Instead she had to break it off with him at her job. Before it got busy and then she was distracted all day. When Kelly asked her what was going on, she couldn’t tell her. She couldn’t tell anyone for fear she’d burst into a blubbering fool.

  Why did it feel like doing the right thing was the wrong thing?

  She couldn’t help it though. She was an embarrassment to Bryce, she knew. And if he found out the truth it’d be even more so.

  If she couldn’t be proud of herself and her own accomplishments, how could she expect someone as wonderful as Bryce to accept her? She’d always wonder if she’d be enough for him and it was just wearing on her worse than all those times her father said what he had to her.

  It should have come as no surprise to her that when she went to bed that night, she got another visit from her Aunt Millie.

  “Go away,” she said to her aunt and buried her head under the pillow. In her eyes that should have been enough that she wasn’t in the mood to chat.

  It wasn’t.

  There was a loud crash causing her to jerk up, turn and see that a drawer on her dresser was opened and had been pulled out all the way and crashed to the floor.

  “Do I have your attention now?” Aunt Millie asked.

  “How did you do that? You’re not here.”

  “Of course I’m here. I’ve been telling you that all along, but you’re too stubborn to believe it. Just like you are too stubborn to realize what a stupid thing you did today.”

  “Well, that’s me. Stupid, right? Isn’t that what everyone has told me my whole life?”

  “Payton Marie, I just want to walk over there and smack you upside the head.”

  Her jaw dropped. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Don’t tempt me. You aren’t stupid and I’m sick and tired of telling you that. It’s like talking to a brick wall. My brother was an ass to say the things he had to you his whole life. He and I had words plenty of times over it.”

  “You did? Why didn’t I know that?” She wished she’d known someone had stuck up for her back then.

  “What difference would it make? You weren’t my child and they were going to do what they wanted. That’s why I tried to do better by you. I tried to be a mother to you that you didn’t always get at home.”

  There were the tears now, fresh and wet, sliding down her face. “I always thought you were more of a mother to me.”

  “I tried to be and yet you still aren’t listening to me. Why? Why did you do it? Why break up with the best guy to come into your life?”

  “He deserves more than me. He can do so much better. And...and I’m worried that he’ll break up with me if he finds out the truth.”

  Or worse yet pity her, but she’d never say those words out loud.

  “So that’s it. You want to call the shots rather than be the one hurt?”

  “What’s wrong with that?” she asked, knowing the tears weren’t going to stop now. Who would have known there were this many tears in the body to come out?

  “Because you’re hurt now regardless and you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.”

  “He would have broken up with me eventually. I know it.”

  Her aunt opened another drawer and let it crash to the floor. “You’re just going to piss me off. You don’t know any such thing.”

  “We’ve never talked about the future. It’s not even in his mind,” she said. She’d known because she’d been looking for any sign of something more and there hadn’t been one flash, not even a flicker, nothing at all.

  “You read minds now?”

  “I know you mean well, Aunt Millie.” She couldn’t believe she was actually having this conversation, but at this point she was just going with it. “But he’s been encouraging me to expand the business, knowing that I’d be spending less time with him. That tells me he was looking for a way to not be together as much.”

  “You’re making assumptions.”

  “Based on facts,” she countered.

  “Facts in your silly head. You’re looking for something that isn’t there. You’ve spent too much of your life hearing that you aren’t good enough that you actually believe it. No matter how much I’ve tried to get you to think otherwise you’re never going to. Why?”

  “I don’t know. I just can’t. I was crazy to even start dating Bryce knowing how different we were. I had a good time with him these past few months, but it isn’t meant to be. I just can’t fit into his world and his family no matter how hard I try. What’s that old saying, putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t change it from being a pig.”

  “Payton. That is horrible!”

  “The truth often is. I’m sorry. Please go away,” she said and lay back down, then pulled the blanket over her head. She couldn’t talk about this anymore. Not even with her aunt...the one person she could tell anything to.

  Blinded By Things

  It’d been a week since Payton ended their relationship and he was only getting more miserable by the day.

  He’d wanted to call her a few times. Go see her at Millie’s. Check on her at her apartment. And every time he wanted to do it, he stopped himself. That could put him in a begging category, and if there was one thing he wasn’t, it was a beggar.

  She’d made her feelings clear on the matter and there was no stopping it now. To him it felt like it came out of left field, but the more he thought back, the more he realized it really hadn’t.

  That maybe he was blinded by things that weren’t there. That he’d been the idiot all along.

  Not once had she talked about the future. He’d brought it up a few times. He’d brought up Ella’s wedding in the fall. Maybe that wasn’t enough of the future for her, but it was still more than her. In her eyes it was just weekend to weekend.

  In his, he was thinking further down the line, even if he wasn’t always talking about it with her. Was he wrong not to bring it up? Maybe then he’d have been better prepared.

