Page 26 of More Than Words (Trickle Creek: The Lyons #2)

Chapter Twenty

Ethan

T he table was set, the food was hot, and the energy was off.

Really off.

Normally, family dinners were loud and chaotic in the very best way, with too many voices all talking over one another.

Grayson giving Preston crap about something, probably about forgetting the napkins or buns or some other equally basic item he’d been assigned but still managed to forget.

Brody pretending he was the head of the family because he was the oldest, and the rest of us letting him think it.

But tonight?

Everyone was polite.

Too polite.

Quinn sat next to Reid, next to the empty seat across from me.

Delaney’s seat.

I tried not to look at it, or acknowledge that her absence was the reason everyone was acting so weird.

“This is good.” Preston handed the platter of roast beef to Avery. “Better than usual.”

Brody frowned, but resisted the urge to fire back some sort of comment about how the only thing Preston could cook was breakfast cereal.

“No, it’s not,” Quinn blurted, and I shot her a look. “Sorry, Uncle Brody,” she added quickly. “But roast beef isn’t my favorite.”

“I know.” Brody nodded graciously. “It’s okay. I was going to make burgers, but I wanted to…”

He let the thought trail away, and I swallowed hard, picking at my mashed potatoes. He’d wanted to make something special because Delaney was supposed to be there and it would have been her first Lyonses’ family dinner. But I had to go fuck it all up.

“More gravy?”

“No one wants more gravy, Dad!” Quinn dropped her fork on her plate with a loud clatter.

“Quinn.” I shot her a warning glance.

She gritted her teeth and picked up her water glass.

Things had only gone from bad to worse between us since we’d run into Delaney in the plaza the day before, but I did not need it coming to a head at the dinner table in front of everyone.

Thankfully, she went back to picking at her dinner, but as soon as I thought I was in the clear, Avery set down her wine glass and said, “Where’s Delaney tonight, Ethan?”

I flinched and set my fork down slowly. “She had things to do at the shop.”

I didn’t miss the way Quinn looked up and glared at me. Neither did Reid, by the way his eyebrows shot up.

“That’s weird,” Avery continued. “She said she was really looking forward to coming.”

“She changed her mind.”

That did it.

Once more, Quinn dropped her fork onto her plate. The clatter bounced off every wall in the room.

“No, she didn’t,” Quinn announced. “She didn’t change her mind,” she snapped. “You hurt her, Dad.”

“Quinn.” My voice held a warning.

Everyone at the table went still. All eyes turned to me.

Brody cleared his throat. “Kiddo, I?—”

“You didn’t see her,” Quinn went on, ignoring her uncle. “She was trying not to cry and Dad won’t even talk about it. He told me it was nothing and not to worry about it. But I am worrying about it.”

“Quinn,” I tried again. “That’s enough.”

“It’s not!” She shoved her chair back. It fell with a bang on the hardwood, but she didn’t care. “I like her, Dad.” Tears streamed down my daughter’s face. “I told you not to be gross.” Her voice cracked. “I didn’t say you had to screw everything up.”

And then she was gone.

I flinched as the sound of the bathroom door slamming down the hall resounded through the silent house.

For a moment, everyone was still. Avery stood a beat later, dropped her napkin on her plate of untouched food and, with a disapproving glance in my direction, followed her out of the room.

The rest of us sat in heavy silence.

Grayson was the first to speak. “So,” he said slowly. “Are you going to tell us what the hell happened?”

I ran a hand down my face and took a breath. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Doesn’t look that way from where I’m sitting,” Preston said.

Reid crossed his arms and stared me down. “It’s clearly a big deal to Quinn.”

My eldest brother pushed his plate out of the way and leaned forward, elbows on the table. His voice was calm but firm. “Ethan. What did you do?”

I exhaled, already exhausted, but there didn’t seem to be any way out of discussing this with my brothers.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Before they could object, I continued.

“She showed up to the community meeting, but she got there late. Right after the vote on the patio. I didn’t even notice she was there until afterward, and when I saw her… well, she was upset.”

“Upset?”

I nodded. “I caught up with her in the parking lot and she laid into me because I didn’t tell her about the whole thing.”

“You didn’t tell her?” Reid asked. “Seriously?”

“So Delaney found out you were putting a patio out front of both your stores after the vote passed?”

I had to admit, it sounded even shittier when Grayson laid it out like that.

“Why the fuck wouldn’t you talk to her about something that major?” Brody shook his head incredulously.

“I don’t know women,” Preston chimed in. “But, damn , brother.”

