Chapter Nineteen

Rio

This was fate’s way of laughing at me and telling me to fuck myself. Or at least, it felt that way. No woman should look that damn good after just waking up, especially when she’d had an interrupted night’s sleep and then spent the rest of the night on a twin bed with a kid.

Damn, damn, fucking hell! I didn’t want this image in my head. I was dealing with enough shit.

Then, she smiled at me. It wasn’t a flirty smile or even a happy to see you smile. It was more of a good morning , oh, you’re still here , and I don’t know what to say smile. But dammit, she made even that look good.

I nodded my head in greeting, unsure about speaking just yet.

“Are you gonna make Rio waffles too?” Cullen asked.

Bryn yawned, covering her mouth, and, Jesus, why was that sexy! Then, she nodded her head and gave the kid a genuine smile. It was a good thing she hadn’t given me one of those. My head was too mixed up this morning to handle that. I would have forgiven her anything if she’d smiled at me like that. I was pretty damn sure I would have forgiven her even if she had set my Jeep on fire.

It was the lack of sleep. That was all this was. Sleep deprivation was making me stupid.

“If Rio wants waffles, I will happily make him some,” she told the kid, then shifted her gaze to mine only briefly before turning to get a cup from the cabinet. The T-shirt she was wearing lifted with her arms, and there was a small flash of skin just above the waist of her shorts.

Why was that so damn sexy when I had seen the woman practically naked? It was the sleep deprivation. That, and I needed to get laid. Tonight, I would fix that. It had been weeks since I’d fucked. That had to be part of this.

“I need to get going. I’ve got things to handle before going into work,” I said, wanting to get away from Bryn as quickly as possible.

I wasn’t sure how much longer my good sense would hold out. My attraction to her wasn’t something I ever intended to act on. Seeing her last night, alone, taking care of Cullen the way his mom should have been, that had done something to my head. My good sense was gone for a moment. She’d almost won me over, and then I remembered all the reasons she was bad news.

I had been wrong about one thing, and after my brief stay here, I was willing to admit it even if only to myself. Bryn was a good aunt. Hell, she was a good mom. She was the mom we never had. The kid wasn’t suffering because of her. Tory was a piece of shit, but Bryn made up for it. She sacrificed for him, and it was clear he loved her. Working at a fucking strip club wasn’t the answer, but she wasn’t my business. If that was what she wanted to do, then fine.

“Okay, uh, thank you for that and last night,” Bryn replied with a soft smile that was as genuine as I was going to get, and that was a good thing.

“No problem,” I replied. I shifted my gaze from her to the kid. “See you around,” I told him.

He didn’t smile at me this time but nodded his head. His shoulders were slumped, as if my leaving was letting him down. Damn, this wasn’t something I had been prepared for either.

“Cullen, I need a little help, washing the berries. Can you get a chair and do that for me?” Bryn asked.

Just like that, his face brightened, and he rushed over to grab a kitchen chair.

She smirked when I looked back at her and shrugged. “He’ll be fine,” she assured me.

I knew he would be. I had witnessed how fine he was with my own eyes. I started to turn for the door when I paused and looked back at her. She was watching me.

“I forgive you for bashing the Jeep,” I told her. “It’s forgotten. Whatever made you do it, I don’t care.” If nothing else, I needed to let that go.

I didn’t wait for a response before heading for the door this time. She hadn’t expected my forgiveness, and I knew she probably didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t require one. I’d just needed to get that out. Then, maybe I could put her behind me. Move on from what I had witnessed here and forget her.

“Aunt Bryn didn’t bash your Jeep,” Cullen called out, and I paused with my hand on the doorknob.

“Cullen,” Bryn said his name, but I turned back around and looked directly at her.

She looked nervous and unsure. It was as if she was battling shoving me out the door or covering Cullen’s mouth.

I shouldn’t have said it in front of the kid. I hadn’t thought before speaking. Shit. He hadn’t needed to hear something bad about the woman he trusted and loved. But how did I backtrack and fix this?

