Always(Time for Love Book 4)(43)

“Hey, bro,” he said, not bothering to hide his dismal mood.

“Hey,” Connor said. “I take from the tone of your voice you’ve seen the email.”

He sighed gustily, leaning back on his chair and staring at the ceiling. “Does Amanda have any more info on this? Has she heard anything from Bren?”

“No,” Connor answered. “She’s as surprised about this as you are. Bren’s in a meeting, so Amanda hasn’t had the chance to talk to her yet. We’ve actually wondered if Patty misunderstood something and mistakenly assumed that her son had proposed to Bren. If that’s the case, those two have to know what Patty has been planning. This party is happening in a few days.”

Yes. The party was going to be held on the last Saturday of November. It occurred to Ash that he could be nursing a severely broken heart around the holiday period.

“I’ll try to reach Bren,” he said to Connor, more scared than he could remember being in his entire life.

“Let’s us know what she says, okay? And please call your sister. Like right now? She’s worried about how you’re taking this. She said you might be overreacting and thinking the worst.”

Ash smirked mirthlessly. Brenna had not wanted to spend as much time with him lately. If Amanda knew that, would she still think he was overreacting if he said he was anticipating a big, devastating blow to the chest?

“Will do,” he said before saying goodbye to Connor.

*****

“Hi,” Ash said, finally getting hold of Brenna.

“Hi. What’s up?”

“Can we meet tonight?” he asked.

“Oh, honey. You know I can’t. I’m not likely to finish work until about ten at the earliest. We’ve run into so many problems with this conference that we’re so behind. We don’t have a choice but to work overtime so everything goes smoothly when it starts tomorrow.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. Could he wait until tomorrow?

“Ash, what’s wrong?” Brenna asked, sounding nervous.

Something inside him was prodding to ask the ridiculous question of whether Brenna and Darren were truly engaged, and not just pretending. It was a ludicrous notion, but what would be the problem if he did ask it? If Brenna raged against the stupidity of his question, or laughed at it, at least that worst-case scenario would be out of the way and he could start breathing easier.

He sighed. “I want the truth, Bren,” he said quietly. “Give it to me straight, please.”

“What truth?” she whispered.

“Is the engagement thing with Darren true?”

He heard her gasp. “Who told you?” she asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, every nerve ending in his body standing up in fear. “I just want to know if it’s at all true that you and Darren got engaged.”

“Oh, Ash. I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to keep it from you but—”

“So it is true?” he asked, more than shocked. “Bren, this has got to be a joke.”

“Ash, I’m really sorry. When I agreed to pretend that Darren and I are back together, I wasn’t expecting things to get out of hand. But they did. And I couldn’t do anything to turn back the clock. I should have told you earlier, but Darren and I agreed it would better to keep this to ourselves—at least for a while. I meant to tell you tomorrow.”

Ash’s heart shattered into million tiny pieces. At the edge of his consciousness, almost as if he was watching himself from above, he wondered if he’d ever be able to put his life back together again.





CHAPTER SIXTEEN


“Ash,” Brenna whispered, her heart squeezing tight. The last thing she wanted was to hurt him, but it seemed it was all she’d been doing lately. She shouldn’t have agreed with Darren to keep the engagement from Ash and her friends. Now the situation was worse than she’d ever imagined.

“When? How? Where?” Ash asked, almost whispering.

“About three weeks ago at the hospital, when they had to rush Patty there because of complications,” she answered.

“The day we were supposed to be going through the boxes in my garage,” he said, sounding crushed. “Around the time you stopped wanting to stay overnight at my place. I don’t understand this at all, Bren. I thought...”

She heard what sounded like a sniff. Her heart broke at his reaction, tears pricking her eyes. She’d expected that he’d be unhappy with the news, but she never thought he’d be this devastated. “I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you before, Ash. I’ll explain the whole thing later. But we should talk about this in private. I’m in an open-plan office,” she said, surreptitiously dabbing the corner of her eye.

There was silence on the other line.

“Ash? I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“I don’t think I can, Bren.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, her scalp pricking in fear.

“I need some time... I’ll call you,” he said.

“Ash,” she said pleadingly.

“Take care of yourself, Bren.” Then he hung up.

“Ash!” she said sharply. What the hell was that about? It sounded like... goodbye.

No. No!

*****