“Jessica,” I greet stiffly, trying not to revert back to the girl she’d repeatedly humiliated in front of everyone. That girl is dead.
“Reese, I didn’t think you’d be here,” she huffs, giving me a once-over. I look nothing like the girl she taunted all those years ago, but she’s smart enough not to comment on it. She drops her gaze to Eli, and then to my wrists. She knows the scars are there, the vertical lines that mar my skin, but my hold on Eli keeps them hidden from plain sight. I open my mouth, a snarky remark on the tip of my tongue, but a warm presence behind me has me snapping my mouth shut. I’d recognize that heat in the middle of a forest fire.
“Jess.” Thorin’s deep voice travels over my shoulders, and both rattles my bones and steadies me all at once. The shift in Jessica’s demeanor is so swift it’s almost imperceptible, but I’d seen it too many times in high school to miss it. For a short while, Thorin had protected me from her wrath, and whenever she overstepped, she’d play coy just to placate him. Obviously, it’s not something she’s grown out of. Then again, girls like her never really leave high school, figuratively speaking.
“Thorin,” she breathes. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I came to pay my respects, and see if you’re okay.” I fight an eye roll, and feel the way Thorin bristles behind me. I can understand why I wouldn’t want her here, but Thorin’s reaction to her presence is strange. He was all over her when they were together, she was his first everything, and now he’s treating her like a bug on the bottom of his shoe. In her defense, I don’t know how they broke up, why or when, but it’s obvious from Thorin’s cold tone that it didn’t end well. Not that I care. It wasn’t any of my business back in high school and it sure as hell isn't my business now. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”
“I was just saying hello to Reese. It’s an unexpected surprise to see her here, and with a baby, no less.” Her comment is laced with snark, and maybe even a little repugnance. If I weren’t holding Eli, I’d risk the embarrassment of throat punching her, regardless of the fact that we’re in a church. God would have to forgive me, or maybe overlook the indiscretion completely considering Jessica deserves it, and even He knows that. She makes a hornet look cuddly.
“Reese is family,” Thorin replies. “Of course she’ll be here, and the baby she’s holding is Ryan and Melissa’s son.”
Something in his tone makes Jessica shuffle uncomfortably, and her cheeks go a slightly darker shade of pink, though it’s hard to tell through the amount of make-up she has caked to her face. His inference to me being family, however, makes me stiffen. Ryan and Mel were my family, yes, and so were Maggie and Elijah Sr, but Thorin was never family to me, and he damn well knows it.
“Right.” Jessica clears her throat, and in its wake is a painfully awkward silence. Thankfully, the Pastor asks everyone to take their seats before Thorin has a chance to say something to me, and rather than sit next to me and Maggie, he joins his bandmates in the front pew on the opposite side of the isle. It’s a relief, to be honest, because while greeting him at his own brother’s and sister-in-law’s service would have been the polite thing to do, I’m not ready. In fact, I’m not even close to ready for anything that’s about to happen.
Maggie greets last of the guests, and I hear her sigh as she shuts the front door. After the service, everyone—and I mean e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e—came to the ranch for a light lunch. Maggie had it catered, of course, and ordered enough for an entire house full of people. Now that they’re all gone, it’s a relief. Between talking to people here and there, and feeding Eli or changing his diaper, I’m completely wiped out. I’m busy scrubbing a pan, the same one I’ve been scrubbing for god knows how long, when I catch sight of Thorin and Jessica laughing beside my truck. Although Thorin’s laughter is strained and his posture rigid, Jessica throws her head back, and touches his chest. Her laughter is enough to scare anything within a five mile radius. I frown.
“I never liked her.” I jump at the sound of Maggie’s voice, and look down as if I weren’t just caught staring. “I’m so glad Thorin ended it when he did,” she adds. I glance at her profile out of the corner of my eye and see she’s scowling. Maggie never scowls, always said it wasn't a Southern woman’s way, but at this rate, it looks like she’s about ready to haul her husband’s shotgun out the closet and scare Jessica off the property. I don’t know what to say to that, so I stay quiet. Eventually, Maggie grabs the pan from my hands, and puts it aside. “Scrub any harder and there’ll be nothin’ left.” Thankfully, she doesn’t mention that I could have just put it in the dishwasher, but I’ve been fidgety all afternoon and with Eli asleep upstairs, I need something to do with my hands.
“Sorry,” I mumble. “I’m distracted.”
Her expression softens, and she looks as tired and worn out as I feel. “Have you spoken to him yet?”
