Chapter Thirteen
Alec welcomed the breeze on his face once Hunter closed the door behind them. Box checked, but those twenty minutes were the least comfortable he’d spent in that kitchen, ever.
“That was weird.” Colby twisted in the passenger seat beside him as he backed out of the driveway.
Alec didn’t respond. Hunter had been Hunter, raising valid concerns and having trouble dealing with something he couldn’t control. Nothing weird about that.
“I’ve never seen Sara so fired up.” Colby stared out the window. “Do you think she’s started hormone treatments again?”
Alec shrugged. Apparently living with his father’s outbursts had desensitized him to anger. Right now, though, worrying about his parents’ marriage took precedence over Sara and Hunter. It was one thing for Alec to fight with his dad over Colby. Quite another if his father perceived his own wife as betraying him.
“You’re quiet,” Colby said when he didn’t respond.
“It’s been a busy twenty-four hours.” He glanced at her, thinking about what other fallout they might face. “Hunter raised a good point about the staff.”
Alec would rather keep quiet, at least for a while. She’d already weakened his authority with the praise she insisted he dole out. Once the staff got wind of their relationship, his authority would be more diluted.
She bit her lip while thinking. “When people try to hide personal relationships at work, it usually backfires. Secretiveness adds another layer of stress and makes the couple more gossip-worthy.” Her voice wavered a bit. “Let’s be open. But we shouldn’t flaunt it, either.”
He disagreed. Privacy and secretiveness weren’t the same thing. Privacy would allow them to explore the relationship in peace. But he’d promised to be patient and to make her happiness his priority, so what could he say?
“You’re the boss.” He had to remember that, because lately the restaurant had started to feel like theirs instead of hers. The lines were blurring, and blending their personal and professional relationship would make them even fuzzier, validating Hunter’s concerns. He needed to keep the peace there, because that job was the key to reclaiming his reputation. And his reputation might help him earn his father’s respect.
“Maybe I’m the boss there, but not here. If you disagree with me, be honest.”
The gravity of her tone snagged his attention. Had Mark made her feel like she couldn’t speak up? Did it matter? Because in this particular case, there was no way to separate the girlfriend from the boss. If he disagreed with his girlfriend, he’d be asking his boss to change her decision about how to handle her staff.
“It’s your restaurant. If you want to announce it, that’s fine.”
She raised her brows. “It won’t undermine you?”
“Do you want me to talk you out of it?” He glanced at her, gauging her.
“No. I think it’s important to be open, with others and each other.”
Okay, then. He’d suck it up and deal with the staff’s snickering. As far as being open with her, nothing he was keeping to himself had anything to do with his feelings for her, so he saw no purpose in burdening her with his bullshit. “Then why are we still discussing it?”
She leaned on the center console and stared at him. “You seem edgy.”
Yeah, well, she’d be edgy, too, if she’d seen his father’s pain tonight, or witnessed him storming off.
“It’s been a long day.” He pulled up to her mother’s house, torn between wanting her to come over and needing to check on his mother. “I’ve got a splitting headache. Do you mind if we call it a night?”
She frowned. “Are you sure you’re not upset about Hunter?”
“I promise I’m not upset about Hunter.” Gratefully, he could answer that much with 100 percent honesty. “Will you go back to the city?”
“I think I’ll swing by my dad’s first. I might as well share our news with the whole family at once, plus it’ll give me a chance to talk to Gentry about Jake.”
Gentry seemed like a woman who could handle herself without Colby’s interference. “Did something happen?”
“Not yet, but I’d rather prevent a disaster than wait until it’s too late.”
Of course she would. She’d always hated seeing anyone hurt. Someone like Colby should’ve been spared having to suffer the disaster he could’ve prevented. “Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”
“I’ll call you on my drive home.” Colby leaned across the seat and kissed him. It’d take weeks for him to get used to that.
“Sorry to bail. I’ll see you in the morning.” He cupped her face and kissed her deeper, determined to convince her that he was worth her esteem. “Bye.”
“Feel better.” She smiled before exiting the car and climbing into her own. He watched her drive off before going next door to his parents’.
The porch lights were off even though it was getting darker. Tension coiled in his gut as he approached the front door. He knocked before entering. “Mom?”
He wandered from room to room, finding no one. Uneasiness stole through him, but nothing appeared to be broken—at least nothing inanimate.
Colby found her sister lounging in the hot tub with a Moscow mule in one hand and the stereo remote in the other. A pulsing beat and high-pitched vocals blared from the speakers.
“Can you turn that down?” Colby edged a corner of the lounge chair closer to the hot tub.
Gentry lowered the volume. Nodding toward the icy pitcher on the table, she asked, “Want a drink?”
“No, thanks.”
“Your loss.” Gentry’s free hand tapped out the beat on the slate around the hot tub. She’d piled her auburn hair on top of her head and fastened it with some bejeweled hair sticks.
