Brendan had taken to leaving early in the morning, going to the shop before the sun came up, and then going home late. It wasn’t that there was a lot of work to be done there or anything. He just couldn’t sit in that empty house.
It was after seven o’clock when Shep walked into the office.
“You eaten yet?” he asked.
“Nope,” Brendan said, shaking his head.
“Then get your ass up and let’s go,” Shep said.
Brendan didn’t argue. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t hungry; he knew how Shep worked. Shep would station himself in that office until Brendan followed. So he got in Shep’s Mustang and they drove through the pouring rain.
Floppy Flounders had the best hush puppies on the Panhandle, and the second they stepped inside and the smell hit Brendan’s nose, his stomach growled. Shep just smirked at him. The stupid ass thought he knew everything.
Before they were even settled at the table, Shep ordered a pitcher of beer.
“You need a drink?” Brendan asked.
“Nope, but you do,” Shep said as he grabbed his menu and looked at it.
The waitress came back with the pitcher and they ordered their dinner. Shep made small talk and Brendan tried to give more than one-word answers. But it was pretty hard to do. All the while Shep kept filling up Brendan’s glass, ordering two more pitchers. Brendan was pretty sure that Shep had had only two glasses of beer.
“This your plan to get me to talk?” Brendan asked. “Get me tanked?”
“Yup,” Shep said as he poured them both another glass.
“Well, I don’t want to talk about it,” Brendan said.
“Alright, then I’ll talk. Go get her. Go stand on that porch until she comes out and talk to her,” Shep said.
“She doesn’t want to talk.”
“Then make her.”
“I can’t,” Brendan said a little too loudly. The beer was definitely taking effect.
“So you’re just going to give up?” Shep asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You can’t give up on a relationship that you’re in by yourself. She already gave up. She already walked away.”
“You feeling a little sorry for yourself?” Shep asked.
“No, I’m feeling a little drunk and it’s all your damn fault.”
“I’m sorry. Did I miss the part where I poured the beer down your throat?” Shep asked more than a little sarcastically.
“Fuck off,” Brendan said angrily. “I don’t need this bullshit from anyone, especially you.”
“Especially me?” Shep asked slowly.
“When did you become the master on relationship advice? You’re the guy who has a longer relationship with a toothbrush than with an actual woman.”
Shep’s eyes narrowed and he leaned across the table. “Brendan, you’re my friend, and you’re going through a tough time right now, not to mention you’re a little under the influence at the moment, so I’m going to look past the fact that you’re being a total prick when I’m just trying to help your sorry ass.”
“I don’t want your help,” Brendan said, shaking his head.
“Then what do you want?” Shep asked.
“Paige. I want Paige. She’s all I’ll ever want. So it fits that I can’t have her doesn’t it.”
“Wow,” Shep said, leaning back in his seat. “This pity party you got going for yourself is really something.”
“Look, I love her. I love her more than I’ve ever loved anyone. But she walked away.”
“So you’ve said. But that doesn’t mean she won’t come back,” Shep tried to reason.
“I can’t do it, alright. I can’t be with someone who I’m constantly scared is going to leave me. We got married, something that was supposed to be for forever, but she left. She just left,” Brendan said still a little too loud. But he could give a shit if people heard him. He just didn’t care anymore.
“So that’s it?” Shep asked. “It’s done.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I can’t think straight,” Brendan said, defeated. “Can we just go?” he asked.
“Sure,” Shep said.
They paid for their meal and walked outside, smack into Chad Sharp and his two lackeys, Hoyt Reynolds and Judson Coker.
“Well, look who it is,” Chad said and smirked. “Why aren’t you with your wife, King? Oh, that’s right, because she left you.”
“Just walk away,” Shep said to Brendan.
“But it looks like you replaced her,” Chad said, looking at Shep. “I didn’t know you played that way. So who’s the bitch in the relationship?”
Nothing would have been more satisfying than punching the son of a bitch in the face, and it took everything in Brendan to walk away. He stepped around Chad and made his way down the steps to the parking lot, Shep at his side. The rain had let up for the moment, but the air was still thick and wet.
“It was never going to work out anyways, King. It was just a matter of time. There was no way a girl like Paige was ever going to want a useless bastard like you. If your own father didn’t want you, what makes you think a girl like that would? And I’m so glad I could do my part in breaking up the charade. I was the one who saw you at the hospital, King. I was the one that told Bethelda.”
“Fuck,” Shep said, coming to a stop at the same moment that Brendan did. “So close.”
Brendan turned and launched himself at Chad, landing a punch square on his jaw.
* * *
Brendan’s truck wasn’t there. He wasn’t home. It was almost nine o’clock and he wasn’t there. The house was empty and dark, not a single light on.
Paige stared at the big empty house for a moment before she got out of her Jeep. Lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder boomed. The rain had stopped for a little while, but the storm that was coming was going to be bad. She grabbed her bags from the backseat and made her way up the steps carefully in the dark.
When she unlocked and opened the door, she stuck her hand in and flipped the switch. Sydney was standing there, and the moment that Paige was through the door, the dog launched herself at Paige. Sydney ran around Paige in circles, her tail whipping Paige in the leg. Paige dropped her stuff and got down on the ground.
