“I’m where I’m supposed to be because of it.” Brody wrapped his arm around Tyler. “So I’ll say thank you and that makes up for all the rest.”
Her cheeks colored. “If we could maybe never mention the rest ever again, that would be awesome.”
Cam kicked back. “I’ve got no beef with you. I was always peripheral to that drama.”
“So was I, but I’ve had plenty of beef,” Piper said.
“Piper—” Tucker began.
“No, let her speak,” Corinne insisted. “The whole point of this is to air grievances.”
“I spent a lot of time hating you. I hated how you treated people, how you kept trying to poach Brody, how you fought dirty to get what you wanted. When you came back to town, it was easy to fall back into that.”
Tucker ground his teeth.
Corinne didn’t even flinch. “I can’t blame you for any of that. I deserve all of it.”
Piper sighed. “No, you don’t. Not anymore. And if you’re strong enough to stand there waiting to be flogged, I’m strong enough to admit when I’m wrong, too. And that if not for Tucker, I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to revise my opinion based on who you grew up to be. But he pressed us all to look beyond the past, to give you another chance. I’ve known him all my life, and he’s a damned good judge of character. Maybe we don’t see yet what he sees—and I kinda get the impression you don’t either—but what is obvious is you did grow up, you did become a better person. You’re going to make a damned fine nurse. And I’m not the kind of asshat who won’t take that into account. So I’ll say the past is past and we’re on a clean slate.”
Corinne’s throat worked. “Thank you. All of you.”
Christ, what did it say that she could take a verbal punch without so much as blinking, but a compliment had her near tears? Unable to sit any longer, Tucker sprang up and pulled her into his arms. This time she didn’t resist, burrowing in, and he could feel the trembling she’d held back.
He glared over her head at his friends. “Is everybody good now?”
“No,” Brody said. “I’m with Corinne. You should’ve given all of us a little more credit. Assuming the worst of us was a dick move.”
“Then it was a dick move. Blame it on the day job. I see the worst of people all the time. And all too often Corinne bears the brunt of it.”
“Simmer down,” she murmured. “It’s over and done. We talked about it and the Earth didn’t shatter.”
Didn’t mean he had to like it.
“I’ve gotta admire your moxie,” Piper admitted. “Laura would never have done that. She’d have gone right on pretending the world was perfect and hoping the bad stuff would go away.”
Corinne lifted her head. “Who’s Laura?”
Shit.
In the silence, Tucker knew there was no avoiding an answer. “My ex-wife.”
“Your—” She cut herself off. “I didn’t realize you’d been married.” Her face smoothed out into the polite mask he knew she used when she was upset. She stepped back.
Tucker wanted to swear. “For about five minutes my first year of law school. It was a long time ago.”
“I see.”
No she didn’t. Tucker could tell in the absence of the facts, she was drawing her own conclusions. Probably all of them were wrong. But now wasn’t the time to get into it.
When she smiled, the edges were brittle. “It seems we have some things to discuss. But later. I believe those burgers should be about finished.”
Brody rescued the burgers from burning and everybody made a valiant effort to rescue the conversation, steering toward safer topics. Corinne was a good actress, pretending everything was fine. Tucker didn’t like thinking about why that was the case. He had to employ some of his own skills to get through the rest of the dinner, not that he thought any of his friends believed him.
Shit was
very definitely not okay.
As soon as they got into the car to head home he said, “It’s not what you think.”