Sarah exhaled. Had to be news . . . had to be good news . . . but what was good news?
Jumping up, she paced the length of the living room and turned around, paced back the other direction, stopping in front of the mantel, which was bare today except for a pair of glass hurricanes and a framed photo of Mom, in gorgeous color.
In the picture, Mom was looking over her shoulder, laughing at the camera, her thick dark hair short and sassy, her brown eyes flecked with bronze, picking up the gold of her shimmering dress.
Sarah reached out, touched Mom’s face through the glass. So pretty.
“I love that picture of Mom,” Tommy said from the doorway. He was wearing one of the expensive Tommy Bahama polo shirts Cass liked to give him, and yet he looked uncomfortable, as if he’d been squeezed into a straitjacket instead of the softest weathered cotton fabric.
Sarah smiled unsteadily. “She’s so beautiful here.”
“She was always beautiful,” he said, moving toward her.
“But in this picture, she looks like a movie star.”
He stood now before the mantel and studied the photo. “I just like that she looks so happy.”
Sarah glanced at her brother and then at the picture. “Definitely happy.”
Tommy hesitated, his brow creasing, his jaw jutting. “She was . . . most of the time, wasn’t she?”
Sarah saw his frown and felt his restlessness. He’d been tense all day, drumming his fingers on the table during the meal or leaning back in his chair and sighing, staring at the ceiling as if he couldn’t wait to get away. “I think Mom always tried to focus on the positives,” she said.
“She never pressured Dad.”
“But she was also no pushover. If there was something she wanted, she spoke up.”
“But she let Dad be Dad. She respected Dad as a man.”
“Absolutely.”
He made a rough, raw sound in the back of his throat. “She was a real woman.”
All of a sudden Sarah knew what they were talking about. They weren’t discussing Mom. They were discussing Cass. Tommy was mad at his wife. They all knew. He’d been a dick to her for much of the day. “Mom wasn’t always happy, Tommy. And Mom loved Dad, but she didn’t let him do whatever he wanted. They had a marriage. A partnership. He’d give on some things, and she’d give on others—”
“But if Dad put his foot down, Mom backed off.”
Sarah arched a brow. “Depended what it was about. If Mom felt strongly, she didn’t accept the whole putting-your-foot-down thing.”
“Yes, she did.”
“Nope. We were there, Tommy, when Mom almost left Dad. It had to do with Brianna and how Dad was handling her. And Dad wouldn’t discuss it with Mom anymore, so Mom packed. She was leaving Dad. And she was serious.”
“I don’t remember.”
“Then you’ve blocked it out, because you were there, we were all there, and I was only eleven, but I remember being at the top of the stairs and crying my eyes out and Kit and Meg were holding me, wouldn’t let me go down.”
Tommy looked away, brow lowering. He remembered. She knew from his expression he remembered. “That was different,” he said gruffly.
“Was it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He shrugged, impatient. “I don’t know, but it had to have been serious.”
“And you don’t think Cass being unhappy is serious?”
“No, it’s serious.”
“You guys are at odds. We can all tell, all feel it, but it doesn’t have to be this way—”
“Tell that to her!”
Sarah tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, thinking she needed to take a different tack. “You and Cass will get through this, Tommy. It’s a rough patch, but if you stick together—”
“I can’t force Cass to stay, Sarah.”
“You can go to counseling.”
“Tried that. It didn’t work.”
“How many times did you go?”
“Enough to know I’m not going to sit there and be lectured by some lady I don’t know about how I need to be sensitive to my wife’s needs. I’m not insensitive to Cass’s feelings. I’m fully aware that my wife is grieving. Hell, I’m grieving, but what are we going to do? Fixate on something that’s not going to happen? Obsess about all the things outside our control, or move forward and enjoy what we have together?”
Sarah heard the rawness in his voice. He was in pain. He absolutely doted on Cassidy, and how could he not? She was the sweetest, most gorgeous, loving girl in the whole world. Cass had been raised with an alcoholic mom in a rough part of San Jose, and from the moment she’d met handsome, swaggering Tommy Brennan Jr. she’d been smitten. He was her hero. Her one and only true love. Tommy and Cass were married less than a year after meeting and it was the best decision Tommy had ever made. Everyone in the family loved Cass. Everyone wanted to see her and Tommy happy. “You still love her?”