There was no easy way to sit straight and proper for an easy getaway in the slanted chair, so she reclined into it, poised in case she needed to make a break for freedom. They each sipped their wine in silence, listening to the night call of birds, the wind rustling through the sea grass, the roar of the waves and the incoming tide. Delaney let the peace wash over her as darkness fell, and every muscle slowly released the tension she had barely been aware she had been carrying.
“Isn’t this a bitch? This wedding? This whole week?” Brigid spoke in the darkness. “Not that Caroline and Matthew getting married sucks. But this whole reunion week, like we’re one big happy family who just drifted apart?”
“Yeah, well, I guess family is one way of putting it. The most dysfunctional, sorry group of people ever.”
Brigid laughed and struggled to a more upright position, leaning toward Delaney. “I’m sorry about Anna. I should have stuck up for you.”
Delaney shrugged. “She’s like a bully in the schoolyard. She’ll push and push until you push back. It’s her edge.”
“She’s a bitch,” Brigid flatly replied.
Delaney pursed her lips, but had nothing to say. The moments dragged on, then Brigid sighed.
“She’s not a bitch. She was always jealous of you. Hell, she still is, judging by her nasty attitude earlier.” Brigid’s voice was quiet, but Delaney caught the meaning.
“She never used to be this edgy, this mean. What happened?”
“We all changed. But you, Delaney? I almost didn’t recognize you. You seem almost lost. And, at the shower, you just stood there when Anna spilled the punch on your beautiful cream dress. What happened to you?”
“You said it. We all changed.”
“So, why did you do it? Why did you walk away from everyone?”
Delaney settled back and stared at the night sky. So bright out here, so many stars. She wished she was one of them, anonymous, private, one of many. How could she explain this to Brigid, to everyone? They were all going to ask. What could she say to make them understand the fear, the anger, the overwhelming sense of responsibility?
Brigid was the least likely to understand, the one of them who faced everything head-on. She never hesitated to tackle any problem, never shied away from conflict, unlike Delaney, who preferred to keep the peace. No, law perfectly suited Brigid. She had been the one girl in their quad who brought all their issues to the forefront and wouldn’t allow them to fester until they exploded into wars, acting as mediator and conflict resolution for the group, while Delaney would have been happy hiding her problems away and smiling to cover it all up. Brigid was driven and had no time for pussyfooting around feelings or anything that impeded her goals, or, as Grady had implied, her family’s goals for her. Brigid’s father had made it very clear from the one visit Delaney had had with him that Brigid was expected to focus on her studies, not play house with silly women with more money than sense. He had hated that they were all going to the island for the summer, insisting that Brigid take summer classes and work toward her goals. Somehow, they had convinced him of the value of their connections and Brigid had worked on the island and taken online summer classes. Despite the gruelling schedule, the girls could convince her to relax sometimes, away from family pressures. But time, it seemed, had only increased the pressure and not provided Brigid with enough support to break the chains.
But it was exactly those qualities that made Brigid uniquely qualified to understand the family pressures that Delaney had been under.
“Brigid, I was going through a really rough time. I was barely keeping it together, never mind dealing with my mother, then my father’s death. You don’t know what it was like.”
“We were your friends,” Brigid stated quietly. “We would have been there for you, even Anna.”
“You had enough to deal with, getting ready for law school, your internship, and your own family issues.”
“Don’t put this on me. I would have been there.” Brigid straightened in her chair, staring intently at Delaney.
“It’s not that, Brigid. I know you would have. All of you would have. But it was so overwhelming. The criminal details. The financial details. The newspapers. The people, oh, the people.” The words flowed out of her like a fountain, spewing all the stress and tension that she barely knew she had kept. “You should have seen the letters, the phone calls, the emails. It was horrible. And right in the middle of it, my father had a heart attack, leaving my mother traumatized, everyone calling me for decisions, and I had to keep it all together. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I did the best I could. Someone had to.”
Brigid laid a soft hand on her arm and gripped it. “We could have helped you, if only to listen. If you would have let us in. But you never allowed us in. Instead, we were all on the outside, banging our heads against the wall of ice you put up, the wall we’d melted three years before. Delaney, you became a stranger to us, just like freshman year when we wondered how the hell we could all live together. You threw our friendship back in our faces.” She leaned back. “Life happens, but you blew us all apart.”
She unfolded herself from her chair and stood, staring at Delaney, the wind blowing her red hair around her face. “That hurt the most, the rejection. It was like we didn’t matter. And Ethan took the brunt of it. Please, for all our sakes, but especially for Ethan, don’t play with him this week, with his emotions. The rest of us can walk away, but he’s had to live with it.”
A spurt of anger darted through Delaney, heat flaming her face. “I wasn’t exactly having a goddamn garden party. I suffered too.”
“I have no doubt about that. But none of us had any closure. I know Caroline wants us all to be good friends again, like we were years ago. I don’t think that’s possible. Too much has happened. So, don’t be offended if we get snarky with you. You deserve every bit.”
Brigid turned to walk away, then paused, a glint of humor in her eyes. “However, if you can find that old ice princess deep inside, I’d love to see you bring her out and put Anna in her place. I won’t interfere next time. Just be nice to Ethan, okay? Don’t play with him.”
Delaney stood back ramrod straight. “I wasn’t aware you’d been appointed his keeper, his guardian.”
Brigid smirked. “There’s the old Delaney. Good. You’ll need her to survive this week. And I’m not his guardian. I just saw the aftermath, from a distance, but it wasn’t pretty. You bring destruction wherever you go. Don’t bring it here.”
She walked off to the house, staggering a little in the uneven grass.
Delaney watched her go and looked past her to the house. Ethan stood on the patio, framed by the flames of the fire pit. The flames cast an orange-yellow glow around him, and she felt herself drawn to him like the stereotypical moth to the flame. Ethan always drew her, no matter where he was. He was magnetic, and she was helpless to resist. Brigid didn’t know the entire story, and Delaney couldn’t tell her, couldn’t tell anyone, why she’d left. No one would understand her desperate need to protect her friends, ensure they weren’t tainted by her influence.
Brigid had been going to law school in Austin, interning at Caroline’s father’s firm, the same firm where Matthew worked. Standing by Delaney could have derailed all their futures. That was why she chose not to have Caroline’s father act as their lawyer. Not only had her father taken money from him, which would have made it a conflict of interest, but the vitriol against anyone associated with her family had been white hot.
Kira Van Owen fanned those flames as often as she could, reminding Delaney of how she could destroy everyone, how the taint of crime, especially a financial investment crime, could tear apart the fabric of their society. She had had to separate herself. Ethan’s father had understood, encouraging the breaking of the engagement, even as he was sorry for her. She didn’t need their pity, any more than she wanted their money or charity. She had pulled herself and her family out of the morass her father left them in, and she was succeeding.
She glanced at Ethan again, who waited for her. It was only a matter of time before she had to explain the breakup. What could she say that wouldn’t destroy his family ties?