Written with You (The Regret Duet #2)(28)

Silly art projects to remind me how lucky I’d been.

And, now, I knew what loving a man was supposed to feel like.

I didn’t know if I’d ever find that with anyone else. The rational side of me told me I would. The broken shards of my heart weren’t clinging to much hope. But I’d had four incredible months with Caven. So what that he’d spent over half of them glaring at me from across his dining room table. That had all been erased the second his lips had touched mine.

It was enough.

It would have to be enough.

“Get me the paperwork. I’ll sign whatever he wants me to.”





CAVEN


“Did you know it was Willow?” I rumbled into the phone as I watched Rosalee run through the sprinkler.

It took nine damn days for my brother to finally call me back. And when he did, it wasn’t necessarily by choice. I’d called Jenn, sent text messages, and finally tracked him down at work, leaving a message that he had twenty-four hours before I would beat down his door in Pennsylvania.

“Did I have my suspicions that she was a woman named Willow? Yes. But did I think she was the girl you met in the mall named Willow? Hell no.” He sighed heavily into the phone. “I spent three years before you went off to college begging you to tell me about what happened inside that food court. All you ever gave me were a bunch of grunts and door slamming. How was I supposed to know?”

“You still could have said something though. You at least knew she wasn’t Hadley.”

“What did you want me to say? ‘Oh, by the way, I’m not sure the woman you’re fucking is actually your baby mama’?”

“That would have been a start.”

“You were in too deep to see anything but her. I saw the way you looked at her. If I came to you with no hard evidence, you would have told me to fuck off. I see it every day on the job. You can’t make people believe the worst in someone when all they’ve ever shown them was the best.”

I scoffed. “She’s shown me plenty of bad.”

“No, she didn’t. Hadley did. The woman who came back was the Crown Princess of Perfection. She didn’t push the custody shit with Rosalee. She asked your permission for everything. She made you comfortable, and then she made you happy. Rosalee loved her. You loved seeing Rosalee love her, so you turned into some kind of puppy on a chain. And I’m not going to lie, Caven. I didn’t exactly hate seeing you happy, either.”

“Bullshit. You hated her.”

“Yes. Her. Because she was playing you for a fool. So I told her my theory. Worst case, I was wrong and she got pissed. What the fuck did I care? Best case? I was right and I saved you from heartache down the road. And I was right. I could see it the minute I brought up her twin sister. But all that aside, I like the idea of you having a woman. You can put your dick wherever you want, but maybe next time, let me give the stamp of approval before you bring her home to meet the kid? Yeah?”

“It’s hard to get a stamp of approval when it takes over a week to get in touch with you.”

He groaned. “Give it a rest, little brother. I already told you I didn’t have any cell phone service while I was camping.”

“You were camping for four days.”

“Oh, right.” He chuckled. “I forgot you talked to Jenn. Yeah. Okay, fine. All the other days, I was trying to avoid this bitchfest.”

Yep. That was Trent. My life was in shambles and he was trying to avoid a bitchfest. He cared just enough to corner a frightened woman who he thought might be scamming me, but not enough to have a conversation with me about it.

“Right,” I drawled before shooting a placating smile at Rosalee as she aimed the sprinkler in my direction. Luckily, it was far enough away not to reach the deck, where I was sitting fully clothed and not particularly interested in joining in her water day. “Anyway, she signed the paperwork. It’s done.”

“I cannot believe you’re going to let her walk away scot-free. This has fraud and prison time written all over it.”

“Yes. Just what I want to tell Rosalee one day. My dad killed your grandparents, which ruined your mother’s life, led to your conception, then her death, and then I had your aunt put in jail for pretending to be someone she isn’t because she loves you. No, thank you. My conscience is currently full. Willow can take a number and wait for her spot to come available.”

“You didn’t do any of that shit though. People make choices, Caven. Willow made hers.”

“Kinda like the choice we made not to tell the cops about those pictures after the shooting?”

“Shut your fucking mouth,” he hissed. “We did what we had to do after he left us to clean up his mess. You think for one second we’d have the lives we do now if they knew what a sick fuck he was?”

“He killed forty-eight people. I think the general consensus is he was a sick fuck.”

Frustration seeped from his voice. “I’m not talking about this shit with you again. He’s dead. He got a fucking bullet in the chest. The whole fucking world can sleep better knowing he’s gone. The rest of it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“It might for the families.”

“You know what? Fuck you. I’m done having this conversation. Your life is falling apart and you’re trying to take it out on me for decisions we made eighteen years ago. Go take your bullshit out on Ian. I gotta get back to work.”