"But—"
"So I did. End of story." I forced another laugh. "Bad for you, huh?"
"No. I mean, yes. Wait…"
I didn't stick around to hear what she was going to say next.I was done talking.And the truth was, I hadn't meant to tell her any of this.
During the months we'd been together, she'd asked plenty about my family. It was a sore subject, and maybe I'd done a sorry job of explaining why it still pissed me off –andwhy I didn't want to sully a good thing by dwelling on something so bad.
Still, I should've done better.If nothing else, I should've mentioned Willow. But that was a sore subject of its own.
And hey, what's done was done, right?
When I backed my truck out of the driveway, Arden was still standing in the open doorway, looking too stunned to move.
And me – I sped off, and didn't look back.
Chapter 65
Arden
At the crew house, Waverly was saying, "Why doyoucare? It won't beyourkitchen."
She was right. It wouldn't be.
But I wasn't obsessing over the kitchen. I was obsessing over Brody.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what he'd told me yesterday – that basically both of his parents had abandoned him – cripes, abandonedallof them – while Brody had still been a minor.
The whole thing was incredibly sad. And now, in hindsight, I couldn’t help but wonder about so many other things I'd assumed, even back in high school.
Back then, Brody had missed a ton of classes. I'd always figured he was just a classic cut-up. And then, after accidentally torching his truck, I'd figured he was out mowing lawns during school hours because he valued cash over his education.
But now, come to find out, he'd been dealing with problems a lot worse thanI'dever faced.
In the crew house, Waverly was still talking. "So it just seems to me, you're getting all worked up for nothing."
She had no idea.
Today was Saturday, which meant I had the whole day off. I'd spent most of the morning in my bedroom, and had only emerged at noon because I'd thought the house was empty.
No such luck.
I'd found Waverly at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and – judging from her computer screen – shopping for new luggage.
As if she didn't have enough already.
I'd been hoping she'd simply ignore me. But she hadn't. Instead, she'd surprised the heck out of me by asking why I looked so depressed.
Like a total sap, I'd felt compelled to give her at leastsomeanswer. So I'd briefly mentioned my concerns about Brody's kitchen, specifically Miss LaRue's plans to replace the current cabinets with something totally unworkable.
In reply to her latest statement, I said, "Yeah, but doesn't Brody deserve a kitchen he can actually use?"
"Oh, chill out," she said. "If it's unworkable, he'll rip it out and start over. The guy's totally loaded. He can do whatever he wants."
She was right, of course. Brody had the moneyandthe expertise.
He was smart, too, which made his recent decision about the cabinets all the more confusing.
