Page 34 of We Thought We Knew It All
She smiled sadly. There was something she wasn’t telling me. “London is… I don’t know what I’m doing there anymore. But can we not talk about it?”
“You’re right,” I said. “We need to talk about my book.”
“Do you really have to do it? Make us live through it again, I mean.”
I thought for a moment. “When I wrote the book about my mom, it was the first time I felt like I could put her to rest. She’ll still always be with me, but I’m not sad anymore. I miss her, but that doesn’t control my life like it did. I think we all need that. We need closure, finality. I won’t publish it if that’s really what you want, but I need to write it.”
She leaned her head on my shoulder. “No, you can publish it. I’m just being dumb. My mom never moved past it. Maybe that will help.”
I patted her head, tears springing to my eyes as we heard shouting inside.
“Shit. We left Jay and Jamie together.” I jumped up and ran inside.
The two brothers were facing off in the living room with Colby to the side looking helpless.
“You know what pisses me off?” Jay growled.
“What doesn’t piss you off?” Jamie muttered.
“That you thought I’d write you off, so you went ahead and jumped the gun. We’re brothers, you should know better.”
Jamie’s face hardened. “Brothers, huh? You want to know why it was so easy to cut you out of my life? Because youneveracted like a brother. You never stuck up for me, always choosing his side over mine.”
“Our father was a great man.”
Jamie charged as soon as the words were out of Jay’s mouth, knocking him to the ground and pummeling him. Jay, despite the size disadvantage, managed to knock him off and catch his chin with a quick uppercut before ducking away from Jamie’s more deadly swings. Jay had never been a fighter, unlike his brother. Add in the training Jamie now had and anyone could see where the fight was going.
“Jamie,” I yelled, trying to pull him back from the fog he was operating under as he held Jay’s shirt and popped him in the nose.
Colby looked about ready to step in when Jamie suddenly pushed Jay away. Neither of them seemed to register that they weren’t the only ones in the room.
Jamie’s shoulders dropped and his voice shook, years of emotion breaking through. “I was just a kid when it started. You knew. You had to know. And you were my big brother.” He shook as he sank into the couch. “Dad is dead, and you’re still choosing him over me.”
Jay wiped a bead of blood from his lip and breathed heavily, but otherwise stood still. When he still hadn’t responded a moment later, I shot him a look and then moved toward Jamie, kneeling in front of him. “Let’s go.” I took his hands in mine and pulled him to his feet.
“You mind if I keep the boys tonight?” Colby asked. “I’ll use my key to stop by your house and pick up some things. I could use a nephew night.”
I gave him a grateful look. Jamie needed me tonight.
“Sure, want to just switch cars so you don’t have to move the car seats?”
He nodded, leaving to collect the boys.
I hugged Morgan, Amber, and my boys, ignoring Jay altogether before leading Jamie out to Colby’s car.
I knew where he needed to go.
Pulling into the parking lot, I still missed the crunch of gravel that used to signify we’d arrived. Now it felt less wild and more polished.
Jamie was quiet as he soaked in the evening beach air. It was crisp and smelled like high school. I laughed at the thought. High school to me wasn’t lockers and classrooms, it was that beach, because that’s what was worth remembering.
Jamie walked to the edge of the water and bent to splash it onto his face, hissing in a breath as the salt found its way into the cut on his chin.
“He cut me,” he murmured.
“Jamie?” I asked.
“Huh?”