  He was getting ready to leave his office when his phone rang. He jumped to grab it, hoping it was Payton, but it was his mother. Not the woman he wanted to talk to.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Bryce. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

  “No. I’m just getting ready to leave for the day. What’s up?”

  “We haven’t seen Payton in a few weeks; I thought maybe you two wouldn’t mind coming over for dinner on Sunday again?”

  He swallowed past the lump in his throat. Guess he should break the news to her. “Sorry. I can come over, but not Payton.”

  “Is she busy? We can work around her schedule.”

  “I don’t know if she is busy or not,” he said. “She broke things off with me last week.”

  “What?!”

  He held the phone away from his ear, sure she just blew his eardrum out. “You heard me. Don’t make me say it again.”

  “What did you do? What did you say?” He was stunned that his mother was assuming it was him. Was it him? Or was it he just wasn’t enough?

  “Nothing that I can think of. She said she needed space. That she was taking my advice on expanding her business and we’ve been spending so much time together that she isn’t able to get things done. She just needed to focus on that.”

  “So it’s a short break?” his mother asked.

  “No. I read between the lines. We’re done.”

  “That’s it?” his mother asked. “Just like that? You aren’t going to fight for her?”

  “Mom,” he said, trying not to lose his patience. “She had her say. I’m not going to beg her or change her mind. Anyway, if the offer for dinner still holds, then I’ll be there.”

  “Why don’t you come over tonight? I’m sure you don’t have plans.”

  He didn’t and as much as he wanted to not think about dinner, he didn’t want to deal with his mother either. “Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got things to do at home. I’ll see you in a few days.”

  “See you Sunday. And, Bryce?”

  “Yes.”

  “I think you’re wrong to not fight for her.”

  “So noted.” He hung up the phone, grabbed his keys and left. He wasn’t wrong often in life and he hoped he wasn’t now either.

  A few days later, he pulled into his parents’ driveway and made his way to the front door. He was hoping enough time had passed so that he wouldn’t have to talk about him and Payton.

  He thought wrong. “So have you talked to Payton?” were the first words out of his mother’s mouth.

  “Diane, leave Bryce alone. This is none of your business.”

  “It is my business when my son is hurting. I know you are, aren’t you?”

  “Would you know if I lied to you?” he asked, already knowing her answer.

  His mother and father both snorted at the same time. “Do you really want me to answer that?” his mother asked.

  “You just did.”

  He walked past her to the kitchen to get a beer. He didn’t keep beer in his house and had been tempted to stock up this week but knew he’d end up drunk and didn’t want to deal with the ramifications of that.

  “So tell me what happened. You guys looked so much in love at the wedding a few weeks ago.”

  “I don’t know what you thought you saw,” he said.

  His mother put her hands on her hips. “I know what I saw in your eyes. Are you going to tell me you aren’t in love with her?”

  “It’s not the point, is it?”

  “It is exactly the point,” his father said. So much for thinking his father would come to his defense with his mother.

  “You both want to know that I love her and she dropped me out of the blue. Is that what you want to hear me say?”

  “So it was out of the blue?” his mother asked. Guess he let that one slip.

  “I don’t know. It seemed it. Everything was good until we had a run-in with one of her exes.”

  “What happened with her ex?” his father asked, taking more interest in the conversation now.

  “Nothing major. I mean nothing like a brawl. You know me, I’d never do that.”

  “So that’s it?” his mother asked. “She wanted you to stick up for her and you didn’t?”

  “I did stick up for her. Listen, he just said some mean things and I pulled her away from it.”

  “Mean things like what?” his mother asked.

  “He said she couldn’t read. That she was dumb and only after a guy to move up in life. It was crazy. Of course she can read. Give me a break. It was just words to get under her skin and it worked.”

  “You didn’t ask her if she could read, did you?” his father asked.

  “No. I told her to not let it bother her. That it was just the guy being a dick. She told me she could read, like she thought I would believe the guy. Give me a break. She just said she read slowly and he used to call her stupid and dumb. I can’t believe she stayed with him.”

  His parents looked at each other and he was trying to figure out what was going on between them like he did when they’d shared those looks when he was a kid.

  “How long did they stay together?” her mother asked.

  “A month or so. She said he just wanted someone on his arm. Someone to show off. Then when he started to treat her like crap she broke it off and he got really insulting toward her.”

  “Sounds like a guy who needs someone else to make him feel good. He probably felt like Superman bringing her down,” his father said.

  “I said close to the same thing. I thought she understood that. I even told her she has to stop letting what other people say to her bring her down. It happens all the time. She comes off as confident, but I’ve learned it’s forced. She really has a lot of self-doubt.”

  “She does,” his mother said. “She hasn’t had the greatest upbringing.”

  “I’ve met her mother. Trust me, I know. I’ve witnessed it. But I figured she was past it all.”

