Page 66 of Luke

“You seem chipper,” Luke commented as they knocked on Ryker and Catherine’s door.

“I’m not. I’m just . . . I don’t even know anymore. I think I’m too tired to be angry.”

The door opened and they followed Ryker inside the house. They weren’t there long, just enough to go over contingency plans and to let them know that Paisley and Garrett would be over when Carter and Ashley left.

“Be careful,” Catherine told them as they headed out.

“We will. This is just a formality, and he’s probably faking it to start some new problem,” Luke told her.

Catherine hugged them both. Luke awkwardly accepted it and they were on the road.

“Did they say his condition?” Luke asked.

“It was too soon to tell. They called paramedics and they had just left when they called me. It’s probably been close to an hour now, so the hospital might be calling before we get there.” Cade kept his gaze on the road.

“Do you think he’s faking?” Luke needed to get all his thoughts out, and unfortunately for Cade, he was stuck in the car with him.

“Honestly, no. I don’t see how this serves any purpose that doesn’t make him look weak.”

Strangely, that made sense. “Have you told your mother?”

“No. And I don’t know when or if we will. I’ll talk to Catherine when we get back, but I don’t know how that will go. She seems to be doing better without him around.”

“Might be a conversation for her doctors in the mental hospital then. Just keep yourselves out of it.”

“I don’t talk to her at all, so it won’t be me. Catherine talks to her some, but those are few and far between. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to forgive her.”

Luke could understand that. Their mother had enabled everything their father had done to try to destroy them. Then, Luke had his own hand in it. “What about me?”

“What about you?” Cade quickly glanced at him in confusion.

“I helped our father, too.”

“You’re different. When things went too far, you backed out and tried to make it right. I think that if you’d had you had the whole story from the beginning, things would have been different. Mother doesn’t even have any remorse. She doesn’t care at all.”

Luke grunted to acknowledge he’d heard him but didn’t speak. He wanted to believe Cade but wondered if one day his actions would come back to haunt him. Would Cade suddenly decide he was done with Luke? If he did, Luke wouldn’t blame him.

“Stop brooding. That’s my specialty,” Cade interrupted his thoughts.

Unable to resist, Luke laughed. “I thought it was Ryker’s.”

“No. He’s the scary one. I’m the broody one.” He grinned at his own joke. “But stop. I am not mad at you, really. And that’s not going to change. I want to put this all behind us, and for that to happen, I need you to understand that I don’t hold any of it against you.”

“I lied though. Hell, I wouldn’t even have met Paisley if I hadn’t been following his orders. Can’t say I regret that one, though.”

“You shouldn’t. Just move on. You’re family and we will stick together as siblings, no matter whose parent did what. Even Mother isn’t totally to blame here because he was definitely manipulating her long before we were old enough to realize it, but I can’t let it go. I don’t think it even matters to her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Catherine says she’s doing better but she’s not all there. Like, she’s nice again, less harsh, less meek, but she is still out of touch with reality. Catherine said the doctors told her she doesn’t fully understand where she is or why.”

“Isn’t that more of a reason to go see her and, as you said, let it go?”

Cade was stoic, staring at the road ahead. Luke had probably gone too far by using his own words back on him, but it was true. Besides, they were almost there, so if Cade didn’t talk to him for now, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

“I’ll think about it,” Cade conceded as they got off the highway and finished the drive to the hospital.

Chapter Twenty-Nine