Page 53 of Pain in the Axe
She settled in it and pushed off gently with one foot. “I love this chair,”she said, beaming at me. “It’s this little guy’s favorite. I make Finn move it from room to room for me.”
Finn stroked her hair, his eyes warm and fixed on her. “She was carrying it herself a few days after giving birth,” Finn grumbled. “Wouldn’t let me do anything.”
She tilted her head back and patted his bearded cheek. “He needs a job. So now he’s my chair guy. My hero.”
Finn pulled a thin blanket off the back of the chair for her, and she draped it over herself. We all looked away politely as she latched the baby.
“Okay. Continue,” she said as she rocked.
The memories rushed me, along with the thrill that always hit me when I saw Chloe. How I’d rearrange my entire day just to drop by that coffee shop. The ache in my chest went away as soon as she smiled in my direction.
“We hung out. Her mom was sick then. Cancer. And Chloe was taking care of her. She was so sad and so beautiful. I made it my mission to make her smile every single day.”
“You?” Jude guffawed. “But you don’t believe in smiling.”
“Maybe not for myself.” I chuckled. “But if you knew Chloe, you’d realize just how spectacular and rare her smiles are.”
“I’m so confused.” He took off his glasses and squinted at me. “I’ve been out working in the woods for a week and now you’re a different person? Were you abducted by aliens?”
“Nah, I’m focused, that’s all.”
“Dude, we’ve worked together every day for the last ten years. I’m your goddamn brother. I want a DNA test to confirm you haven’t been body snatched.”
Finn just laughed, “I get it, dude. She’s your person.”
I gave him a grateful nod.
“So what went wrong?” He asked.
“Dad was against it, obviously, and her family freaked out. There was a lot of fighting. She’d planned to go to college in Canada. That’s what her mom wanted. But then things got complicated.” My heart dropped and pain lanced my chest at the memory. “And before I could fix it, she was gone.”
Adele gasped.
“It was a messy time for both of us. She was grieving. I was trying to figure out how to be an adult and make my own decisions. And we were both young and impulsive. Running off and getting married was dumb, but we didn’t feel like we had any other choice.” I ran my hands through my hair and tugged, trying to distract myself from the lump that was forming in my throat. We were going a lot deeper than I was comfortable with.
“Wait, Mom knew?”
“Eventually.” I nodded. “At first, she stayed out of my business. Owen had gone to college by then, but Cole was nine, and the rest of you hellions were teenagers. The poor woman was just trying to keep you guys alive most days. I was living above Dad’s garage at the time, and I thought I was so grown up.
“So we wentto Montreal and got married. She was grieving and I was rebelling, and she moved into my apartment and we tried to make it work. But it just never felt like we found our footing. And our parents were so upset, it just made things harder.”
“As if Dad had any authority on the subject of marriage.”
I snorted. “Exactly.” I’d ignored my parents’ protests, like the punk that I was. But while I could brush off the chastisement, Chloe’s father’s disapproval gutted her. Between that and the grief of losing her mom, I didn’t know how to help her. I didn’t know how to fix it. And I stupidly thought if I listened to my dad, things would work out.
“We argued, she moved out, and instead of fighting for her, I just worked and tried to push through it. Then she left for school. Dad got his lawyer to draw up the papers. I signed them.”
I looked around at my brother’s shocked faces. I’d never been particularly open about my personal life, but reliving this chapter was especially painful.
Jude straightened where he sat on the floor. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
I arched a brow, my irritation growing. “That I married the most incredible woman I’ve ever met in my life yet couldn’t get my shit together and keep her?” It had always just seemed easier to try and forget this. Keep working, keep moving. It was only now, decades later, I saw how flawed that strategy had been.
“I guess this goes a long way toward explaining why you’re, you know… you,” Cole added.
The glare I hit him with was sharp enough to make him shudder. Cole might have been the tallest, but he was still the baby of the family, and I had a solid fifty pounds on him.
“You think you have a shot now?” Finn asked.