“You’re right. I got confused. I think I dreamed that.” I replied, hoping that was enough so he would forget about it.

Cullen frowned at me. It had been a poor cover-up, but he was four.

Did he have to think it over so hard? Let it go, kid.

“You didn’t dream it,” he said to me. “We found Mama with that pole, beating up a Jeep. Aunt Bryn told me to lie back in my car seat and close my eyes, but I didn’t.” He looked at his aunt and lowered his head. “I’m sorry I looked, but I was scared Mama would hurt you with that pole.”

“It’s okay,” she assured him, then reached down and ran a hand over his head. “Go on and wash the berries,” she added, but she didn’t look at me.

She shifted her gaze down at the kitchen towel she was wringing in her hands. I waited for her to elaborate. To explain why I’d found her with a pole in her hand and not Tory. Asking Cullen to say more felt wrong. He shouldn’t have known the truth or witnessed it. But him being in the backseat made sense. Where else would he have been? I knew now that there was no way Bryn would have left him home alone to come bash my Jeep. Maybe once, I would have believed that about her, but not now. I had seen too much into their life in my brief stay here.

“You gonna say anything?” I asked her when the silence continued.

She sighed and finally lifted her eyes to meet mine. “What?” she snapped.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe explain why you took the blame for it, lost your job,” I began and decided to leave out, Started working at a strip club . I had already said too much in front of the kid.

Bryn leveled her gaze on me, and it suddenly looked more like a glare. She was angry with me, as if I should understand. As if this were my fault.

“I did what I had to do,” she replied.

How the hell was this my fault? She had let me believe she had bashed my Jeep. I’d had every right to be pissed off about it. I should have filed charges that night. I shouldn’t have let my insurance pay for it. And she’d given two thousand dollars for it.

“You lost your job and your last paycheck. How was that the thing to do? Look at what you ended up doing because of it.” I stopped myself and glanced at the kid.

He was watching me. This wasn’t the place for this conversation. He didn’t need to hear it. But he had seen what had happened that night.

I looked back at her, and with a softer voice, I asked, “What if I had pressed charges? He needs you .”

I saw something in Bryn’s eyes before she looked back down at the towel in her hands. “Thanks for forgiving me,” she said finally but didn’t look back up at me, but at Cullen. “Let’s get those berries dried. We have waffles to make.”

Cullen handed her the fruit he had washed, and she went to work, putting them on the towel she had spread out on the counter. She wasn’t going to say any more in front of Cullen. As much as I wanted to talk about this, I didn’t press because she was right. He had heard too much already.

Without saying any more, I opened the door and left the apartment.

I didn’t walk away from the door yet. Instead, I stood there and took a deep breath to calm myself, but it didn’t work. My chest felt as if someone had a fist inside, twisting everything. Why was I reacting like this? Because I had believed a lie? Did this matter? Should it? Every-fucking-thing about Bryn Wallace was screwed up. Her entire world was full of baggage I didn’t want to deal with. Shit I had left behind a long time ago in my own life.

I studied the place, my surroundings, and made sure nothing was sketchy before making my way down to the street. I heard the bolt click into place in the door as I walked away and wondered if she had seen me still standing out here.

I wasn’t her hero, and I didn’t want her to think I was going to be. I’d do what needed to be done to make sure the kid was safe from whatever shit his mama had left behind, and then that was it.

Getting in my Jeep, I turned and headed up the main street toward my house. I needed a shower and some food, but first, I was going to get Saul and Drake. It wasn’t that I was nervous around dealers or addicts. I had lived with one most of my life. My mother had been an addict, and dealers had come and gone in our home, wherever it was at the time.

Saul knew the area better than me because he had dealt with his mother’s addictions. He could find the people I needed to see. Drake was just another body. Numbers were always safer. The more of us, the better. I wanted this handled, and I wanted to get on with my life.