Sweet Little Lies Part 37

"Sure," Elle said. "We understand." And then she sat on one end of the couch and picked up the remote to turn the volume up. "Season three, right? Love this show."

Eyes on the screen, already enraptured, Haley sat on the other end.

Pru opened her mouth to complain but Willa took the floor, leaning back on the couch, leaving a spot right in the middle for Pru.

She blew out a breath and in the respectful silence that she appreciated more than she could say, she wasn't alone at all.

Two days later Pru walked to work. In the rain. She knew she was bad off when Thor didn't complain once. He did however, keep looking up at her, wondering what their mood should be.

Devastated. That was the current mood. But she didn't want to scare him. "We're going to be okay."

Thor c.o.c.ked his head, his one stand-up ear quivering a little bit.

He didn't believe her.

And for good reason. She hadn't slept. She'd called in sick again and Jake had let her get away with that.

Until this morning. He'd called her at the crack of dawn and said, "I don't care if your uterus is falling out of your body, take some Midol and get your a.s.s into work. Today."

She wasn't surprised. And to be honest, she was ready to get back to it after a two-day pity party involving more ice cream than she'd eaten in her twenty-six years total. She'd run out of self-pity stamina. Turned out it was hard to maintain that level of despair.

So with it now at a dull roar, she'd showered and dressed and headed to work. "I just feel . . . stupid," she told Thor. "This is all my fault, you know."

"Honey," a woman said, pa.s.sing her on the sidewalk. "Never admit that it's all your fault." She was wearing the smallest, tightest red dress Pru had ever seen, and the five-inch stilettos were impressive.

"But this time it really is," Pru told her.

"No, you're misunderstanding me. Never admit it's your fault, especially when it is."

The woman walked on but Thor stopped and put his front paws on Pru's leg.

She picked him up and he licked her chin.

Her throat tightened. "You love me anyway." She hugged him, apparently squeezing too tight because he suffered it for about two seconds and then growled.

With a half laugh and half sob, she loosened her grip. When she got to work, she walked straight through the warehouse to the offices. She pa.s.sed those by too and headed back to the area where Jake lived.

He was lifting weights, the music blaring so loud the windows rattled. She turned off the music and turned to face him.

"You okay?" he asked, dropping the weights, turning his chair to face her, his face creased in worry.

She'd planned what she would say to him. Something like I know, you told me so, blah blah blah, so let's not talk about it, let's just move on. And she opened her mouth to say just that but nothing came out.

"What's going on?"

She burst into tears.

Looking pained, he stared at her. "Did you forget the Midol? Because I bought some, it's in my bathroom. I've had it for over a year, I've just never figured out how to give it to you without getting my head bit clean off."

She threw her purse at him. "I didn't get my d.a.m.n period!"

"Oh s.h.i.+t," he said, blanching. "Oh f.u.c.k. Okay, first I'll kill him and then-"

"No!" She actually laughed through her tears. "I'm not pregnant."

He let out a long breath. "Well, Jesus, lead with that next time."

Pru shook her head and turned to go, but he was faster than her even in his chair. He got in front of her and blocked the door.

"Talk to me, chica," he said.

"You done being a stupid guy?"

"I'll try to be." He said this quite earnestly, his gaze on hers. "You did tell him then."

She nodded.

"And . . . it went to h.e.l.l?" he guessed.

"In a hand basket," she agreed.

"I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "Don't be. I was a dumba.s.s. I should have told him from the get-go like you said a million times."

Jake let out a rare sigh. "Look, chica, yeah, you made a mistake. But everything you did was for the right reasons. You should feel good about that. You set out to help everyone from the accident and now you can say you did that. In a big way. In a much bigger way than anyone else I know would have."

She thought about it and realized she did feel good about that part. "So it's mission accomplished," she said softly.

"Yeah." He smiled. "Proud of you."

The words were a balm on her broken heart. The ache didn't go away and she wasn't sure if it ever would. Loss was loss, and Finn no longer being in her life was a hard pill to swallow. But she'd survived worse and she'd come back from rock bottom.

She could do it again.

Well . . . next time maybe tell him who she was before s.e.xy times and getting hearts involved . . .

The first two days were a complete blur to Finn. On day three, he stood in his shower contemplating the level of suckage his life had become until the hot water ran out. He stood there as it turned cold and then icy, completely forgetting that they were on a water watch and he'd pay a penalty if he went over his allowed usage for the month.

He was sitting on his couch staring at the still-off TV when Sean called. "I'm taking tonight off," Finn said.

"Oh, h.e.l.l no you're not," Sean said. "Three f.u.c.king nights in a row? I can't do this by myself, Finn. This is a d.a.m.n partners.h.i.+p and you need to start acting like it."

