Chapter Seven

Rio

Work had done little to distract me today. I wasn’t in the mood to be around people, and if I wasn’t starving, then I would go directly to my bedroom. The smell of something cooking drew me toward the kitchen even though the sound of voices got louder.

The only cars outside were Saul’s, my best friend and the owner of this house; Henley’s, my sister and Saul’s girlfriend; and Drake’s. Those three I could deal with if that meant I would get some of Henley’s cooking. She was best at baking, but she could cook better than the three of us.

When I stepped into the kitchen, Henley was closing the fridge door, and her eyes met mine. She frowned. “I heard about last night,” she said.

I was sure Drake had given them both every detail.

“I bet,” I replied and shot Drake an annoyed glance.

He just shrugged and took a drink of the beer in his hand.

“Did she say why she was working there?” Henley asked.

Talking about Bryn was the last thing I wanted to do. Eating, showering, and getting in bed to hopefully sleep and forget Bryn was my plan.

“Needed a job,” I replied.

Henley rolled her eyes at my response. “Most women who work at places like that do so because they have to. They need the money that they can make there, doing it to take care of someone or to pay for school, something that a lower-paying job can’t cover. Does she have a kid?”

I shook my head. She didn’t have a kid, and she wasn’t going to fucking college. She was using folks not hiring her because of what she had done to my Jeep as an excuse. I didn’t fucking buy that.

“Her sister has a kid,” Drake said. “Or at least, I think so. We only hooked up twice, but she mentioned him. Said she was late because she had to get him to bed or some shit like that. I didn’t ask details.”

Drake’s messing around with Tory had been around the time of my Jeep getting bashed to hell. For a moment, I tried to make myself believe Bryn had done it because of something Drake had done to Tory, but that didn’t add up. It was my Jeep, and I hadn’t done shit to her. She had said she made a mistake, but she knew I drove that Jeep. She had seen it at work. We had parked beside each other a few times. I’d said good morning to her as we got out of our vehicles.

“Does she live with her sister and nephew?” Henley asked.

I nodded. “Yeah.” That much I did know. I hadn’t been aware Tory had a son, but I did know they lived together. It had been on her job application.

“Maybe she needed the money because of the nephew,” Henley suggested.

“Tory can’t keep a fucking job,” Drake piped in. “She had been fired from two last time I talked to her, and she’d only been in town two weeks or something like that.”

Henley raised both her eyebrows at me, as if Drake had said something informative.

“This is Rio’s shit to handle. Let’s not meddle,” Saul said as he walked up behind Henley and placed his hand on her waist, then kissed the side of her head.

She glanced up at him. “I’m just helping. He is struggling with this. It’s in his eyes.”

Saul smirked, then shifted his gaze to me for only a second. “Yeah, he looks torn the fuck up.” He pressed another kiss to her temple.

Henley sighed. “Fine. I’ll let it go. But”—she pointed the wooden spoon in her hand at me—“don’t judge what you don’t know. Just in ten minutes’ time, you found out she had a nephew living with her. I have a feeling there is more to her story.”

“You don’t know the girl,” Saul said, amused. “How do you have a feeling?”

She shrugged. “Because Rio cares enough about her that it’s upset him. She must have something about her that makes her special.”

Drake snorted with laughter, and I didn’t even look his way. I knew that laugh, and I knew whatever was about to come out of his mouth was going to piss me off. I went to the fridge to get a beer instead.

“Yeah, her tits are pretty damn special,” Drake said.

I slammed the fridge with more force than necessary and glared at him.

“Easy, boys,” Saul said from behind me.

“Don’t be a jerk,” Henley told Drake.

“I don’t care about her. I did once, but that world fucked her up. Seeing her so damn screwed up is hard. It reminds me what could have happened to me.” I stopped. I wasn’t going to talk about my mom. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be back for food later,” I said to Henley before heading out of the kitchen.

“What?” I heard Drake ask. “I didn’t know that was going to make him pissy.”

I didn’t wait to hear what else was said before making my way to the stairs. Henley was right about my not knowing Bryn’s life. We had spoken at work briefly, and then I had only asked her if she was enjoying her job. Giving her a job had felt good, but I hadn’t been interested in catching up. She was part of a time in my life I didn’t want to think about.

Closing the door to my bedroom, I went directly to the bathroom and turned on the water to the shower. Thinking about Bryn wasn’t doing me any good. That was a part of my past, and bringing her into my life now had been a mistake six months ago. I wasn’t going to do it again. She was no longer the girl in the trailer next door who needed saving. She was a grown-ass adult, and we lived two different lives.

There had never been closure for me with her, and that was all this had been. I had found my mom dead, my grandparents showed up, and I was gone without even a good-bye to Bryn. I had worried about her for months until life moved on and her memory slowly faded.

I knew the life she’d had as a child and the kind of effect that could have on you. My grandparents had saved me. They had turned me around. I was different because of the life they had given me here. If my mom hadn’t died and I’d continued living in that life, there was a good chance I would be in jail by now.

Bryn hadn’t been saved, and it was too late to save her. She was the result of a very broken, fucked up childhood. I couldn’t continue to let myself remember the girl she had been because I wasn’t that boy anymore. We were grown. The days of turning things around for her were over. She was a product of the life she had been given.

Knowing this and accepting it were two different things.

The hot water continued to fall, and while it washed over me, I stood there, staring at the marble tiles. Bryn’s coming here could have been fate, but then I wasn’t sure I believed in things like fate. There was a good chance she’d looked me up and come here because of me. She could have thought she could get money from me. It was almost too long of a stretch to be a coincidence. But at first, I hadn’t wanted to think that about her. I wasn’t so sure now.

I didn’t know her. This Bryn was different. The best thing I could do was put this and her behind me.

Forget it. Forget her. Move the fuck on. Leave the past where it belongs.

I’d be better off, forgetting her.