When Colby had been twenty-five, she hadn’t had time for Monday-night hot-tub cocktails. She’d already graduated from law school, been approaching her first wedding anniversary, and just received Mark’s bipolar I diagnosis. It hadn’t been all roses, but she’d had purpose and meaning in her life, and she’d still believed that the love she and Mark felt for each other would be enough.
Hardship had forced personal growth. And no matter how broken Colby might still feel, she’d learned that she was a survivor. But Gentry? She’d never been tested, and Colby wondered how her sister would fare when confronted by real hardship.
“What brings you by?” Gentry’s toes broke through the water. “Dad’s not home.”
“I came to see you.”
Gentry raised a brow. “Something wrong?”
Her sister’s defensive reflexes exhausted Colby, although in this case they were justified. “Must you always jump to negative conclusions?”
“So you came to hang out?” Gentry’s sardonic delivery called Colby out.
“Not exactly,” she admitted. “I wanted to talk, that’s all.”
“I sense a lecture.” Gentry sank deeper into the water, steam rising up to curl her hair. “I don’t need another person telling me that my life is on the fast track to nowhere.”
“That’s not why I came.” Not exactly, anyway.
“If this is about my ‘loser’ boyfriend, don’t start. If you need to report back to Dad that you talked to me, go ahead. I’ll pretend I’m thinking seriously about what you said.” Gentry leaned her head back and closed her eyes, dismissing Colby.
Perhaps a few confessions of her own might help Colby sneak past Gentry’s armor. “Alec and I have decided to date.”
Gentry shot up, water sluicing everywhere, brilliant green eyes wide and sparkling with mischief. She raised her copper mug in the air before taking a gulp and said, “To Colby Cabot-Baxter breaking a rule.”
“Ha-ha,” Colby smirked, although her sister’s silliness could be infectious at times.
“I knew you liked him the second you snapped at me for saying he was hot.” Gentry broke into a shit-eating grin before drinking more of her cocktail. “You’ve always sucked at hiding things.”
“That’s not true.” The words escaped before she’d thought better of them.
“Oh, please. Your face is an open book.” Gentry set the empty cup down and wiggled her eyebrows. “Easier to read than comic strips.”
The dismissive tone grated.
“Gentry, trust me.” Colby leaned forward, holding her sister’s smug gaze. “I’ve hidden a lot from people.”
Gentry swam across the hot tub and rested her chin on her hands along the edge near Colby’s feet. “Cheat on a high school paper? Double-bill a client once? Shoplift a candy bar?”
“No!” Colby laughed. “I said I keep secrets, not commit crimes.”
“Well, spit it out. You can’t make that claim without offering proof.” Gentry flicked some water at Colby’s legs, causing Colby to scoot back.
Bonding would require her to be vulnerable. To take another leap she’d been resisting. If she could save her sister heartache down the road, it’d be worth it. And if she wanted to be convincing, she might as well drop a bombshell. “I had a troubled marriage. Now I’m not sure I know how to have a healthy relationship.”
Gentry’s face sobered. She pushed away from the wall and latched on to the other side of the hot tub, putting distance between them. Apparently, her sister was equally uncomfortable with intimacy. “Troubled?”
“Yes.”
“You and Mark were always affectionate.” Gentry’s distrustful gaze narrowed. “He bragged about you all the time.”
“In front of others, yes. But in private, we had problems. Big ones. I even consulted a divorce attorney.”
Colby could practically see the cogs spinning in Gentry’s head. “Because of the stupid dare with Joe?”
“No, because Mark . . .”
Gentry waited. “Mark what?”
Colby glanced at her wedding band, still unused to its new home on her right hand.
“Cheated.” A true, if incomplete, explanation. One that allowed the conversation to continue without sharing Mark’s diagnosis and inviting dozens more questions. “He made me wary, and lonely.”
Gentry grew very quiet and then sank beneath the water. When she came back up for air, she asked, “Did you ever tell anyone else?”
“Never.”
“Why not?”
Good question, Colby thought. “I didn’t want the family to turn on him in case we worked it out.”
“What’s to work out?” Gentry’s derision smacked Colby upside the head. “I’d never put up with someone cheating on me.”
Colby’s first instinct was to get angry at her sister’s insensitive comment. But Colby would’ve thought the same thing before her marriage to Mark. Youthful ideals are easy to believe until you’re faced with tough choices involving love, disappointment, and commitment. “You’d be surprised what you might forgive under a given set of circumstances.”
“Were you fighting about divorce when he . . . you know.” She mimicked a dive, which shocked Colby into holding her breath for a second.
“No!” Breathe.
The haunting look Mark had given her over his shoulder just before he took flight surfaced, but Colby shook her head before the rest of the memory formed.
She fell speechless, having not expected this turn of conversation. The tight band of pain cinching her chest would be worth it if this discussion helped Gentry to be more thoughtful about her relationships. Now she’d have to navigate from Mark to Jake without Gentry clamming up.