“Hey, pretty girl,” Paige sniffled as she wrapped her arms around the dog. “Where’s your daddy?” she asked as she buried her face in the dog’s fur.
Paige wasn’t exactly sure why she was crying. There was just something about the empty house that had set her off. She was expecting to come back to find Brendan. And how stupid was she? She’d walked out on him and she’d expected him to just be sitting there waiting for her?
Sydney whined, moving so that she could give Paige a big sloppy lick on the cheek.
“I missed you too,” Paige said. “You want to go outside? Before the storm hits?”
Sydney pulled back and bolted for the back door. Paige got up from the floor and followed Sydney, switching on lights as she moved through the house. When she opened the back door Sydney went down the back steps and Paige stayed up on the deck. She had a flashback to the first night that she’d stayed over, the first time she and Brendan had made love.
He was everything to her. Had been for a very long time and she’d almost let it all slip away, possibly had let it slip away. What if he was done? What if she was too late?
Lightning flashed across the sky again and Sydney came back up the steps. They went back inside together and she looked around the empty house, desperate for Brendan to get home.
Paige sat down on the couch, Sydney at her feet. She turned on the TV but it was just noise in the background; she couldn’t pay attention. Where was he?
By ten she couldn’t wait anymore. She picked up the phone and called him. She held her breath as it rang, but it went to voicemail.
“Brendan, it’s me. I’m at the house, and you’re not here. Of course you already know that,” she said stupidly. “I really need to talk to you. I don’t want to tell you
everything in a voicemail, but I’m sorry and I love you. Please come home.”
He was probably out with Jax or Shep. Yeah, that’s where he was. They were out getting a drink. He would come home when he was ready.
Paige eyed her bags that were still by the front door. She’d stopped by the drugstore to buy a home pregnancy test, and this waiting was killing her. She’d planned to take it after she worked everything out with Brendan. But she couldn’t wait any longer. She had to know. She grabbed the bag and went into the bathroom.
She ripped the box open and read the instructions. It said that the best time to take it was in the morning but Paige didn’t care. She couldn’t wait any longer. So she took the test and before she even flushed the toilet the little pink plus sign appeared.
Paige just stared at it, fear and excitement warring with each other, and the desperation in her to fix everything with Brendan brought her to her knees. She wasn’t sure how long she sat on the bathroom floor sobbing, but Sydney came up behind her and pushed her cold snout into Paige’s face.
Paige peeled herself up from the floor and undressed. She found one of Brendan’s T-shirts on the back of the door and put it on before she crawled into bed. She would wait for him there, and when he finally came home, they would talk.
* * *
Brendan looked across the jail cell where Shep was sitting, his feet stretched out before him, leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed. Shep had a split lip, and his left eye already had a pretty dark bruise around it. Brendan had gotten away with a nice little gash across his right cheek and a patchwork of bruises across his ribs.
When Brendan had jumped on Chad, Judson and Hoyt had jumped on Brendan. Shep had of course gotten involved, throwing his own fists around and breaking Hoyt’s nose. But while Shep was dealing with Hoyt, Judson and Chad were on Brendan. Judson was the biggest of the three men, just a little bit bigger than Brendan, and he’d held Brendan back so Chad could get in a few good hits, all of which he’d directed at Brendan’s ribs.
They’d been going at each other for all of about three minutes before a county sheriff truck pulled into the lot, and it hadn’t been Jax behind the wheel. All five of their asses had gotten hauled into the county jail. They’d been booked and were waiting to go up in front of a judge at eight o’clock that morning, which wasn’t for another hour.
Brendan looked out past the bars at the blank wall in front of him. Really, it could have been much worse. Chad, Hoyt, and Judson had been put into a separate cell. Good thing too, because if Brendan had been locked in a room with them for ten hours he would have gotten into another fight.
Neither Brendan nor Shep had called anyone in their family. They’d called a lawyer though. Preston Matthews was one of Grace’s best friends, and his father was a lawyer. In another couple of months they’d be able to call Preston himself as he was in his last semester of law school. But Benjamin Matthews was just as much of a family friend and he’d come down at six that morning to start working things out.
“You still feeling sorry for yourself?” Shep asked.
Brendan turned back to him.
Shep’s eyes were open and he looked just as tired and worn out as Brendan felt. Sleeping in a jail cell was not the most relaxing of experiences.
“Well, it doesn’t really get all that much worse than this,” Brendan said, indicating the room with his hands.
“You probably just jinxed us,” Shep said, shaking his head. “A meteor is going to come crashing through any second.”
“I’m sorry,” Brendan said seriously. “You’re here because of me.”
“Come on. You think I would’ve let you get your ass kicked? I always got your back.” Shep grinned, and then winced because of his lip.
“Thanks, man.”
“You know Jax is going to kill us,” Shep said.
“Oh God, I’m just praying we get out of here before he sees us.”
“Me too. And what are you going to do when we get out? You’ve had almost ten hours to pull your head out of your ass. You still going to stop fighting for her?” Shep asked seriously.
“The thing is, I’ll never stop fighting for her,” Brendan said.
