The Lemon Sisters (Wildstone #3)(88)

That was when his phone buzzed across his nightstand with an incoming text. Ignoring it in only the way a male could, he carried on with the kids. But when the phone went off for a second time in quick succession, Mindy glanced at it to make sure it wasn’t an emergency.

It was a text from Ethan: Hey, man, the divorce came through. Cookie wants to celebrate for a few days in Mexico to unwind. We bought last-minute flights. You don’t mind, right?

She must have made a sound, because Linc turned toward her and the smile died on his face. “What is it?”

“Millie, why don’t you go to Daddy’s desk and play office with your brothers?”

Playing “office” at Daddy’s desk was one of Millie’s very favorite things, and she looked thrilled.

Linc, not so much, since his office would look like a tornado had hit it when they were done, but he didn’t say a word as the kids ran out with great enthusiasm. His gaze never left Mindy’s as he came close. “What’s wrong?”

She held out his phone. “Ethan left you a message.”

Linc skimmed it and set the phone down without a word.

“Are you kidding me?” Mindy asked. “The divorce came through? I didn’t even know he and Suzanne were getting one.”

He let out a breath. “Suzanne bailed on him a few months ago and filed.”

“So she finally grew a spine and kicked her Peter Pan husband out, and good riddance. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t tell me. And who’s Cookie?”

“His new girlfriend.”

“Oh my God,” she gasped, staring at her husband in shock. “You’re covering for him. Again. You’ve been doing it since he came along when you were four years old.”

Linc’s expression was stoic but steady. “You know he’s had problems. Our mom—”

“Died when he was five,” she finished for him. “And you were nine. You were just as vulnerable, Linc. Just as hurt. And yet you became a functioning adult, a doctor, for God’s sake, who takes his responsibilities so seriously it’s sometimes a detriment to yourself and your relationships.”

“He’s a doctor, too,” Linc said quietly.

“Thanks to you.” Mindy shook her head and backed away. “Listen, you’re never going to see this my way, so—”

“You’d do anything for Brooke.”

She stared at him, feeling tears fill her eyes. “Not fair. You know damn well I failed her. That I let her flounder after her accident because my own feelings were hurt. You’d never do that to Ethan.”

Linc reached for her, but she held up a hand. “No. Listen, I get it, I get why you’d go to the ends of the earth for Ethan. I do. He’s your brother. But he always comes first, ahead of us.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

“This isn’t on Ethan. Or even you. It’s on me for not realizing where I stood in the lineup of your life. I’m not your number one. Or even your number two. It goes Ethan, then work, and then me and the kids. Sometimes I think you bought me the shop just to keep me too busy to miss you.”

“Okay, I can see how you got there,” he admitted. “But—”

“And not just about Ethan and the trip, or the shop,” she said. “All my life, I’ve been a people-pleaser. My parents. You. The kids. Everyone. And in hindsight, I think that’s why I cracked.” She drew in a deep breath. “I love you, Linc, but I don’t want to be anyone’s number three.”

“Mindy,” he said, low and serious. “I heard you, believe me. Please, just give me a few minutes to fix this.”

She let her eyes drift closed for a beat, because she had babies with this man. She had a life with this man whom she loved. And she did love him, so very, very much. He wouldn’t be able to hurt her so badly if she didn’t.

“Trust me?” he asked.

She wanted to, desperately. So she nodded, and leaving him to do whatever he was going to do, she went straight to the guesthouse.

Brooke wasn’t there. Whirling, she strode across the yard to Garrett’s house and knocked on the door.

He answered wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else. He had bedhead hair, no shirt, no socks, and a bite mark on his neck. “I need to talk to my sister,” she said.

“She’s not here.”

She stared at him as the implications of the bite mark not being Brooke’s ignited her temper.

Still raw from her fight with Linc, she stabbed a finger into Garrett’s pec. “Tell me you’re not sleeping around on my sister.”

“No. Never,” he said, catching her hand. “And ow.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “She’s with your kids. They just left for doughnuts because apparently you were very busy yelling at Linc. You didn’t kill him, did you? Do you need help hiding his body?”

At that, she burst into tears.

Looking deeply pained, Garrett pulled her in for a hug. She clung for a moment, taking comfort in the embrace of one of her oldest friends before she leaned back and swiped at her eyes. “You’d help me hide his body?” she asked soggily.

“Yes.”

“Would you help him hide mine?”

“Hell no. You’d come back from the dead just to haunt me for the rest of my life if I did that.”