Finn dropped his head, closed his eyes, and fought the laugh. "Are you throwing my words back in my face?"

"h.e.l.l yes." Sean paused. "Is it working?"

"I think you owe me more than a few nights."

Sean blew out a breath. "Yeah." He paused again, this one a beat longer. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Bulls.h.i.+t," Sean said. "You take time off never. Let me guess. You're . . . running away from home? No, it's worse than that. s.h.i.+t. Just tell me quick, like ripping off a Band-Aid. You're dying?"

"I'm not dying. Jesus, you're such a drama queen."

"Right, then what?" Sean demanded. "Are you dumping me, is that it?"

Finn pinched the bridge of his nose. Sean's greatest fear was being dumped, and to be fair, he'd earned that particular anxiety the hard way from their parents. Pulling his head out of his own a.s.s was hard but Finn managed for a second to do just that. "I can't dump you," he said, "you're my brother."

"People dump their family all the time," Sean said, and then paused. "Or they just walk away."

Finn softened and let out a sigh. "Okay, so yeah, I suppose I could dump you. And don't get me wrong, there are entire days where I'd like to at least strangle you slowly. But listen to me very carefully, Sean. I've honestly never, not once, wanted to dump you from my life."

There was a long silence. When Sean finally spoke, his voice was thick. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. I'd do anything for you. And I'll never walk away from you." And up until a few days ago, he'd have given Pru that very same promise.

And yet he had walked away from her.

At that thought, the first shadow of doubt crept in, icy tendrils as relentless as the afternoon fog.

"Are you going to tell me what's up?" Sean asked. "If it's not me and the pub's okay, then what? You mess up with Pru or something?"

"Why would you say that?" Finn demanded.

"Whoa, man, chill. It's a matter of elimination. Other than work, there's nothing else that could get to you like this. So what happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Sean was quiet a second. "Because of Mellie? I apologized for that like a thousand times but I'll do it again. I was an a.s.shole and an idiot. And drunk off my a.s.s that night. And it was a long time ago. I'd never-"

"This has nothing to do with Mellie," Finn said.

"Then what? Because Pru's pretty d.a.m.n perfect."

Finn sighed. Not perfect. But perfect for him . . . "Why does it have to be anyone's fault?"

Sean laughed wryly. "It's just the way of the world. Men screw up. Women forgive-or don't, as the case often goes."

Finn blew out a breath. "I walked away. I had my reasons but I'm not sure I did the right thing." It was a h.e.l.l of an admission considering he rarely second-guessed himself.

"If I've learned one thing from you," Sean said, "it's to suck it up and always do the right thing. Not the easy thing, the right thing."

Finn managed a short laugh. "Listen to you, all logical and s.h.i.+t."

"I know, go figure, right? So . . . you going to do it? The right thing?"

Finn sighed. "Who are you and what have you done with my brother?"

"Just hurry up and handle it and get your a.s.s back to work."

"There he is."

Chapter 32.

#TakeMeToYourLeader When Finn finally made his way to the pub that night, he stood in the middle of the bar as music played around him. His friends and customers were all there having fun, laughing, dancing, drinking . . .

The pub was a huge success, beyond his wildest imagination. He'd never really taken the time to notice it. But he was noticing now that his heart had been ripped out of his chest by a gorgeous dynamo of a woman with eyes that sucked him in and held him, a sweet yet mischievous smile that had taken him places he'd never been . . . then there was how he'd felt in her arms.

Like Superman.

And he'd dumped her. Roughly. Cruelly. And her crime? Nothing more than trying to make sure he was okay after a tragedy that hadn't even been her fault. Not in the slightest.

Hating himself for that, he stopped right in the middle of the place. He wasn't in the mood for this. He needed to think, needed to figure out what the h.e.l.l to do to alleviate this pain in his chest and the certainty that he'd walked away from the best thing that had ever happened to him.

But everyone was at the bar, waving at him. Bracing himself for the inquisition, he headed that way.

"Rumor is that you've been a dumba.s.s," Archer said.

Finn stared at him. "How the h.e.l.l did you know-"

"The girls and I stopped by Pru's place," Willa said.

"Is she okay?"

"She looks and sounds like her heart's been ripped out." Willa met his gaze. "She'd clearly been crying."

s.h.i.+t.

Elle squeezed his hand. "Whatever you did, it's not completely your fault. You're a p.e.n.i.s-carrying human being, after all. You're hard-wired to be a dumba.s.s."

"Sit." Spence kicked out a barstool for him and poured him a beer from the pitcher in front of them.

Finn took a second look at him. "You're wearing gla.s.ses."

Haley grinned proudly. "Do you like them? I picked them out for him."

"No, you didn't," Spence said. "I did."