The Imperfections

“And it’s a bad one,” she tells me. “Alyssa, honey, please don’t do this. Don’t throw your life away. He’s not gonna stick around. I know you think he will, but he won’t.”

I shake my head, meeting her gaze. “I think ‘congratulations’ is the word you’re looking for.”

“No,” she disagrees. “My youngest daughter throwing her life away over some man is nothing to celebrate.”

“Then don’t come to the wedding,” I tell her before leaving the room.

“Alyssa,” she calls after me.

I ignore her and head to the table to retrieve Brant. “Let’s go.”

“You sure?” Brant asks, watching me as he stands.

“Yep.”

I don’t say another word to anyone. Brant mumbles something to someone, but I’m already out the door and I don’t care what he’s saying. I’m so angry at so many things I could cry, and that makes me even angrier.

I was supposed to at least get some clothes to take back to Brant’s house so I’d have something to wear, but I don’t remember that until I’m already in the passenger seat of his truck.

Brant looks in at me as he walks around to the driver’s seat. As he slides in, I tell him, “We need to stop at the store before we head home. I need to grab a few things.”

Brant nods his head, sticking the key in the ignition and starting it up. “Sorry that didn’t go very well.”

I shrug, but then I look over at him. “Just so we’re clear, I don’t have a problem with you trying to mind me most of the time, but don’t ever intervene and try to stop me from fighting with my mother again. I know you’re old-fashioned and you probably have some iron-clad ‘respect your parents’ rule you’d like everyone to live by, but my relationship with my mother is not your business and nobody, not even you, will tell me how to talk to her.”

My heart pounds as I say all that. I mean every word, but I expect it to offend him, so I’m surprised when his lips tug up in reluctant amusement.

“If I’m gonna be your husband, I disagree that it’s not my business. Anything that affects you is my business, your relationship with your mother included. That being said, you misunderstood my reason for intervening. It had nothing to do with reprimanding you, I just saw that it wasn’t going anywhere good and I didn’t see the point in letting her rile you up. Obviously, I already knew about Dirk, and just as obviously, she was hoping I didn’t so she could get you in trouble. I realized at that point we needed to wrap things up and get out of there to save you some frustration. Didn’t have a damn thing to do with defending her.”

With every word, he melts a little more of my righteous anger, and by the end, I just feel like curling up against him, wrapping my arms around his body, and melting into him.

I could apologize for blaming him for something he didn’t do. I could thank him for already delivering on his promise that I’ll never have to face anything alone again. All I feel like doing is holding him, though, so I scoot across the seat and snuggle up against his side. He winds an arm around my back and absently runs his thumb back and forth across my skin.

“You sure we need to stop at the store?”

I’d rather cuddle up in bed with him, so I tip my head back and say, “I was gonna pick up a spare outfit, but I suppose I could just be naked instead.”

With a perfunctory nod, Brant says, “That sounds like a suitable alternative to me. Home it is.”

19

Brant

Since breaking the good news to Alyssa’s family didn’t go so well, I put off telling my own until I can’t anymore. Bri eventually gave up after a few days of unanswered and unreturned phone calls. I expect she thinks I’ve killed Alyssa by now and she’s pretty mad at me, so she doesn’t call anymore.

It’s Fourth of July weekend, though, and she had already invited me and our other sister to come over for a cookout. I go every year. Sometimes she takes advantage of the forced socialization and tries to set me up with women she says she thinks I’ll like. I’m not sure what she thinks I’ll like about ’em, though. Her only qualifying characteristic seems to be “female” because no two have ever been alike, and not one of them has ever been anything like my type.

At least I don’t have to worry about that this year. Even if she had her eye on some forever-single friend of hers to try to foist off on me, after this whole Alyssa thing, she’ll be too pissy to worry about the possibility of me being lonely.