“Better now that she took out some of her anger on her older sister,” Mark answered.
“What happened?”
“I slapped her.”
Paige looked at Mark.
“She deserved it.”
Paige got up to look for Brooke, but Bree put her hand on her mother’s arm. “Stay, Mo
m. Please,” she said softly.
Paige sat back down, and Jace downed the contents of his first drink of the day. Something told him there’d be more.
“I should ask you to take me home.”
“Why?” Tucker had no intention of taking her home, whether she asked or not. He needed her with him, and whether she realized it or not, she needed him.
“I don’t know, for Bree mainly. I feel as though I deserted her.”
“She has the rest of your family with her. She’ll be okay. You were there for the hardest part.”
“But my older sister can be…kind of a bitch. Maybe I should at least call and see how’s she’s doing.”
“If it makes you feel better.”
Blythe opened the sliding glass door and went out on the patio. She intended to call home, but she called Renie instead.
“I’m with Tucker.”
“I heard.”
“What do you mean?”
“He texted me. Didn’t he tell you?”
“Oh yeah, he did.”
“I guess Bree and Brooke got into a fist fight over it.”
“What?”
“Sorry, I was joking. It wasn’t quite that bad. But your mom told my mom that Bree slapped her.”
“She slapped Brooke?”
“Yeah.”
That made them both laugh. If there was anyone who deserved to be slapped every now and then, it was Brooke.
“Wait, which part were you joking about? Did Bree slap Brooke over something to do with me?”
“She did. I guess Brooke was making a fuss about you being out all night, and both Bree and your mom told her to mind her own business.”
Blythe had never gotten along with her oldest sister. Brooke married the first guy she ever had sex with, and she was pretty sure they’d waited until after they were married. There wasn’t anything wrong with living your life that way, until you started to preach to everyone else about it. That was the part Blythe didn’t like. Bree didn’t either.
Blythe thought Brooke walked around with a stick up her ass, but she didn’t try to tell her to live her life any differently. She couldn’t believe that, only a couple of days ago, she told her mom she wished Brooke was there.