  “I don’t know if you ever get past that, Bryce,” his father said. “You can say you are and you can work at it, but things bring you back down easily.”

  “But why end things with me because of what that dick said?” he asked. “I refuse to believe that was the cause.”

  “I think it was,” his mother said, his parents sharing another look. This one with his father silently telling his mother to keep her lips sealed.

  He narrowed his eyes. “What do you know? Why would you say that?”

  Maybe he should have come to his mother earlier and asked questions. Seemed she knew more about Payton’s life than he thought considering that his mother and Rachelle never really talked much.

  “Diane,” his father said. “Stay out of it.”

  “No. He has a right to know.”

  “Know what?” he asked. What was he missing here?

  “Did Payton ever tell you why she struggled in school?” his mother asked.

  “No. Just that she didn’t like school. She isn’t the first person to struggle in school or not find it interesting.”

  “She’s dyslexic,” his mother said.

  “So?” he said. “I’ve had students with dyslexia. That doesn’t mean they aren’t smart or are any different.”

  “You see that. You understand it, but not everyone does. It was years before they found out why she was so far behind in school. It was hard for her to catch up at that point. She got through school, but barely and I remember her mother making comments on and off about whether Payton would graduate. She can read and write, but it’s not easy for her. I’m sure she is embarrassed by it.”

  It all started to make more sense now. The slow reading he hadn’t witnessed, but she explained that to him. The infrequent texts and sometimes the mistakes on them, but he just figured it was autocorrect.

  “So what if she was. I mean is that any reason to end our relationship?” It just didn’t make that much sense to him.

  “You’d have to ask her that. You don’t know what is going through her mind,” his father said.

  “Because she won’t tell me.”

  “It sounds to me like one of you needs to take the first step,” his mother said.

  “Why does it have to be me? I don’t even know what she feels for me.”

  “I think her breaking up with you is proof of how she feels.”

  “Mom, that makes no sense. It’s proof she doesn’t feel the same way.”

  “I thought you were my smart one,” his mother said and walked away from him.

  “What did I say?” he asked his father.

  “Think about it, Bryce,” his father said, then followed his mother.

  ***

  “Do you think we were too hard on him?” Diane asked Grant after Bryce left.

  “I think he needed it. I think he might have figured out she broke up with him because she is embarrassed and is afraid he’d think less of her if he knew.”

  “I don’t know about that,” she said. “I still don’t think he understands. He doesn’t think that way because he never lacked confidence in anything.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Diane. Bryce has struggled the most when it came to women and you know it.”

  “Struggled how?”

  “Do you mean to tell me I know something you don’t?” he asked, smirking at her.

  She wanted to wipe that look right off his face. “What do you know?”

  “Just that Bryce was used a lot by women. His brothers knew. I knew. Guess he never told you. Women were always hanging on him and around him, then trying to get him to do their work.”

  “So what,” she said. “He never did it.”

  “No, he didn’t. Or at least not after the first few times. But I think something might have happened in college. Not sure, and I didn’t ask. The point is, after that he stopped dating anyone that didn’t have something in common with his career or wasn’t as educated as him.”

  “I thought it was just because he wanted some intelligent boring conversations.”

  Grant laughed at her. “I think that is what he thought he wanted. I’ll give you points for helping him find out it’s not what he wanted. The problem is, what he wants might not want him back.”

  “Now you’re wrong. She wants him. They just need to figure it out.”

  “Well, Bryce is the smart one of the group. Let’s just see how long it takes for him to seek Payton out.”

  “Do you think he will?” she asked, getting hopeful.

  “Yes. I guarantee it. If for no other reason than to get answers. You know Bryce, he always needs to find the answers.”

  Work Harder

  “Bryce,” Payton said when she opened her door Sunday afternoon. She’d just gotten home from doing her prep and planned on doing laundry next and working on a catering menu. The last person she expected to see was Bryce. Not after he’d left Millie’s over a week and a half ago and there’d been no communication since.

  She’d kind of hoped he’d reach out to her after a few days. She almost did a few times to say she was sorry, that she didn’t mean any of it. But his silence was enough for her to keep back.

  Convincing her that she’d made the right decision.

  Now here he was showing up on her door out of the blue.

  “Can we talk?” he asked her.

  “Sure.” She opened the door wider and hoped to hell she could keep her emotions in check. She wanted to burst into tears just looking at him. That was secondary to wanting to jump into his arms and kiss him like crazy.

  She did neither of those things, rather let him in and followed him to the living room. He sat on the couch and her in the chair. She didn’t want to be anywhere near where she’d be tempted to touch him.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you had dyslexia?”

  How the hell did he know that? “Where did you hear that?”

  “Is it true or not?”

  She put her head down. “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because it didn’t matter. I mean it didn’t make a difference.”

  “But you and I know it does. So tell me about it.”