Beard Necessities (Winston Brothers, #7)(32)

“Oh, I’m not doing that anymore. Jethro is taking it up.” I paired this with an emphatic nod.

My brother’s gaze narrowed and he crossed his arms, continuing to inspect me. “If he’s not being gentlemanly, you need to let me know. He can be a real grumpy asshole sometimes, and I only agreed to all this ’cause Cletus said y’all were in l—”

“Duane!” The door to the nursery opened suddenly, revealing a manically grinning Jessica. “Duane. What are you doing?” She glanced between us.

My brother shifted his glare to his wife. Though it softened, just a little, the unhappy turn to his mouth didn’t budge. “Jess, someone has to look out for Claire in all this. And you know how Billy can be, taciturn and such. Plus, I’m not sure Cletus is right about—”

Jessica wrapped her hands around my arm and tugged me inside the nursery. “Shut your big, gossipy mouth, Duane Faulkner,” she ordered, releasing me and then stepping back to her husband to wrap her arms around his neck, “or I’ll shut it for you.”

The side of his mouth hitched up and his hands came to her bottom in what looked like an automatic movement. “Go ahead, princess,” he taunted quietly. “Shut me up.”

I saw Jess’s grin in profile, her brown eyes on her husband’s mouth. “Do me a favor, Claire. Close this door.”

I nodded, swiftly shutting the door just as the married couple’s lips met, but was careful to do so silently; I didn’t want to wake the baby. Turning, I faced a smiling Sienna, her eyes dancing as she inspected the door, and then me.

“They’re too cute,” she said, patting the arm of the chair next to her. “Come. Sit with me. Enjoy baby cuddles and my sparkling personality.”

Laughing a nervous laugh, I did as instructed. But I didn’t know what to do with my hands so I tucked them under my legs.

Sienna watched me as I settled myself. I felt her gaze tracking my movements the whole time, and as soon as I lifted my attention to hers, she said, “So, you and Billy, huh?”

I flinched, a lightning bolt of something—amazement? Shock?—making me sit straighter, my mouth dropping open stupidly. “I—I—I—”

“Billy is the guy? The one you were in love with?”

“How—how—”

“So, tell me about that. He was in love with you too, right?”

“How did you find out?” I blurted, finally saying the thing my brain needed me to say.

Sienna shrugged, a small smile on her lips. “You let it slip while you were drunk.”

Before I quite knew what was happening, I said, “It wasn’t his fault. I lied to him, he didn’t know I was married.”

She made a face, her lips flattening. “Come on. He thought you were engaged, right? He knew you were with someone else. If it’s about fault, you’re both equally to blame. Unless you’re some secret mastermind, manipulating people and pulling their strings from behind the scenes, you can’t take credit for everything. Start from the beginning.”

“The beginning?”

“Yeah. When you came back to Green Valley.”

“Uh, okay.”

Wait. Am I doing this?

I tucked my hair behind my ears, staring forward, my brain stuttering. Am I really doing this? Am I telling Sienna the whole story?

“Claire,” she said, drawing my attention and ensnaring my likely terrified gaze with her compassionate one. “This is a judgment-free zone. I think you’re fabulous, even after everything you told me while drunk. I just want to know you better. Maybe talking about it will help.”

“Did you tell Jethro? What I told you?”

“No, not a word. I told him that you and I talked about some deeply personal topics, but I wasn’t at liberty to share. He seemed relieved that you were finally talking to someone. Claire, Jethro cares about you. Let us help. Okay?”

I nodded, my worry easing the longer I gazed into her kind eyes, and decided to commit. I would tell her. I will tell her everything.

“Okay, so—um—I guess we’ll start with the night of my engagement party—that was May 2007.” Starting there made the most sense. Then I could ignore all the drama surrounding Billy impregnating his high school girlfriend before I left, which was more or less why we hadn’t been in contact after I ran away at fourteen.

Besides, that was Billy’s business—how Samantha Cooper had told him the night before I’d left town, how he’d decided to marry her and cut off all communication with me, and how she’d lost the baby before the truth of it was widely known—none of which was my secret to share.

“May 2007, got it.” Sienna nodded once. “What happened?”

“After the party was over, Ben took me to the jam session at the community center. The jam session hadn’t been a thing when I was growing up, it was new, and Ben wanted me to see it.” I swallowed, surprised at how easy this was to talk about; now that I’d started, I couldn’t seem to stop myself. “We arrived at the community center, Ben greeted old friends, introducing me as his fiancée. Most folks just thought I was some girl, not the runaway Scarlet St. Claire. They didn’t even remember her.”

“How odd.”

“Ben was talking to his old football friends and I was standing there, not having anything to contribute, and then I heard Billy’s voice.”