Something Blue, page 18
“Do what? Sawyer, you’ve completely misunderstood this situation. I can explain.”
“You’ve tried explaining before. I knew you were lying then and I should’ve stopped you, but I didn’t. And you kept on lying, straight to my face. Straight to Garrett’s face. I tried to tell him and he got mad at me for doing the right thing! He refused to believe me, but now there’s proof. You can’t lie your way out now.”
“Lie my way out of what? Sawyer, this is just a picture of me—”
“Cheating on my brother.”
“Clay is my trainer!” Shelby yelled and thrust the phone into his chest. “He’s my horseback riding instructor. He’s been teaching me to ride for weeks now. Or trying to, at least, but I’m failing miserably.”
He could’ve sworn her eyes were welling up. Probably crocodile tears from getting caught.
“I fell when I was ten, broke both arms, and I’ve been terrified of getting on a horse ever since. I haven’t been on one since then, so you can imagine how that makes me feel, living smack-dab in the middle of horse country. I swore I’d never touch a horse again, but Garrett loves to ride. I didn’t even tell him I couldn’t ride until recently, because I could tell all of my excuses about not going were wearing thin, and it’s embarrassing! But Clay finally got me on one a couple of weeks ago, and I didn’t die.”
Sawyer stared at her flushed face, her hands finally settling by her side.
How could she not know how to ride at all? Even if awkwardly? Poorly at worst? But to not ride at all made no sense. Riding was just something people did.
At least, it was what his people did.
“You’ve told me you were trying on dresses, then you were in Austin,” he said. “And now you expect me to believe you, after I know you lied about where you were?”
“You know what, Sawyer?” She threw her hands up again, color rushing up her neck. “I don’t care what you believe.”
“What?”
“You heard me. You’ve got this all wrong, but you don’t even care. You got it in your mind from the very beginning that I was no good, so it doesn’t matter what I say. You didn’t want me marrying Garrett from day one, and all you’ve done for weeks is try to ruin our relationship and wedding.”
“That is not true. I tried to like—”
“Beth keeps trying to tell me how great you are, but she’s wrong.”
He felt his neck go hot too. “Leave her out of this.”
“You know there’s no way I can. You saw to that the moment you started trying to ruin everything.”
“I have proof that you’re running around on Garrett and that’s all that matters.” Sawyer turned and left before he could say something he’d regret.
His boots fell heavy across the front porch and yard, and he barely remembered getting into his truck and speeding away.
Of course Shelby would deny cheating till the cows come home. She’d lie straight to anyone’s face, that much was proven. He’d get nowhere trying to have her confess. No admission of guilt, no shame. No apology and no sorrow.
He’d have to tell Garrett himself. Show him the pictures and break his brother’s heart.
Garrett was at his house, sitting on the front porch as he worked on his laptop, Dodger wedged in beside him. Dodger jumped down as soon as he saw Sawyer’s truck.
The last time he’d seen the dog was when they were both mad at him, storming out of the stables.
He hoped today didn’t end worse.
“Hey, man.” He lifted his coffee mug from a small table. “Figured I’d be seeing you this morning.”
“Yeah.” Sawyer settled into the chair next to him. “I came by to talk.”
Garrett cocked an eyebrow. “Talk, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Now, why don’t I like the sound of that?”
“I don’t…” Sawyer didn’t finish the sentence as he sat down. “I just want to say, first of all, I actually had a good time yesterday. Last night, I mean. With you and Shelby.”
“I did too. It was nice.”
“Yeah.” It’d been months, maybe more than a year, since he and his brother had just hung out and laughed.
He hadn’t realized how much he missed it until they were laughing together, trying to outdo one another in mini-golf.
He loved his brother, and it pained him to have to do this.
“I…I just want you to know, I wanted to like her. I really did. But…” He gave up on saying the words and passed Garrett his phone instead.
Garrett studied it in silence.
“I’m sorry,” Sawyer managed to say.
“For what? What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“That’s Shelby.”
“Yeah, I know that’s Shelby, but why are you showing this to me?”
“She’s with Clay Reynolds.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah. I mean, come on, Sawyer. You know she called me as soon as you left her house, right? And I couldn’t make heads or tails of everything she said, but she told me about her riding lessons and Clay. I vaguely remember the name from high school, but I don’t know the guy. What I do know is I’m flat-out shocked she’s within ten feet of that horse. She’s scared to death of them, but other than that, I don’t see why you’re showing me this.”
“Garrett, she’s with him. She’s been with him. Since you announced your engagement. That’s who I saw her with in Carson, and again at Northcliff Ranch. She’s running around with Clay Reynolds.”
“Sawyer, we’ve been through this.”
“Then why won’t you believe it? You said yourself she’s scared of horses, so why else would she be around Clay except to be around him.”
“She’s around him to learn to ride. Are you trying to piss me off again?” Garrett slid his hand across Sawyer’s screen once, twice, and then stopped. “Why do you have multiple pictures of my fiancée?”
Sawyer ground his back teeth together, trying to keep cool.
“Did you have her followed? You did, didn’t you?”
“I had to.”
