The Dating Plan(91)
“So that’s it.” Liam poured from one of the open bottles. He thought he’d feel sad or even angry with Brendan, but he was numb inside. “The end of an era.”
“Or the beginning of a new one. It depends how you look at it.” Brendan took his glass. “I know you were worried about the employees. I’ll make sure they’re all taken care of. There will be more than enough money after the sale to be generous.”
“I appreciate it. Some of them have been around for over twenty years. I can’t even imagine how it felt to hear the distillery was shutting down. It must have been quite a shock.”
“Kind of like finding out your brother left town with your mom without telling anyone what was going on,” Brendan said with a hollow laugh.
Whoa. Liam’s breath left him in a rush. Where did that come from? He’d come home thinking maybe there was a chance he could repair his relationship with his brother, and giving up the distillery had been a big part of that, but it was clear Brendan still carried a lot of resentment. “You didn’t see her that night.”
“I was at college over thirteen hundred miles away.”
Liam drained his glass, one hand fisted on his knee. “I didn’t have time to call you. She was in bad shape. And it was my fault. She’d given me money to rent a tux to take Daisy to the prom and—”
“Daisy?” Brendan froze, his hand on his glass. “That story about knowing her in the past was legit?”
“Yes. We reconnected at a tech conference. She’s Sanjay’s little sister.” Now that Brendan was actually talking to him, he didn’t want to share that it had started exactly as Brendan had suspected, because it was now that mattered, and now that was real.
“Stuff happened the night of the prom that meant I didn’t get the tux back to the rental place in time,” he said. “They couldn’t get in touch with me, but the owner of the store knew Mom, so he called the house. Dad answered the phone . . .”
“Oh Christ.” Brendan’s jaw tightened.
“He went ballistic because she’d given me the money without asking him.” His voice wavered, cracked. “Bren, I can’t even tell you what it was like to walk into the house and see her like that, lying in a pool of blood.” His hand closed around the glass, squeezing it so hard his knuckles turned white. “I thought she was dead.”
“Jesus.” Brendan muttered under his breath. “She was always doing things like that, always trying to help us out when she knew she would suffer for it.”
“He wouldn’t have known about it if I’d returned the tux on time.” Liam’s shoulders slumped under the weight of his guilt. “That was the last straw. I wasn’t going to let him touch her again. I told her she had to leave because the next time I saw him it was going to be him or me, and I didn’t want to spend my life in jail. I think she knew the next time would be the last. She agreed to go. We packed up the car and I drove her to a hospital out of state and arranged for Aunt Jean to come from Florida to get her. Then I came back for my motorcycle and got the hell out of the city while he was still passed out.” His chest heaved, and he poured another drink. There wasn’t enough whiskey in the whole damn distillery to erase his memory of that night.
“I didn’t know it had gotten so bad,” Brendan said quietly. “Mom called to tell me you’d helped her get away. I was so relieved she was finally free of him, but I have to admit I resented you for doing what I couldn’t do, and for getting out when I knew I’d have to go back and help him run the company, and you and mom wouldn’t be there.”
“Since we’re sharing . . .” Liam drew in a shuddering breath. “I resented you for doing nothing to stop him when we were young, and then for blowing out of there for college and leaving me alone with a man who thought I was a worthless, no-good piece of shit.”
Brendan’s breaths came faster, heavier. “I’m not you, Liam,” he snapped. “I don’t have your strength—facing him down at thirteen was something I didn’t have in me. But I did what I could. I hid his bottles, watered down his liquor, and took his keys. I’d ask Mom to take me shopping just to get her out, or I’d take you to the playground. I would ask him to watch a game, throw a ball in the park, or I’d just try and talk him down, even though spending time with him was the last thing I wanted to do.”
Liam’s glass slipped from his fingers, thudding softly on the bar as he tried to process everything Brendan had told him. After all these years of thinking his brother had been sucking up to their father, he’d been trying to protect him and their mom in his own way. He took a deep, pained breath and closed his eyes. “Bren . . . I didn’t know.”
“I know you didn’t,” he said, not unkindly.
When Liam opened his eyes again, Brendan was staring into space, holding his glass loosely in his hand. “I tried to protect you, but you didn’t seem to need me. All the verbal abuse he threw at you just rolled off your back.”
“If it had, I’d be with Daisy right now.” Liam’s voice was thick and hoarse. “I heard every negative word he said about me. I felt them. I carry them with me, and I can’t let them go.”
“He didn’t think you were worthless, Liam. Just the opposite.”