Chapter 3
The bad day had not gotten better,
but, instead, had gone to worse and worst.
Brian pressed his fingers over his eyes to try and relieve the pressure
from the current headache he was dealing with.
He had found out about Leighanne’s wedding this afternoon at the airport
when he had been bombarded by reporters (why did they care about him still?!)
and had had to wing a statement to appease them. Of course, he had to remember not to let his
still-dissipating self-loathing show through.
Although the guys had told him that he had not been the one worth
leaving, it had obviously been her,
he couldn’t help but feel that if he had just been better or more loving, Leigh
would have stayed.
So, riding off
the self-directed anger, he had pulled up to Sienna’s Flowers to buy his mother
a bouquet, and he’d been hit over the head by the gorgeous woman who ran the
business. And what a place! It had taken
his mind off everything and made him realize that he could actually want a
woman who wasn’t Leighanne. He had
realized that the instant he had heard Sienna’s footsteps on the floor behind
him. When he’d turned and locked eyes
with her, he could’ve sworn the ground moved under them—of course, not, Brian
thought. Unless, of course, it moved
because, Hallelujah!, Brian Thomas Littrell was still a red-blooded, 27 year
old man and could find a woman attractive.
But the good mood
he had gained after the flower shop had quickly disappeared under the scrutiny
of his mother. She had loved the flowers
and asked him about everything that he had been up to for the last while since
she had seen him. Then, when he had
least expected it, over dinner, she had brought it up.
“So, Leighanne called me yesterday to let me
know, before everyone else, that she and Daniel were planning on getting
married quickly that night. She’s such a
wonderful young woman, and Daniel is so lucky,” Jackie gushed.
Brian groaned inwardly, but put on a
smile.
“He’s very lucky. I’m glad they’re together, and that Leigh’s
going to be a mom soon,” Brian said.
“I thought to myself, ‘What if Brian
and Leighanne had gotten married? I would have had my grandbabies by now,’”
Jackie said. “Leighanne is going to be
such a wonderful mother. I would have
loved to have her as my daughter-in-law,” she added wistfully.
“I know, Mom,” Brian said, quietly,
“but things happen. Not everything works
out the way you want it to.”
“But it should have, Brian. I didn’t want to say this before because you
were so distraught, but, really, if you had tried a little harder, Leighanne
would never have left you for Daniel.
Not that I think Daniel’s a terrible man. But he’s not my son, is he?” Jackie had given
him a Look.
Brian steeled himself and looked at
his mother.
“Nothing would have changed Leigh’s
mind, Mom. And, I think it’s time we
drop the whole matter. It’s been two
years, and I can’t go back and fix it. I
like my life the way it is now, and I wouldn’t change it.”
“Your life? Brian, the Boys are on a
break, and you’re lounging around in Atlanta doing charity events and
hobnobbing with god-knows-how-many loose women! I didn’t raise you that way,
and I can’t watch you destroy yourself and your faith this way!” Jackie cried,
indignantly.
Brian stood. “I love you, Mom. I can’t argue with you about this because
neither one of us will be happy in the end.
I need to leave now before I say something both of us will regret.”
And he left.
God, he should
have done or said something differently, he knew. But, he couldn’t sit there and have that
conversation with his mother. Ever since
Kevin had pushed him into seeing a therapist about his depressingly low
self-esteem, Brian had been trying to work his way back up and knew that, if he
had continued that conversation, the nearly two years of therapy would have
been destroyed.
Brian glanced
around at the backyard of his parents’ home.
It wasn’t the same split-level he had grown up in. He had moved his parents out of that house
and into this larger, more comfortable house when the sales from Millenium had come back ten-fold. He was proud that he could give his parents
something when they had taken incredible care of him all his life. Which was another reason he could not argue with
his mother.
Shaking his head,
Brian decided to go for a drive. Or a
walk. Or maybe both. He could park his car somewhere and then walk
for a bit. He just needed to clear
everything out of his mind—and soon. He
would run into the majority of Lexington soon enough, he knew. He wanted to be ready for it.
Sienna pulled into
the tiny parking lot behind her shop and turned off the engine. She glanced down at the drab, comfortable
clothes she wore. The baggy, gray
sweatpants were paint-stained and had a hole on the right knee. The tank top she wore was black and old.
“Oh, whatever,”
she huffed at herself. “It’s not like
anyone’s likely to walk into the shop.
It’s closed. It always closes at
six PM.”
Shaking her head at herself, Sienna
let herself in through the back door and stopped by her desk to find the order
form Mrs. Johnson had filled out.
Glancing over it and memorizing which flowers the customer wanted,
Sienna pulled open the door to the freezer and began to gather what she needed.
***
