That was enough for me.
Fifteen minutes later, my headlights landed on him. My brother, the man who always looked untouchable was walking through the wet grass on the side of the road in his expensive suit and shiny shoes. I swung the truck into a U-turn, pulled up beside him, and he climbed in without a word.
He didn’t explain. I didn’t push. I just drove.
When Harmony Haven came into view, I turned toward Fiddlers. They closed early on Sundays. The lot was empty. It felt like neutral ground and he said he needed a drink.
West didn’t argue when I parked around back. Just nodded at Blue’s old car sitting by the door. “She’s not here,” he said.
I shot a text to Miles.
Get your ass to Fiddlers. West needs us.
A thumbs-up came back seconds later.
Inside, the silence pressed heavy. It was strange being in the bar when it was closed, like we were sneaking in after hours. I went behind the counter, grabbed a bottle of West’s favorite bourbon, and poured him a drink.
Sliding the glass toward him, I waved the bottle. “You’ll need to take this off the inventory. Or should I tell your lovely wife?”
He shot me a glare sharp enough to cut. Which was exactly what I wanted, because if West Brooks was glaring at me, he wasn’t hiding anymore.
“It isn’t real,” he mumbled finally. “I practically blackmailed her to marry me. I needed her to land a deal with a guy out of Texas.”
I nodded slowly. He lifted his head like he thought maybe I hadn’t heard him, ready to say more when the back door creaked open.
Miles stepped in, all easy charm, grinning like he hadn’t just walked into the middle of a storm. “What’s going on?”
“You haven’t missed much,” I said, pouring him a drink. “West finally admitted what Blue’s little role really was.”
Miles sat beside him, unbothered, took the glass, and nodded. “Oh. Okay.”
West’s eyes went wide, darting between us. “What do you mean, ‘oh okay?’”
Miles sipped his bourbon.
“He means,” I cut in, “we already knew. You’re just now saying it out loud.”
“What do you mean you knew?” West demanded, like it was some kind of betrayal.
“We mean,” Miles said calmly, mimicking my tone, “we already knew.”
The look on West’s face nearly made me laugh. Did he really think he’d fooled us? Maybe he had the whole town spun in circles, but not us. Not the ones who’d grown up under the same roof, who’d learned the weight of his silences and the lies he told himself.
He asked, almost daring us, “If you knew, why didn’t you say anything?”
I shrugged. “Just because you were trying to fool us doesn’t mean you weren’t fooling yourself.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
WEST
The secondI walked twenty steps from Blue’s house, I regretted it.
From the outside, I probably looked like a toddler throwing a tantrum the way I was storming off, slamming doors, daring anyone to follow me. But inside? It felt like I’d just torn myself away from the girl that wanted me to stay. The girl who kept begging me to ignore the fire sirens, the girl who convinced a dumb sixteen year old that sex was more important than family.
Blue wasn’t Brittany. I knew that. My issues with Blue’s sister weren’t even her sister’s fault. She was just tethered to a moment I regretted more than any other. But walking away had felt… cathartic. Like bleeding poison out of a wound. For the first time in years, maybe I’d been healing something I thought would always stay broken.
I just hated that Blue got hurt in the process. That I couldn’t explain any of it.