“Dammit, Sawyer.” He threw Sawyer’s phone back to him.
“I had to know what was going on. I tried to get to the truth at breakfast that morning, but she lied. She just kept lying. This was the only way to know for sure.”
“What did you do?”
“I tried to protect you. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“What did you do?”
“I hired a private investigator to prove she’s cheating on you.”
Garrett was on his feet in an instant, his laptop where he once sat. He moved so fast Sawyer barely saw it happen.
Sawyer stood up as well. “I hired an investigator. Look,” he said, before his brother could open his mouth and get even madder. “I didn’t want to. I put it off for a long time, but I kept seeing her with this guy. I saw them in restaurants together, then at Northcliff Ranch. And when I’d ask her about it, she’d lie. I had no choice.”
“You could’ve chosen to mind your own business.”
“I didn’t—”
“You could have chosen to trust Shelby, and me, to manage our own relationship.”
“I don’t want you to go through what I went through.”
“But that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’re trying to put me through the same thing that happened to you.”
Sawyer froze. That simply wasn’t true. He’d never put his brother through the pain he dealt with. He managed to shake his head, but no words would come.
“Can’t you see what you’re doing? If what you’re saying about Shelby was true—which I don’t, for one second, believe it is—then you aren’t going to save me from anything. You’re digging around to find out the worst, dredging it all up. You’re telling me I’m in the exact same situation you were in. My heart wouldn’t be any less broken because it’s you telling me that Shelby is with some other guy. In fact, I’d rather find out myself or from her, if it were even true.”
Sawyer shook his head again. “I’m not…I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Too late.” Garrett pointed at Sawyer’s phone. “This hurts me. You doing that, spying on her, hurts me. And if it were true, I’d be even more hurt by finding out this way. I don’t know how to make you understand that.”
He didn’t know what to think, what to say. He’d told himself he was only trying to save his brother from the kind of hurt he knew too well, but was that really the whole truth?
Was it even possible to save someone from that? Or was he really just trying to catch Shelby wronging his brother? Because he wasn’t able to catch Melissa until it was too late.
Pain creased his brother’s brow, his eyes hard and cold.
Sawyer knew betrayal, and all he’d wanted this whole time was to spare Garrett.
But this time, Sawyer was the betrayer. He’d hurt his brother two-fold in his mission for the truth.
“You had no right to spy on my fiancée. You’ve hurt me and you’re hurting the woman I love.”
“I—”
“Just stop this.” Garrett slammed his laptop shut. “You’ve got to let this go, if you want to be a part of our lives. Drop it and apologize to Shelby, or you can forget being a part of this wedding or anything else.”
Garrett scooped up his computer and coffee cup, and went inside, Dodger right behind him. He locked the door behind him, leaving Sawyer standing there. Alone.
How had this whole thing gone so wrong?
Sawyer dragged a hand through his hair.
He’d been trying to do the right thing. Look out for his brother. But all he’d done was hurt him, and now Garrett was talking about him not even being in his life?
His mind raced back over everything he’d done, from the time he saw Shelby in that diner to sitting at breakfast with everyone the next day. Or did it go back even further than that?
When did he decide his brother shouldn’t be with Shelby Meyers?
Chapter 18
She was with Cece, knee deep in tulle, when Shelby showed up, banging on the back door. She waved frantically through one of the door’s little windows.
“What in the world?” Cece asked.
“I don’t know.” But she could see Evelyn popping her head up behind Shelby.
Aurora stepped over the fabric, preparing herself. Evelyn popping up places was never a good sign, but she opened the door.
“Shelby, hey! Evelyn.” Beth’s stomach tightened at the look on Evelyn’s face.
“We need to talk.” Evelyn barged right in.
“Mother.” Shelby used a tone that Beth had never heard come out of her friend’s mouth.
“Well, we do. It’s her man causing all the problems.”
“Mother.”
“What’s going on?”
“Sawyer Silva,” Evelyn answered. “That is what’s going on.”
“Please let me speak,” Shelby snapped.
“Then speak!”
Cece looked away, clearly uncomfortable.
Shelby turned to Aurora, stress and anxiety etching little lines in her pretty face. “Sawyer came to see me today.”
“For…a visit?” Beth asked hopefully.
“To confront me.”
The tightening in Beth’s stomach turned to a knot of lead.
“He had a picture of me taking riding lessons and accused me of cheating on Garrett with my instructor.”
Heat rushed up Beth’s neck, surely blotching her skin like a rash. Not this crap again.
“I’ve been taking horseback riding lessons for weeks now, and I haven’t told anyone, not even you. But Sawyer has been suspicious of me ever since we got engaged, and apparently that’s why? I guess. He thinks I’ve been having an affair this whole time.”
“Is that why he—”
“Yes! He basically accused me of running around on Garrett a few weeks ago while we were at breakfast with his family. I didn’t know it at the time, but he’d seen me with my instructor after practice. We were having lunch together, but that was it. I swear that’s it. I’m not cheating on Garrett and—”
“Shelby.” Beth grabbed her friend’s flailing hands and held them tight in her own. “I know you aren’t cheating on Garrett. You don’t have to defend yourself to me. I’ve known you since before you started dating. You aren’t like that. Sawyer is just…” The tightness from her stomach clenched her chest. “I don’t know what is going on with him.”