“What?” I raised my hands. “I didn’t even think about it, and I certainly didn’t think it would be a problem.” I hated how defensive I sounded. “It’s only a few tables. It’s not really even in front of her space. It’s just…”

“You’re missing the point,” Reid said.

Grayson nodded in agreement with his twin. “Completely.”

“She’s not mad about the tables,” Brody added. “Well, she might be. But I don’t think that’s the problem here.”

“Then what?”

I truly wanted to know, because every time I thought maybe I was getting close to understanding how I’d managed to screw things up so badly, it still didn’t make any sense.

My brothers all exchanged glances, but it was Brody who said, “She’s upset because she thought she mattered to you.”

“But she?—”

“She supported you.” Brody cut me off smoothly. “She made room for you and Quinn in her life. She was in it with you, man. And then, at your very first opportunity, you went and showed her exactly how much she doesn’t matter to you.”

That landed.

Hard.

Right in the center of my chest.

“And then she finds out from a room full of strangers and townspeople that you made a decision that will directly affect her and her business.” Preston shook his head. “Come on, man.”

“I agree that the patio itself isn’t that big of a deal,” Grayson added before I could recover. “Just a few tables, and I know the plan you have is simple and unobtrusive. It probably won’t impact her business at all.”

“But Delaney doesn’t know that,” Reid continued. “Because you didn’t give her that chance to understand. You didn’t even consider her in this.”

“We warned you, Ethan,” Brody said with a look of disappointment only a big brother could pull off. “When we were talking the other night. We more or less told you that Delaney would care.”

“You screwed up,” Reid confirmed with a nod. “Big time.”

Shit.

They weren’t wrong.

“Hell,” Preston said. “She probably would have helped you design the whole thing. But you didn’t ask. ”

And suddenly, it was so obvious.

I was a first-class asshole.

Worse. I was an oblivious asshole.

It wasn’t so much about zoning or sidewalk space or being in front of Plot Twist. It was the fact that I’d made a choice that directly impacted her world, and I didn’t even stop to consider her or take the time to loop her in.

“Honestly, it wasn’t about blindsiding her.”

“We believe you,” Reid said. “But does she?”

She didn’t. I shook my head. She’d said as much.

I’d charmed my way into her life, made her feel safe, loved . And then I went and proved that I was just another man putting himself first.

Fuck.

“I didn’t even think…”

“About her,” Reid finished for me. “And that’s the problem.”

“Brother.” Brody shook his head. “You’ve spent too long only thinking about you and Quinn. Even when you were married, you didn’t have to consider Polly because she did enough of that for herself. But it’s not just the two of you anymore.”

“Not if you want this thing with Delaney to work.”

I did.

I very much did.

I stared at my plate and then at the seat where Delaney should have been.

And for the first time, it all became very, very clear.

Delaney wasn’t upset because of the patio.

She was hurt because I didn’t make space for us.

I hadn’t just let her down. I’d made her believe she didn’t matter. And fixing that? It was going to take more than charm and apologies. It was going to take more than words. It had to mean something.

And I’d make damn sure it did.

My gaze traveled toward the hallway where Quinn had disappeared.

Delaney wasn’t the only one I needed to make things right with.

I’d fix it.

All of it.

Delaney

By the time the group got around to discussing the grand gesture, I was completely over it.

When I told Rochelle she could have the night off, and I would lead the book club discussion because I wouldn’t be attending the Lyonses’ family dinner after all, I’d completely forgotten that it was the romance meeting.

“And what do you think about the way the hero groveled in chapter fifteen?”

A few scattered murmurs filled the cozy corner of the store. Half a bottle of wine sat on the table, with a few cookie crumbs left on the platter.

I blinked at the group of familiar faces that were all staring at me, waiting for my opinion.

Right. Book club.

Focus, Delaney.

“I mean, I thought maybe he could have…”

“Done something ,” Joanne jumped in. “I mean, groveling is fine and all.”

“But back it up with action. ” Nora nodded along.

They weren’t wrong. An apology was one thing. But for the hero to do something to show the heroine how he’d changed…that was the real win.

My mind flashed to Ethan, but I immediately pushed it away. Life wasn’t a romance novel, and Ethan wasn’t the hero of my story.

That much was clear.

No matter how much I wanted it to be true.

“That’s a great point,” I added, happy to contribute something considering I’d spent most of the meeting lost in thought about the dinner I should have been at. “When trust is broken in real life, it takes more than groveling to make it better.”