Page 6 of Twice in a Lifetime

I curled my lips between my teeth to keep from laughing and ended up making a sound like a choked snort. “You deserved it,” I said, still refusing to apologize all these years later.

His jaw hinged open in affront. “It was the night before yearbook photos! I still get triggered to this day if someone pulls out that yearbook. I looked deranged, for Christ’s sake.”

A giggle forced its way past my lips. “That was payback for the Toby McGinnis debacle.”

He threw his arms up in defense. “I was trying to help you out! He wanted to know if I thought he should ask you to the Homecoming dance, and I thought I was doing you both a favor by telling him to wait a week because you had PMS and were moody as hell.”

I shot him a blank look. “You told him I hadHPV, you dill hole.”

“You know I got confused by all those acronyms. And don’t act like I wasn’t doing you a favor. You couldn’t stand Toby, and there was no way in hell you wanted to go to the dance with him.” He held his hands up in a stop motion and gave his head a shake. “Wait... I’m not having this argument again. You’re just trying to change the subject from the fact that you’re stressing out major about something.”

“I’m not?—”

The face he made cut my denial short. Gone was the little brother who I might have enjoyed tormenting as a kid, and in his place was a cop who wasn’t in the mood to take any shit.

“Don’t bother lying. I already know you’re keeping something from me because more than one person told me they saw you walking into Alpha Omega yesterday.”

Son of a bitch. I should have known it was only a matter of time until that juicy tidbit got out. I’d been gone too long and forgot that there really weren’t any secrets in a small town.

The look on Tristan’s face was a mixture of concern and hurt, and maybe a little disappointment. “I haven’t pushed because I knew you were going through some tough shit, but you’ve been here for months, Blythe. It’s time for you to tell me what’s going on.”

As I looked up into my little brother’s eyes, a wave of guilt crashed over me. He was right. It was time I told him the truth.

Chapter Four

Blythe

Idecided the best approach was to treat it as though I was ripping off a Band-Aid. Just spit it out and get it over with.

“Elliott was having an affair.”

Tristan had been in the process of pouring himself a cup of coffee and jerked in shock at my announcement, sloshing the piping hot liquid over the lip of the mug and onto his hand.

“Shit!” He set the mug down with athunkand shook the scalding liquid off his hand, a string of colorful curses streaming past his lips as I wet a rag at the sink.

“Christ, B. Warn a guy, why don’t you?”

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly as I took his hand and placed the cold, damp cloth on his red skin. “I didn’t think you’d have that big a reaction. You okay?”

He took the rag from me and wrapped it around his fist. “It’s fine. I’ve had worse. And you didn’t think I’d have a big reaction to the fact my sister’s husband—the father of my nieces and nephew—was screwing around on her?”

I heaved out a sigh, my shoulders dipping. It felt like all I was doing lately was sighing and slumping my shoulders in defeat. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to screw up my posture permanently. I moved to the barstool Ainsley had vacated and collapsed onto it, bracing my elbows on the counter and scrubbing at my face with my hands.

“B?” Tristan asked, concern laced through his tone.

I looked up just as he rounded the island to take the stool beside mine. He held his cup of coffee in one hand and slid another cup in front of me, doctored up just the way I liked it based on the rich toffee color of the liquid.

“You already know he wasn’t alone in the car the night of the crash.”

Tristan nodded his head. It had been a tragedy that had taken two lives. My husband’s and the life of the woman in the passenger seat beside him.

“He told me he was going out of town for a conference, so I’d assumed she was a colleague from the university. Another professor in his department or something.”

He drank from his cup, his eyes riveted to the side of my face as I stared into my own, twirling it around on the counter. “I’m guessing she didn’t work with him?”

I gave my head a shake. “I found out during the wake.” I could still remember the confusion on Bryan’s face, the head of Elliott’s department, when I’d mentioned the conference. How he shook his head, his eyes full of pity as he reached out to take my hand and tell me I must have been confused, there was no conference, and Elliott had put in for PTO the week he’d been out of town. I still remembered the condescending pat he’d given my hand, like I was just a bereaved widow whose imagination was running away from her before moving on to offer his condolences to Elliott’s mother and father.

I’d walked around in a daze after that, my mind spinning out of control. I barely remembered anything that happened after that, running on autopilot as I tried to wrap my mind around what I heard. I was such a mess that it had taken two days for what Bryan said to fully sink in.