“Well, that was dramatic,” Katherine said when I entered her apartment what felt like a million hours later.
I grunted noncommittally. Sure, flying to New York on such short notice was dramatic, but I didn’t care. I was surly and unresponsive. I wanted to punch someone again and also call Sutton right now and apologize. But I wouldn’t. Even if I loved her. No, because I loved her.
She might have rushed to the airport to try to convince me to stay. Done all the right things to make me not get on that plane. And, still, I’d left because I didn’t believe her. I wanted to. But I found it hard to believe that she would really be okay and that we wouldn’t turn around a few days later and have the same fight.
She needed to know that I was serious about this. That I would actually leave. All the empty lip service didn’t mean a thing when actions didn’t back it up.
“And, now, you’re growling at me like a caveman. Wonderful,” she drawled.
“Thank you for letting me stay in your guest room. I can always go to a hotel though if I cramp your style.”
“Stay until you leave.”
I almost laughed at her retreating back. My sister…so personable.
“But you have to have tea with Mother,” she called from the kitchen.
Ah, no wonder she’d walked away.
“When?”
“Tomorrow. We’re meeting her around noon. I told her you had nothing to do since you are now jobless and a vagabond leeching off your relatives.”
Even better.
“You’re just the best, Ren.”
“Aren’t I?” she said with her classic false enthusiasm. “Now, I have to go meet Camden for dinner with his parents. So, if I’m not back before midnight, know that I’ve killed myself.”
“Katherine, that’s not funny.”
“Or he murdered me. One or the other.”
“Why are you marrying him? Is it for the Percy name?”
Katherine scoffed. “As if I’d change my last name.”
“You could hyphenate.”
She pursed her lips. “I’m still proud to be a Van Pelt. Someone in our family has to be.”
“But you don’t love him.”
“And you fell in love, and look where that got you.”
She slammed the door shut behind her, leaving me alone to my own devices. She wasn’t wrong, but she also was…herself. That generally meant she lacked tact. And, right now, she was throwing salt in the wound.
I kicked my shoes off and collapsed back onto her couch.
I felt like an asshole. But I hadn’t seen any other option. Walking away was the right thing to do. Even if it had been difficult.
I just needed to weather this. Heartbreak got easier with time.
Or so people said.
The next day, Katherine and I met our mother at an upscale restaurant for afternoon tea. I hadn’t been here in a long time. To get in, you had to have a reservation, and to get a reservation, you had to know the right person. All tea was served with finger sandwiches, little pastries, and a glass of champagne for roughly a hundred dollars per person. So that high society could socialize and gossip in private. It was absurd and quintessential Celeste Van Pelt.
“Hello, darling,” Celeste said, kissing me on both cheeks before turning to Katherine. “You look lovely.”
Katherine frowned. My mother didn’t dole out compliments any more than Katherine did.
“Have a seat.”
I pulled out Katherine’s chair before my own and then sat down, glad that I’d packed a suit before fleeing Lubbock. Otherwise, this would have been much more uncomfortable.
“So, you’re back?” Celeste asked. “So soon?”
“Yes, his girlfriend broke up with him. Didn’t I tell you, Mother?”
“Thank you, Ren. I can speak for myself.”
“Will you ever dispose of that ridiculous nickname?” Katherine asked.
“No,” I told her, point-blank.
Katherine arched an eyebrow at me and then hid it as tea was served.
“Well, tell me what happened,” Celeste said.
“Do you really care?”
“David, of course I care. I met the young woman, and she was on the unrefined side, but she was sweet. She got you to come back home for the first time in years. I do owe her a debt for that.”
Unrefined and sweet. I liked Sutton that way. The last thing I wanted was high-society Sutton. The thought almost made me laugh. Except the laugh was filled with pain and regret. At seeing her pink apron and flour in her hair and knowing it was the end.
“She lost her husband just over a year ago, and she’s not quite ready to date again,” I honestly answered her. My voice grim. “She thought she was. We tried it out. And it turned out that she wasn’t.”
“Tragic,” my mother said. She carefully added a dash of milk to her tea and stirred. “What a horrible loss.”
“Yes. And she has a two-year-old son who she is looking out for.”
“A two-year-old?” my mother nearly gasped.
Katherine must have not told her everything.