“He’s a troublemaker,” Evelyn snapped. “That’s what’s going on with him.”
Shelby glared at her mother and Evelyn clammed up again.
Beth had never seen her friend actually stare her mother down or stand up to her.
Shelby refocused on Beth and squeezed her hands in return. “He’s been spying on me. I know that much. Garrett found out he hired a private investigator to see what I was up to.”
Beth’s stomach curled. “He did not.”
Shelby nodded, and Beth knew it was true. Even as her heart raged against it, her mind knew a fact when it heard one. “Oh my gosh.”
“Garrett is furious.”
“Rightfully so.”
“I think they got into a big argument. I don’t really know. All I know is I’m at the center of why.” Shelby’s eyes began to well up with tears.
“Don’t. Don’t you do that.” Beth hugged her close. “It’s not your fault they had a falling-out over this. It’s Sawyer’s. I’ll…I’ll deal with him. I don’t want you to worry about this. I’ll handle it.” Though she didn’t know how.
“Why does he hate me so much?” Shelby sniffed.
Beth wasn’t convinced he did. She couldn’t explain his actions, but she’d seen nothing in Sawyer that made her believe he hated anyone. “I don’t think that he does. I…I don’t think it’s you who he hates at all. But I’m going to find out. You can count on that.”
Shelby swiped at her eyes. “Don’t feel like you have to do that. You don’t have to say anything to him. It’s not your job to fix this and it’s a bad spot for you to be in.”
“I’m going to say something to him, all right.” Beth insisted. Not only because of how much he’d hurt Shelby, but because he’d betrayed Beth’s trust.
How could he still be on a tirade about Shelby when Beth had told him she was a good person? Didn’t he trust her? “I knew he had some trust issues, but I didn’t know they were this bad. I didn’t think it was like…this.” Beth shook her head. “I can’t believe he did this.”
She wanted answers.
She deserved answers.
Was this why he’d left her bedroom last night? Lying about something with the horses when all along he was out to punish her best friend?
And hiring someone to spy on Shelby!
How was he capable of doing such a thing? The man she knew, and had fallen for, wasn’t someone who’d sneak around and hire investigators and be bent on destroying his brother’s future marriage.
None of this made sense.
And yet, here they were. The truth was, Sawyer had been spying on Shelby through an investigator. He’d been a giant monkey wrench in the wedding plans practically the entire time.
Her mind went right back to their confrontation in the sitting room at Orchard Inn, to them arguing about his overinvolvement in the whole affair.
Even then, he’d been threatening to sink the wedding. He’d been ready to pull his emotional and financial support way back then.
Had he lied about changing his mind when they called a truce at Frank’s?
Had he been spying on Shelby and intending to destroy her happiness this whole time?
“Are you okay?” Shelby reached for Beth’s arm.
“I’m fine.” Beth jerked away, her gaze flying to Cece’s.
Her sister’s eyes widened. She would know, instantly, that Beth was far from fine.
“Why don’t you…” Cece managed to get around the tulle without the aid of her crutches. “We will take care of the Sawyer situation. You two don’t need to worry about a thing.” She took Shelby’s arm and began moving toward the door.
If it were only Shelby here, Beth would’ve broken down right then and there. But she refused to lose it in front of Evelyn.
That would never happen.
“Beth can call you later, okay?” Cece gave Shelby a look loaded with meaning.
“Oh. Yes.” Luckily, Shelby seemed to get it. “That would be good. We can go and let you guys handle this.”
“Handle it how?” Evelyn asked. “I want to know what’s going to be done about this instigator who’s been stalking my daughter. Or I will deal with it myself.”
“It will be taken care of, Mother.” Shelby took her mother’s arm. “We’re leaving.”
Beth wanted to be proud of her friend for finally going toe-to-toe with her mother, but she was too wrapped up in everything else falling apart.
Shelby eventually got her mother out the door, and Cece closed and locked it behind them.
She made her way back to Beth’s side. “Are you okay?”
“You shouldn’t be walking around without your crutches.”
“Forget my darn ankle for two seconds. This is about you.”
Beth turned and started winding up the tulle to put it away. “I will be fine.”
But right now, she didn’t know what to feel.
Waffling among shock, fury, and hurt, she couldn’t seem to land on any single emotion.
Beside her, Cece sighed and rubbed her arm.
How could Sawyer even be capable of this? Didn’t she know him at all?
At first, sure, she’d let herself get closer to him so she could keep an eye on him. She’d feared he might try to torpedo the wedding and keeping a potential enemy close was the best course of action.
But that motivation had quickly changed.
Every second of every moment she was around him, she’d grown to like him more. With a love of family and valuing honest, hard work, he was supposed to be a kindred spirit. Putting those he loved and his responsibilities above himself as much as Beth did, he understood her.
She’d thought they were in sync, that their relationship was going somewhere.
But all along, he’d been working against her, her friend, her business, and her family?
