Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
She hadn’t said anything about herself. She hadn’t said us . Just Cullen. Henley was right about one thing; I seriously doubted Bryn was using drugs too. She didn’t act like someone using.
“That’s settled then,” Henley said. “I will call tomorrow and see what I can do to help out. Just let me know when you go back to work.” She turned and walked to the door then.
“I’m walking you to the car,” I said. There was no way I was letting her walk out there alone, coming from this apartment.
She didn’t argue, and I was relieved. Cullen was still listening to us. The tilt of his head said as much. The less he knew about the world his mother lived in, the better his life would be. I didn’t know how much Bryn had managed to shelter him from, but from what I could tell, she had done everything but take him away from his mother. Which, in my opinion, was what she should have done a long time ago.
“Lock the door behind me. I’ll knock when I’m back,” I told Bryn, not looking back at her.
The walk out to the car and the few moments away from her would give me time to think. Being in there and watching her had my head messed up. My concern was for the boy. Bryn could take care of herself. She had been doing so for a long time.
When we were far enough away from the apartment, Henley looked back at me. “She’s not what you think she is. She might have lived some awful life, growing up, that you think I wouldn’t understand, but it made her strong. She’s tough. She’s resilient. She doesn’t fall apart when things get bad. She does what she has to for those she loves. She is protective and nurturing to Cullen. He is well taken care of. Whatever you think her life did to her, you’re wrong. That woman is not a drug user. I just hope you see it before you do too much damage to undo it.”
Sighing, I looked down at her. “What damage am I doing? I’m staying, aren’t I? Keeping them safe,” I reminded her.
We reached the car, and Henley turned to me. She pointed a finger at my chest and glared up at me. “The kind of damage that ruins any chance you might have at getting to know her again. She’s under your skin, and I think she has been since you were kids. You can’t shake it, and you ignore it. But I see the way you look at her. Under all that fake crap, there is something there, and you hate it. Well, you’re gonna hate it more if you lose it.”
Henley had no idea what she was talking about. I didn’t trust Bryn, but I wasn’t going to tell my sister I suspected she had tracked me down and was probably desperate.
“Text me when you’re back at the house,” I told her. “So I know you made it safely.”
She smiled and climbed inside the car. I waited until she pulled out of the parking lot to turn and head back to the apartment.
Henley was wrong. There was a past with Bryn and me. When I looked at her, memories of the girl she had been came back, and I couldn’t help that. It was hard to keep this Bryn and the girl she had once been separate. We had just been kids, but Bryn had been special.
Henley was reading things into the memories that haunted me and nothing more. Well, except the attraction, but I was a man, and Bryn was impossible to overlook. Her face, hair, body, the way her top lip was slightly bigger than her bottom, smooth and tan skin that appeared too perfect. Yeah, I fucking looked at her, but it was lust that Henley saw in my gaze. Nothing more.
I knocked on the door and noticed the curtain covering the window move. I was glad she was being careful. For the kid’s sake at least. From the way things looked, Bryn was all he had in this world. He clung to her as if he understood that. Where the fuck was his dad?
Bryn opened the door, paused, and studied me a moment. I thought perhaps she was going to tell me she didn’t need me to stay now that Henley wasn’t here to demand it. If that had been on her mind, she pushed it aside and moved back so that I could come in.
I was glad she’d made it easy because her telling me to leave wouldn’t have done any good. We would have just ended up fighting, and I would have won.
She glanced back at the sofa, and I followed her gaze. Cullen had fallen asleep and was now slumped over.