“Yes. He’s wonderful actually. But, as you can imagine, her in-laws are not making this easy on her. Her family, while supportive, has high expectations that fall on her shoulders. She carries around a lot of weight, and until she’s free of that, I don’t know that she’ll be ready for a relationship.”
“And you don’t carry around such weight?” she asked carefully.
“It’s different.”
Katherine laughed softly. “Is it?”
Yes, I had a lot of baggage. Holli’s death, my parents’ mess, my biological parents’ drug addiction, and everyone’s expectations for me. But I’d had more time to process that than Sutton had. She hadn’t had a year. I’d had eight and even longer than that for Holli.
I was mad that we were here, at this stage. That I’d put myself on the line for her, and she’d shattered it all. But I wasn’t mad that I loved her or that she’d helped heal me, too. I was actually more pissed that I hadn’t seen it coming. The signs had all been there. Yet I’d let it get to this point.
“Well, are you going to tell me what happened to your face?”
My mother gently touched the bruising on my neck and cheekbone. My back, neck, and ribs still hurt like a bitch, and flying hadn’t really helped.
“I totaled my Ferrari.”
For the first time, I caught both my mother and Katherine completely off guard.
“You did what?” Katherine gasped.
“It was raining, and some poor college student skidded through the light and totaled my car. It’s what sparked this whole mess with Sutton. Her husband had died unexpectedly.”
My mother sipped her tea, thoughtful. She didn’t dare touch one of the pastries. It wasn’t on her diet.
“This is why you should get a driver,” Katherine huffed.
“People don’t have drivers in Lubbock,” I told her.
“Well, they should.”
I refrained from rolling my eyes. If Jensen Wright didn’t have a driver, then no one in Lubbock needed a driver. In fact, Jensen drove a pickup truck. I bet Katherine would be appalled.
My mother reached out and put her hand on mine. “I’m really glad to have you back, David. I know that our relationship has always been a little rocky. But I admire you for the strong, independent man you are. I love that you’ve made a name for yourself on your own. Even if I wanted you here. I love your loyalty and passion and drive. You couldn’t have gotten where you are without it.”
I gawked at my mother. I’d never gotten this many compliments ever, let alone in one sitting.
“But you don’t belong here anymore. You should go back to Lubbock.”
“What?” I asked in shock. “I’m not going back to Lubbock. Didn’t you hear anything I said?”
“Yes. I think you scared this young woman. I think you love her, and you’re afraid. And I find that all perfectly reasonable. But Van Pelts do not run from their problems. We face them.”
“I do love her. But I left for a reason,” I said stubbornly. “I’m not going to just rush back to her. She hasn’t even called me or sent me a text message since I left. Not one. The ball is in her court. Not mine.”
“The ball is never in the woman’s court. Pick up some flowers when you get back into town, and sweep her off her feet.”
“Mother, this doesn’t even sound like you,” Katherine said.
“I don’t want you to come back here out of obligation. If you want to be in New York, I know plenty of people who can set you up in a firm. We can get you an apartment on Fifth. Life will go on as usual. But you don’t want to be here.”
“Well, I am here. And I don’t want a job in a firm or an apartment on Fifth. I want a fresh start. Because I’m not going back to Lubbock. Sutton and I are over. Whether I want it or not.”
I scraped my chair back, already tired of this conversation.
“David, wait,” Celeste said. “Don’t run out of here in a hurry. I want us to be a family again.”
“Then, can we get out of this stuffy room and go eat some real food for lunch? I can’t sustain myself on overpriced tea.”
“Where do you want to go?” Celeste asked with an arched eyebrow.
I laughed and guided them out of the room. It was a couple of blocks before I found what I had been looking for.
“No way,” Katherine said. She looked right and left, as if she couldn’t possibly be seen here.
“Dollar pizza.” I ordered three slices and handed them off to my mother and sister, who looked as if slapping them across the face would be nicer than handing them cheap pizza.
“If anyone sees me with this, I will probably die,” Katherine told me.
“Live a little.” I raised my piece of New York–style pizza in the air, as if I were making a toast. “To family and new beginnings.”
Then, I took a giant bite of the piping hot meal and watched with both surprise and satisfaction as my upscale mom and snooty sister each bit into their own slices.
Having my family back was a dream I’d never envisioned.
And, while this was amazing, a new kind of wonderful, it wasn’t Sutton. I missed her like crazy. And I wondered if a day would ever go by when I didn’t mourn losing her.