“Piper was surprised. There’s a difference. She’s working her way around to the idea.”
“She thinks I’m deliberately going for someone the opposite of Laura.”
“Are you?”
“None of this has anything to do with my ex-wife.”
“Are you ever going to tell everyone else the truth about her?”
That the divorce hadn’t been a mutual decision? That she’d up and left him less than a year after they’d said their vows? “Not anytime soon.” And he was beginning to question the wisdom of having told Tyler years ago when he’d been in the thick of it. But of all of them, she knew what it was to be left behind. Without a choice, without a word. It’s what Brody had done to her—or so they’d all believed for the better part of a decade.
Tyler sighed. “You can’t get mad at them when they’re operating on false information.”
“What happened with Laura has nothing to do with their reactions to my being interested in Corinne. They’re clinging to the past instead of looking at the now. If you can let go of what happened back then, why can’t they? Or am I wrong that you have?”
She came back around the desk to sit beside him. “I’ve made my peace with Corinne. Brody and I are together, and we’re happy. Whatever happened in the past is the past.”
Something in Tucker’s chest loosened. “I guess it was probably something of a surprise to you, too.”
“Actually, I wasn’t surprised. Not after I gave it some thought.”
“Why?” he asked.
“For one, she isn’t like Laura. Now don’t get your dander up about it. I know that’s not the only appeal, but it’s a component. Laura was too easy and you were bored. The two of you were like a matched set of golden retrievers, all set to make perfect little golden retriever babies.”
Tucker lifted a brow. “I’m trying to decide if I’m supposed to be offended that you’re comparing me to a dog.”
“My point is, you went into this postcard perfect life. It’s what everybody expected for you and so it was what you thought you wanted. You went along with it because it was the easy thing, the logical thing. Because everything in your life to that point had been easy and logical. Laura walking out was your wakeup call to the truth—that you don’t actually want easy and logical.”
She wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t make it any easier to listen to this reductivist accounting of his marriage.
“Nothing about Corinne is easy or logical. But besides all that, you, my dearest, darling boy, have always had a soft spot for broken things.” Her arm linked through his and she hesitated. “And I’m pretty sure Corinne fits that category.”
Tucker leveled his gaze on her and waited.
“I think she was abused.”
“Why?”
“Something she said when she came into the store last year, before she told me Brody was back. And I’ve watched her some since then. She’s not the same ball buster she was back in high school. I think somebody’s spent a good chunk of time tearing her down.”
He loosed a breath, needing to talk about his suspicions. “And maybe knocking her down.”
Tyler straightened. “Is she in trouble?”
“No.” But God bless Tyler for her instant desire to help if she was. “And she hasn’t said a word to me about it. I just… I knew she’d been verbally abused. That started way before the asshole ex. But last week we got into a fight.”
He told her what had happened out at Hope Springs. “She mostly doesn’t show those kinds of reactions, but every now and then something slips out. I don’t know if that’s because she’s great at hiding them or if it’s because she’s mostly worked her way through whatever trauma is there and sometimes stuff sneaks up on her. So I’m being very, very careful because I don’t want to do anything to scare her off.”
“Have you looked into her divorce? To see if there were any charges or restraining orders anything?”
“Thought about it. Had to stop myself several times. I want to know, but I want it to come from her. Anything else feels like a violation of h
er privacy.”
Tyler’s voice was gentle. “And you want her to trust you enough to tell you.”
“That too.”