Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
“I’ll make sure there’s room in the guesthouse. He can bunk with Shane and Riley. They’ll make sure he doesn’t wander off,” Wade promised. “I’ll be around if you need me. Come on, Tucker. You can meet the king. I think he’ll find you amusing.”
The minute the swinging door closed, he turned to the man who’d been his best friend for most of his life. “I thought you were my friend.”
Alfi shoved the chair he’d been sitting in back and strode to the sink, tossing out the contents of his mug. “You know I am.” He picked up the kettle and filled it. “You want a cup? The American microwaved mine. Barbarians.”
“I don’t want a cup of tea. I want answers.”
He chuckled, though it wasn’t an amused sound. “Oh, Brody, I don’t think you can handle the answers, though they’ve always been staring you in the face. You’re too noble to see it, I suppose.”
He turned the range on and set the kettle on it before turning to prepare two mugs.
“Too noble to see what? I gave you one job and you couldn’t do it. One fucking job. You weren’t ever going to tell me about my own son, were you?”
“You didn’t want Steph. You didn’t want Nate either. You sent me there to fix all your problems. I was doing you a favor.” He kept his back to Brody.
“I sent you there to look after her. I sent you there to protect her if she needed it.”
“You sent me there to ease your bloody conscience and that was all.” He turned, his eyes looking far older than they had the last time Brody had seen Alfi. “You never intended to talk to that woman again. You tossed her out like a bit of rubbish.”
His hands fisted but he forced them to his sides. “I wouldn’t send my best mate to check in on rubbish, you fool. I was trying to save her. I thought I was wrong for her.”
“You are,” Alfi said, his voice dark. “What on earth makes you think you’re good enough for that woman? She’s practically a saint. She’s gorgeous and she’s smart and she’s capable. You don’t think she needs someone better than you?”
He let out a deep breath. Something was going on with Alfi, but it didn’t have to enrage him. He knew the answer to all of Alfi’s nasty questions, and now he got why his old friend was asking them. “I think she needs me because no one on this planet is going to love her more than me, is going to see her the way I can. I love her. I thought that wasn’t enough, but it is. And she deserves me because she picked me. She wanted me and I was a fool to question it. I should have gotten down on my knees and thanked god that she had bad taste in men.”
“Not bad enough.”
Yes, there it was. “You fell for her.”
“Not that it did me any good,” Alfi admitted. “It was always you. She didn’t say your name to me, but I stood outside surgery when she was giving birth. She cried out for you. I was planning on going in and offering her my hand. I thought maybe if I was there when her boy was born, she would see me differently. But all she could do was cry out for you.”
A sick feeling hit the pit of his stomach. “I would have been there with her if you hadn’t been such a selfish git.”
He would have been standing there, lending her his strength. He would have been there to hold Nate when he was born, to help her, to make sure she didn’t find that trouble that always seemed to be looking for her.
“You think I don’t know that?” Alfi sounded weary. “I was selfish and it didn’t matter. Once again the great Brody Carter wins.”
“Wins? There’s no win here. I missed the birth of my child, Al. I might never win that woman back.”
He shrugged. “You’ll do it. You always do.”
“What the hell is behind all this? Why on earth did you agree to look after her if you hate me the way you do? Never thought you would hate me. Damn, mate, we were like brothers.”
“Brothers don’t leave each other behind. Brothers don’t walk away from each other.”
What did he mean? “I didn’t leave you. I…after Harry died, I couldn’t stay in the Army. I tried to go home, but I was lost.”
“Maybe you wouldn’t have been lost if you hadn’t chucked me out with the rubbish.”
He groaned, trying to find a way to make Alfi understand. “I didn’t. I needed to be alone. I needed to deal with what had happened to Harry.”
“I loved him, too, you know. Your family was like mine. Your mum…well, she was better than mine. At least she was around. She cooked dinners and made sure you had everything you needed. Mine, if she showed up, was drunk half the time.” He shook his head. “Not that it matters. I missed Harry, too, but I didn’t stop caring about everyone else.”