When I Fall in Love(107)
Casper had shaken Darek off and now leaned over, clutching his knees, breathing hard. “Get him away from me.”
“What is wrong with you, Casper?” Ingrid’s voice shook, but Grace heard the fury gathering. “Have you been drinking?”
The look on his face pained Grace. The expression of a broken heart.
“No, Mom. I haven’t been drinking. There’s only one member of this family who drinks and destroys things.” He looked pointedly at Owen.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Why don’t you tell me why the first time I met Raina, when she thought I was you, she said, ‘Go away, Owen!’ Why she accused Darek—our family, actually—of using people. And why Dad had to ask me if I’d ever hurt her. It wasn’t because of us, was it, Owen?”
What—?
Grace looked at Owen, at the disheveled, angry, reckless person her brother had become, and suddenly she saw it. Owen and Raina sitting at the end of the dock the night of Darek and Ivy’s wedding. Raina laughing as Owen charmed her.
Oh no.
He didn’t. They didn’t . . .
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Owen snapped. “I never hurt Raina. We . . . So we hooked up.” He lifted a shoulder, nonchalant, but Grace could see how he glanced at their mother, couldn’t hide the flicker of embarrassment.
It was only going to get worse.
“You . . . hooked up,” Casper said softly, and the expression on his face was so terrible, Grace glanced at Darek.
He slid a hand over Casper’s shoulder.
It was then that her heart finally shattered because her brother Casper, the one who had never been anything but light and laughter and teasing, put his hand over his eyes and wept.
Silence descended around them.
Finally Ingrid took Grace’s hand. Then Eden’s. “John, I’ll leave you to get our boys to the church. I guess we’ve all forgotten this is actually Eden and Jace’s happy day. I’ll expect smiles, even if you fake it, for the next six hours.”
She glanced at Amelia, then turned. “Come, girls. We have to put on our pretty faces.”
Focus on life.
Max drove right to the warehouse, the words thrumming in his head for the last two hours.
He wanted to throw his cell phone out the window, shout at the top of his lungs, Grace, I’m on the way!
No doubt she thought he’d abandoned her. Hopefully Jace had given her the message. Tell Grace I’m sorry.
He could almost see her staring at Jace, incredulous. Sorry? What did that even mean?
It was Hawaii all over again.
He got out of the car, started for the reception hall. Stopped.
What if Jace had told her the reason Max had to see his brother? What if . . . what if she knew?
Max stood in the lot, the heat of the afternoon on his shoulders, trickling down his back. What if she knew and she looked at him with pity?
Suffering can either destroy you or it can save you. Because without suffering, we don’t need more; we have enough. But when we suffer, we can’t help but reach out.
Reach out. Past pity, past fear, for Grace.
And for grace.
God, I know You don’t hear from me that often, but I’m feeling desperate here. In fact, he felt desperate pretty much all the time.
Maybe he needed God all the time too. He blew out a breath. Give me courage.
He opened the door to the warehouse.
Out drifted the odor of burning sugar, acrid and sharp. He took off at a run through the reception room, to the kitchen.
Two assistants were fanning smoke where it emanated from the sink. Ty was running water into a pot, causing a hiss from the darkened mess inside.
“What happened?”
Ty looked up at him, his eyes wide. “We had a little kitchen fire.”
“A little kitchen fire? The entire venue stinks, and there’s smoke everywhere.”
“It’s my fault. I was stirring the mango sauce and it started to boil up, and pretty soon I couldn’t stop it, and then it spilled over and began to burn . . .” This from a skinny, long-haired student who held a rag to his hand.
“Did you hurt yourself?”
“It’s just a burn—”
“Run some water over it, then go find a couple fans, see if you can get them going in the hall. Ty, let’s get more made.” Max glanced around the kitchen. “Where’s Raina?”
“She never made it in.” Ty opened the fridge. “And then they had a big fight.”
“Who had a big fight?” Max reached for his chef’s jacket. “Raina and Grace?”
“No. I think it was Jace and . . . maybe Owen?”
Oh no. Owen was here? He’d forgotten that.
“I think it was the other brother. The one with dark hair. He came in and beat up the other one,” said a girl with short blonde hair.