“Joe’s death—the dare—drove Mark into a serious depression. The fact I was thinking of leaving him probably amplified his hopelessness. He acted so suddenly—no note—so I’ll never know for sure what he was thinking.” A flickering image of his forlorn gaze resurfaced. “It haunts me. It always will.”
“That sucks.” Gentry looked down at the water bubbling around her body, lost in her own thoughts. “No wonder you checked out around here for a while. So why tell me this now?”
“Because you’re my sister. We can’t get back all the years our mothers didn’t foster our relationship in the past, but we can start now. Talk about things sisters discuss, like boyfriends.” Colby intentionally lightened her tone now, getting to the heart of the matter. “Like Alec and Jake. Tell me about Jake.”
“What’s to tell?” Gentry shrugged one shoulder. “You’ve met him. He’s sexy and I’m having fun, like I told you before.”
“So he’s fun?” Colby leaned forward. “In what way? I haven’t heard him say much.”
“He’s better at using his mouth for other things,” Gentry snickered, taking obvious pleasure in shocking Colby.
“I’m serious.” No wonder their dad was exasperated.
“So am I!” Gentry laughed. “What’s the big deal?”
“I guess I worry that he might be using you to drum up business and to buy him stuff.”
“That’s okay, ’cause I’m using him for sex.” The casual remark rolled off her tongue as easily as “please” and “thank you.”
“Gentry!”
“Listen, I appreciate the sisterly-love thing you’re going for here, but you really don’t need to worry about someone taking advantage of me.” Under her breath, she added, “I’m not you.”
As if anyone would confuse them. “That sounds like an insult.”
“It’s not . . . but you did rush into a marriage with a guy you’d only known a few months, which I’d never do. And you have to admit you’ve let people like your mom manipulate you a lot. I’m not interested in smoothing things over and avoiding conflict. I look out for myself ’cause no one else does.”
Colby gestured around the mansion and pool area, galled. “Says the girl who’s living in this place free and clear.”
Gentry’s emerald eyes looked fathomless and pitying. “Did your money and pretty condo make Mark look out for you?”
Another shrill pop song frayed Colby’s nerves while she collected her thoughts. She stared at her sister—who sat amid the steam still billowing into the sky—unable to respond.
“No?” Gentry gloated in the face of Colby’s silence. “Didn’t think so.”
Colby wanted to knock that chip off Gentry’s shoulder more than she needed to defend herself, so she kept calm. “Why are you attacking me?”
“Because you’re judging me.”
“No, I’m not. I’m worried about you.”
“Then stop projecting your baggage onto me. Trust me, I respect myself too much to be taken for a ride I’m not willing to go on.”
“You think I don’t respect myself?” Colby’s thoughts raced.
“Your words.” Gentry shrugged.
“I see. So because I tried to honor the commitment I made to a man I once loved deeply, I’m weak and insecure?” Colby wanted to scream, but that would give her sister the satisfaction of having baited her into a fight.
“All I’m saying is that I don’t need anyone’s approval, okay? So chill! I’m not planning a future with Jake. I like living in the moment and being independent. You might give it a try if you don’t want Alec to get bored and cheat on you, too.”
Her sister’s cruel remark tipped Colby off the edge. Gentry had opened the door to some harsh reality, so now Colby would force her through it. “You pretend well, I’ll give you that, but you’re full of crap, Gentry.”
“How would you know? Like you said, it’s not like we’ve ever been super close.”
That retort sounded depressingly like Jenna.
“You don’t exactly make it easy. And since you’re so eager to judge and insult me, here’s a little truth for you. We both know you’re dating Jake to piss Dad off. And if you were actually as independent as you claim, you’d be living on your own instead of here with your parents, for whom you have such contempt. But that’s the rub, isn’t it? You’re stuck here because you’re intimidated. It’s easier to mock all of us than to risk failing at something, or risk getting close to someone. So go ahead and say I’m easily manipulated if it makes you feel better, but at least I went out and did something with my life. And maybe I failed at marriage, but at least I took a chance. As for Alec getting bored, he prefers grown-ups to children, as proven by the way he politely rejected all your flirtations.” Colby stood, fists on her hips. “How’s that for smoothing things over?”
“Nice.” Gentry got out of the hot tub and dried off. She lifted the pitcher off the table. “Let’s see how long it takes before you feel guilty for unloading how you really feel about me.”
She started to leave, then glanced over her shoulder. “By the way, I quit. You’re just too intimidating for me to handle.” She snorted and scurried up the steps into the house, leaving Colby with nothing but some truly bad music.
Colby waited for the guilt to bunch up in her gut, just as Gentry had predicted. When it didn’t form any kind of knot, she stared up at heaven. If Mark was watching her now, what would he think about who the person she’d become? Would he feel sorry about how he’d hurt and changed her?
Then again, Gentry had to learn not to start something she couldn’t finish. No matter how weak others might think Colby for her willingness to compromise and forgive, she knew it took more strength to do that than to run away. She’d lost sight of that these past couple of years, though. Maybe she’d just needed this reminder.