I trust you,” I said on a sniffle. And I did. We lived in a world of technology. If his only intentions were to meet me, why wouldn’t he have reached out over social media first? Most of us had googleable lives.

No, there was a reason he’d shown up at my restaurant unannounced. But even knowing that, I still needed to lay eyes on him. See the man who’d replaced me, Tess, and Jimmy.

Girard’s shoulders relaxed and he audibly sighed. I was glad that he found comfort in my words. They were true.

“You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that.”

“I believe you and I’m okay with what you did. But I need to meet him.”

He whipped his head down to look at me. “Are you crazy?”

“No, I’mnotcrazy. It’s you who doesn’t understand. My dad replaced me, he replaced Tess, and he replaced Jimmy. I need to see this man. I need to see what made him better and more worthy of my father’s love then us.”

“Sweetheart, it wasn’t you. It was him. It was your dad.”

“If he loved us, he would’ve taken us with him. He would have sent money to help. So clearly, he didn’t love us. Why? Why didn’t he love us? I need to see this Lachlan for myself. I need to ask him questions.”

“What if he doesn’t have the answers that you want to hear? It might get really uncomfortable for you.”

“That’s just the chance I’m going to have to take. I hope you can understand, and I hope you can support me.”

“I’ll support you with anything. You know that, Lee.”

I needed a distraction from thoughts of Lachlan Bell. Girard knew exactly how to distract my mind—and my body, if I were being honest. I loved this man with all of my heart. He made me happy. He just…gotme.

It’d been a few days since the Lachlan revelation. Girard’s behavior improved considerably in that time. We were really getting back to the Marilee and Girard that we had been.

Lena had admitted through teary eyes this morning that she’d seen Lachlan that first day, too. Teary eyes? Like she’d actually thought I’d be upset at her revelation. Upset with my best friend who only wanted what was best for me?Never.As she broke down, well it was hard to understand much of it but I got the gist.You and Girard live together now...his place to break the news…don’t hate me... By the end of the meeting, I’d ended up hugging and consoling Lena for probably a half hour—reassuring her that it was okay. We were okay.

The pair of them, Girard and Lena, only had my best interests at heart. They wanted to keep me from feeling life’s blows full-on. Who would be mad at that? If anything, I felt lucky to have the love and friendship of honestly two of the best people I’d ever known.

She didn’t want to take the coffee break that I insisted she take, not to drink coffee unless she wanted it, but to collect herself. Lena would’ve hated to move among the staff and customers with a splotchy face and puffy, red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes. I knew that. She’d have done the same for me, and so I insisted.

Now she was back. I was still in the office, in the middle of going over orders when Lena popped her head in. She looked…better.Makeup fixed. Hair perfect. I smiled up at her with a satisfied smile and nodded once, feeling pretty great about the fact that I got to help my friend in return.

“What can I do for you?” I asked.

“…He’s back,” she said.

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