“So last night was just a pity party?’
“Maybe a small one.”
“If this is the result to a small pity party, I don’t want to be around when it’s a big one.”
“I don’t either.”
At that moment Baxter McCoy came up to their cell. Baxter was actually a pretty good friend. He played on the Stingrays with them during the county baseball season.
“I can’t believe you two got arrested,” Baxter said, shaking his head. “But, man, looking at Chad’s ugly face all banged up brings me so much joy I can’t even tell you.”
“What’s going on?” Shep asked.
“Your lawyer wants to talk to you two. He might have worked something out.”
* * *
Thunder shook the house, waking Paige up from a deep sleep. The light coming in the windows was weak and she couldn’t tell what time it was. She sat up in bed and looked over at the clock. It was seven thirty in the morning.
Brendan hadn’t come home.
Paige scrambled out of bed and grabbed her phone on the nightstand. No missed calls. A whole new kind of panic went through her.
Why hadn’t he come home?
She tried calling him again but it didn’t even ring; it just went directly to voicemail.
Why wasn’t he answering his phone?
Paige’s hands started to shake as she scrolled through her phone looking for another number.
“Paige?” Grace said. “Hey, sweetie. I’ve been worried about you.”
“Grace,” Paige said, barely holding back a sob. “I came home last night. I came back to Brendan, and he wasn’t here. He didn’t come home last night, and I—I don’t know what to do,” Paige said before she just broke down.
“Okay, Paige, it’s okay. I’m at my apartment. I’ll be there in five minutes and we’ll go from there, okay. Try calling Shep. I’ll call Jax.”
“Al-alright,” Paige said before she hung up.
She called Shep’s cell phone and it went directly to voicemail. She left a message and then called his house, but after a couple of rings the answering machine picked up. She left another message.
She changed into a pair of shorts, put on a bra, and grabbed a clean T-shirt from Brendan’s drawer before she went into the living room to wait for Grace. Paige let Sydney out and dried her off when she came back in. A couple of minutes later the doorbell rang. Paige went to the door and let in a slightly damp Grace.
“Shep?” Grace asked.
“He didn’t answer the phone.”
“Jax doesn’t know anything. He was working last night and just got off. He was meeting Bennett for breakfast to go over house plans, and Bennett hasn’t heard from them either. They’re going to drive around and look for them.”
“Okay.” Paige nodded as tears streamed down her face.
“Paige, I’m sure he’s fine.”
“Why didn’t he come home?” she asked desperately. “I called him, told him I wanted to fix things, that I was sorry. And he didn’t come home,” she said before she just started bawling again.
“Sweetie,” Grace said, bringing Paige into her arms, “if Brendan didn’t come home last night, I’m sure there is a perfectly good reason. We’ll find him and figure everything out. Come on, grab your stuff. Let’s go down to the shop. I called but no one answered. Maybe he just fell asleep on the couch. He’s slept there a couple of times in the past two weeks.”
“He has?” Paige asked.
“It’s been a little hard for him to be here without you.”
“God, I messed up so bad,” she said miserably.
“Paige, we’re going to get this sorted out. Now go put your shoes on and let’s go.”
Paige did as Grace told her and five minutes later they were heading out the door. Lula Mae’s
SUV was parked next to Paige’s Jeep.
“Where’s your Bug?” Paige asked as they got inside.
“I brought the food to the Abercorn funeral last night, and my Bug wasn’t big enough,” Grace said as she put it in reverse and backed out.
The sky was almost black, and the rain wasn’t heavy, just a steady drizzle. It was the thunder and lightning that was putting on the real show.
“Thank you for coming,” Paige said softly when they got on the road. “I don’t deserve it. Not after how I treated Brendan.”
“Paige,” Grace said, shaking her head, “we all make mistakes. Your father just died. You’re allowed to get a little crazy. I did. When my mom died, I was a mess. And so was Brendan. He’ll understand.”
“But what if he doesn’t?” Paige asked.
“He will,” Grace said firmly. “It’s been two weeks. It would take a lot more than that for him to give up.”
“I hope so,” Paige said, looking down into her lap.
Dear God, she hoped so.
All of a sudden the car jerked and Paige looked up just in time to see Grace swerve to avoid a massive limb that had fallen in the middle of the road. The tires started skidding on the slick pavement and they were sliding off the road. They slammed through a wooden guardrail and down to the river. They hit the water and something stopped the car with a jerk. The airbags deployed, throwing Paige back against the seat. Everything came to a standstill for just a second. There was just that one moment of shock before the panic set it.
“Grace,” Paige said, looking over at the driver’s seat.
Grace was cradling her left arm, clearly in a lot of pain. “I’m okay. It’s just my arm,” she said and gasped.
Paige looked down at her feet, and it was then that she noticed the car was filling up with water. She looked to see if they could get out on her side, but all she could see was a tangle of branches. They were probably the only thing holding the car, and they looked like they weren’t holding them very well. One glance out of the windshield and Paige knew just how in trouble they were. The rain from the past few days had the current of Whiskey River running fast. Paige looked over at Grace’s side and knew that Grace wasn’t going to be able to push that door open. The water was slamming against her side of the car.
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