Ever After (Nantucket Brides 3)

Jamie was listening in astonishment. “What about that first night? Were you really drunk?”

“Give me some credit,” Braden said. “I can hold my liquor. Two beers and those kids were sure an old man like me was drunk—but it was one of them who threw up on me. Anyway, I knew that a sober me could never pull off asking Hallie to marry me. But I couldn’t let her go through life thinking I was the one who got away. And also, I wanted to see you two together. One sight of the big drippy way you two looked at each other and I knew where your hearts were. So how was my acting?”

“Excellent,” Jamie said. “I believed it all.”

“I thought about being an actor, but then my dad died and I knew I had to get a real job. Support the family, that sort of thing. Though if my law firm ever finds out I alienated one of the heads of the Montgomery-Taggert clan, I’ll be out on my ear. I’ll be begging on the street corner.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Jamie said. “I’ll take care of it.” He was looking at Braden. “This was a noble thing you did.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “What’s going to be hard is when I tell Mom. She deeply and truly wants me to marry Hallie, but it wouldn’t work. I actually am a workaholic and Hallie’s so self-sacrificing she’d never demand anything of me and—” He shrugged. “I’d make her miserable.”

He looked at Jamie. “I never meant to tell you or anyone the truth.” Braden paused and when he spoke again, there was no laughter in his voice. “I only told you this so you’d trust what I’m about to tell you. Shelly texted me that she’s arriving at around seven this evening. When she gets here, Hallie is going to freak out. Come apart. My guess is that she’ll tell you that she never wants to see you again, that she wants you to get out of her life forever.”

“Because of her stepsister? Why?”

Braden was quiet for a moment. “Hallie will think that if you see Shelly in person, you’ll drop her in favor of her stepsister.” When he saw that Jamie didn’t understand, he continued. “You know those Victoria’s Secret shows on TV? If you put some wings on Shelly, she could walk down the runway beside those girls and fit right in.”

“So?” Jamie said.

Turning, Braden smiled at him. “Good answer. The problem is that Hallie won’t believe you because Shelly stole every boyfriend she ever had.”

“Bastards!” Jamie grumbled.

“Yeah, well, at seventeen you don’t have any brains. Shelly would show up wearing about two ounces of clothing and the boys would go crazy. And by comparison Hallie was downright plump—or at least that’s what Ruby used to say. The contrast between the girls was dramatic. But last night Hallie sure looked good in that dress. What did you do to get her in such great shape?”

“I got her away from people who see her as second best,” Jamie said.

“Ouch!” Braden said. “I just wish you weren’t right. Men love Hallie, but they lust after Shelly.”

“Not me,” Jamie said. He was looking at Braden in speculation. There was something about the way he said Hallie’s stepsister’s name that set Jamie on edge. “Can I take it that you don’t think of Shelly as your little sister?”

Braden let out his breath. “When she was growing up, I never paid much attention to the kid. But then one day I came home to visit and there was this girl—five eleven, maybe six feet—outside Hallie’s house wearing a bikini. You ever look at a woman and get dizzy with lust?”

“I nearly passed out when I met Hallie.”

“Good. I like that. She deserves it. Anyway, that’s what I felt when I saw Shelly at sixteen.” Braden took a moment before speaking, as though trying to decide whether he should reveal the truth or not. “I’ll tell you something nobody else knows. All these women since then—the ones who keep dumping me—the truth is that I understand why they do. To me, they’re just weak copies of Shelly, and they sense that.”

“So why not go after her?”

Braden shrugged. “What would it have done to Hallie if I—her knight on a white horse—went after her stepsister like all the other guys did? And then there’s my mom. She’s had years of hearing all the mean, petty things done to Hallie by Shelly. I couldn’t do it to either of them.”

“A lot of men wouldn’t have cared about any of that,” Jamie said.

“And you were in a Humvee when you could have been safely in a hospital being a doctor. We all have things that make us earn the title of ‘man.’?”

“Yeah, we do,” Jamie said. “I’ve never been able to get Hallie to talk to me about her stepmother and she’s said little about Shelly—except that she felt like a donor who had to give body parts to her stepsister.”

Braden laughed. “That’s a good one. I’ve always loved Hallie’s sense of humor. Did she tell you what happened to the garden?”

“No, but I’d like to hear the story.” Jamie’s voice was earnest.

“Okay, but first you have to understand that Ruby had an ambition that ate the earth—and it was all wrapped up in her pretty daughter. About a year after they moved in, Ruby decided she wanted a big in-ground swimming pool. But Hallie’s grandparents had a glorious garden in the back. They fed their own household and shared with neighbors. When the grandparents said no to the pool, Ruby was very calm, and they thought the matter was settled. But they underestimated her.”

“I’m afraid to ask what happened,” Jamie said.

“The grandparents took Hallie away for a weekend and when they returned, the garden was gone. Bulldozed flat. Even the cute little playhouse Hallie’s grandfather had built for her had been destroyed.”

“What did Hallie’s father say when he saw it?”