Actually, he didn’t know. Brynn had always been so damn flawless. But he’d always suspected that there was some piece of her that he was missing. All her die-hard dedication to perfection had to come from somewhere, he’d just never been able to figure out where.
Probably because they hadn’t had a civil conversation in…ever.
“Fragile how?” He knew he was prying, but the cat was already out of the bag. Might as well get a little information out of it.
Sophie was silent for several minutes. “Maybe ‘fragile’ wasn’t the right word. Brynn would kill me just for saying the word. But sometimes I think she’s made it her life’s mission to erase an imperfect childhood by being a perfect adult.”
Will took a sip of wine. “By ‘imperfect,’ I’m assuming you mean she once placed second in a spelling bee and never forgave herself?”
Sophie gave him a look. “You have seen some of our old photo albums, right?”
“Yeah, because that’s what every heterosexual guy longs for. To rummage through his friend’s family albums.”
“Well, if you had seen them, you’d know that Brynn hasn’t always been quite so…”
“Prim? Humorless? Slightly dead behind the eyes?”
“Well, I can tell you two are going to have sweet pillow talk,” she said. “Let’s just say she didn’t exactly hit the beauty-queen jackpot.”
Will’s eyebrows crept up. He hadn’t met Brynn until she was a little freshman hottie. He’d never done much thinking of what she’d been like before that.
“So? We all had awkward years,” he said with a shrug.
Sophie licked her lips and looked pained. “Brynn’s was more like an awkward decade. Actually, ‘awkward’ doesn’t even cover it. She was my big sister, and I idolized her because she was funny and sweet, even if she was a little—okay, a lot—overweight, and she was shy, and she had this gap the size of Africa between her teeth, and…”
Will held up his hand with a half laugh. “Tell me you have a picture of this. I can’t believe all this blackmail material was right at my fingertips and I didn’t even know it.”
Sophie was in his face in a flash. “Don’t you dare, Will. I know you two like your games, but don’t touch those years. Seriously.”
His smile faded.
Whoa. What is going on here?
“We’ve all got a few rough memories,” Sophie said more softly, “but kids can be cruel, and Brynn got more than her fair share of it.”
The pieces began fitting together and Will felt something tighten in his chest at the thought of a chubby, awkward Brynn who would have wanted so badly to fit in.
“How am I just now finding this out?” he asked softly.
“Well, gosh, I can’t imagine why Brynn wouldn’t have shared all this with you while you were torturing her,” Sophie muttered.
“Okay, in my defense, by the time I met the girl, she was queen of her freshman class.”
Sophie shrugged. “On the outside, sure. Inside she was still Dumpy Dalton. That’s what they used to call her.”
Will rocked back on his heels. Christ.
He swallowed dryly. “Soph, you ever wish you could go back and do things all over again? I mean, like all the way?”
She gave him a look. “Will, my husband once assumed I was a Las Vegas hooker. So no, of course I wouldn’t want a do-over.”
He smiled slightly at her sarcasm, but his mind was already back on Brynn. For the first time, he was finally starting to see things the way they really were.
And a part of him—a big part of him—wanted nothing more than to cradle her to him and tell her that she was not that little girl anymore. That she didn’t have to try so hard.
But the smarter part of him knew that Brynn Dalton would take anything looking even remotely like pity and shove it up his ass.
He’d have to stay the course. At least for now.