See You Again (Wishful 8)

“I left quite a few details out of the version you heard.” And Sandy had always insisted Waylan wasn’t violent, despite evidence to the contrary.

“I’m sorry, why am I just now hearing about this?” Cam demanded, staring at his bride.

“It wasn’t my story to tell.”

“Wait, so you two were…involved in college?” Liz asked carefully.

Sandy scooped a hand through her thick blonde hair. “We were friends. That was all.”

“Friends,” Trey repeated, incredulous. She’d just reduced everything between them to nothing more than friendship. Had all the hours of confidences, the countless shirts she’d soaked with her tears, the unquestioning and unflagging support meant so little?

“I wasn’t unfaithful,” she said evenly. “Not even when I decided to leave Waylan.”

“Because he hit you?” Helen’s voice trembled on the question.

“No. Not directly. He was an unmitigated ass when he was a freshman pledge. Drank and partied too much. We fought about it often, and Trey was my confidant.”

Trey picked up the thread. “Joseph—Norah’s father—was president of his fraternity. So, I went to him to tell him to get his pledge in line. He just said it wasn’t his place to interfere in someone’s marriage, and told me I’d do well to remember the same.”

Sandy’s gaze shot to his. “You went to Joseph?”

“Since you forbade me from going after Waylan directly, I had to do something.”

“That must be what set him off,” she murmured.

“What?” Trey’s hands curled into fists, a sick feeling setting up in his gut. Had he been the one who’d indirectly caused the fight where she’d gotten hurt?

“He came home furious, saying he’d gotten in trouble with the fraternity for his behavior. He was just doing what the rest of his pledge class was doing, so why had he been singled out? He was pacing the apartment, ranting whatever his justification of the week was, and I happened to be too close when he turned around. He always used to talk with his hands, and he caught me across the cheek.” She folded her arms, defensive. “It was an accident. I know you never believed that, but I swear it’s true. He never laid a hand on me again after that one time.”

“How about we circle back to the part where you were leaving him,” Jimmy suggested. “Clearly that didn’t happen. Did he threaten you?”

“No.”

“Then why?” Pete demanded. “You know we’d have supported you dumping his ass.”

Maybe Trey should’ve gone to talk to her brothers all those years ago. It seemed like they’d have absolutely been on the same page.

“Because of Cam,” Norah said.

Sandy stared at her. “How did you…?”

“Clever girl,” Trey murmured.

“You told me you’d planned to get her away after the semester was over. I did the math.” She shifted her attention to Sandy. “You’d have been six or eight weeks along by then.”

“You stayed in that hell, gave up a chance at another life, because of me?” Cam’s voice was dull with shock.

Sandy took Cam by the arms. “Don’t you dare blame yourself, Campbell. You are the best thing to ever happen to me, and I have no regrets.”

Trey wished he could say the same. But he was too busy remembering every time she’d called him off, talked him down from giving Waylan the beat down he deserved. She hadn’t let him stand for her then. Maybe she’d justified it at the time because it had been Waylan’s ring on her finger. But it was Trey’s she carried now.

“Accident or no, if you think I’m letting him get within fifteen feet of you, you’re sadly mistaken.”

Sandy whirled on him, and the stubborn set to her chin was so fucking familiar. “It’s not your fight. It never was.”

“The hell it’s not.” She was his wife, for God’s sake. His to protect. “I should’ve broken him in half the first time he made you cry.”

“I am not some naive, defenseless, damsel in distress. When are you all going to get it through your heads that I can run my own life?”