He let out a wordless bellow, then curled over his knees with his arms wrapped tightly around his head because that seemed to be the only way to hold himself together. His body trembled with the flashfire wrath triggered by Heather’s mother’s insensitive remark, and no matter how he tried to subvert it, it raged on.
What he’d said needed to be said, but he shouldn’t have lost his temper like that. He shouldn’t have hit Brock, and he sure as hell shouldn’t have walked out and left Heather to fend off her family’s cruelty alone. But if he hadn’t left when he had, he was certain it would’ve been far worse.
He didn’t imagine he’d be getting any more invitations to dinner at the Browns’ house, and that was fine by him, but he hated that he’d put Heather in the middle of it all. She already ha