By him she means her son. I shake my head. “It’s been a little crazy.” It’s not a complete lie, I could have easily pulled Thorin aside and at least said hello, but I used every opportunity I could to avoid him. Not that he was easily accessible, either. He was caught up with his own conversations, people wanting to know how he’s been, what the band have been up to, and being told it’s good to have him home, despite the shitty circumstances. He was polite, but I could tell he was uncomfortable, and just as desperate to have everyone leave as I was. But Maggie allowed people to leave when they wanted, ever the hospitable and gracious woman. I glance up again, and Maggie’s scowl deepens, her hands fisted on the countertop. I follow her gaze. Jessica is close enough to Thorin to rest her hands on his chest, and she’s saying something. It’s difficult to read her lips from here, but I can imagine she’s propositioning him somehow, maybe offering him a delicate shoulder to cry on, or a quick fuck to take his mind off losing Mel and Ryan. I wouldn’t put the last one past her. I was, unfortunately, privy to many reminders about how wide she used to spread her legs for the man in front of her, of how hard he used to take her ‘all night long’. She liked throwing it in my face in high school. Often. “I’m going to check on Eli,” I tell Maggie, trying not to think much of whatever Thorin and Jessica are doing, or plan on doing later. Maggie’s expression softens. “Don’t avoid him for too long, sweetheart.”
“He looks pretty busy right now, Maggie.” Bitterness coats my mouth, and I can’t hide it from my voice. “I’ll catch him when he’s not so…occupied.” I look away from Thorin and Jessica, and make my way upstairs to Eli’s nursery. He starts to stir, so I change out of my black lace sheath dress, slide my heels from my feet, and rummage through my bag for something more comfortable. I place my shirt, and bra on the changing table on the opposite side of the room, and slip into a pair of yoga pants before grabbing a swaddling blanket from Eli’s chest of drawers. He’s awake when I look at him, barely making a fuss when I remove his pajamas. With him against my bare chest, I cover us both with his blanket, and kiss his head, noticing the way his eyes drift closed again. This is something Imani recommended, having Eli against my bare chest. I’ve been doing it since he came out of the incubator, and make it a nightly ritual before I put him down for the night. She explained that the skin-to-skin contact is good for him, and as reluctant as I was at first, it’s bonded me to him in a way I can’t explain. It soothes me as much as it does him, and it doesn’t take long before I’m dozing off too.
Reese: 14 years old
“What if everything changes?” I ask Thorin. We’re lying on the grass behind his parent’s house, staring at the stars. He takes my hand in his and gives it a squeeze.
“It won’t,” he assures me. “You’ll still be my best friend, we’ll still eat lunch together in the cafeteria, and we’ll still catch the bus together after my football practice like we always do, Reese Pie. Until I get my truck.” He smirks. He sounds so sure, but then again, Thorin is always sure of everything. He can strut sitting down. Me? Not so much. We start high school in the fall, and it terrifies me. Not that I’d admit it to Thorin. I feel weird around him someti
mes, especially because my body has started changing and I don’t like it. My boobs are small, but I’ve gained weight, especially around my belly and my thighs, and have a bunch of spots on my face. Ugh. Being a girl sucks. And if I look at Thorin, I realize just how unfair it is. He’s taller than he was at the start of the summer, he’s got muscles where there weren’t before and there’s not a single pimple on his face. Granted, he’s a year older than me, and started changing way before I did, but he changed in a good way. I’ve been around him a million times, we’ve been best friends since kindergarten, but suddenly, when I see him, my belly starts to flutter, and I start feeling shy. Not that he’s noticed. He doesn’t see me like that, he never has, and maybe part of my fear about starting high school is that he’ll start seeing other girls the way I want him to see me. Especially because they’ll be his age, and maybe he’ll even catch the attention of some of the older girls. The only reason we’re even in the same grade is because I’m taking AP classes so I can graduate a year early. “Do you promise we’ll stay friends, Thorin?” How can I tell him I’m scared that everything will change when school starts? That while he’s filled to the brim with confidence and self-assuredness, I’m overflowing from the inside out with insecurity? He turns his head, and pins me with his ice-blue gaze. “Best friends,” he corrects. “No matter what. As long as we’re under the same sky, you’ll always have me. And,” he rolls over to face me, holding my hand to his chest, “We’re going to senior prom together, remember? You promised me you’d be my date.”
I giggle. “That’s four years from now, Thorin.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he says. “You, and me, and senior prom. Together. Pinky swear?”
I give him my free hand and hold out my pinky.
“Pinky swear,” I promise.
He smiles, and rolls onto his back to look up again. The smile on my face lingers, and hope blooms in my chest like a lotus flower. Thorin will keep his promise, I know he will. For a while after that, he did. We did everything together freshman and most of sophomore year, but the summer before junior year, he really changed. Or maybe that’s when I’d started to accept that he’d changed, that he was no longer my Thorin. He wasn’t my anything. I wanted to blame it on the fact that Ryan was heading to college after that summer, and that Thorin was going to miss him, the same way I was, but I realized I was just making up excuses. He broke his promise, and many more after that. We didn’t stay friends. He thought we did, but not really. He’d cemented that by doing what everyone else did. Humiliate me. Albeit by default, or something as simple as a knee-jerk reaction on his part. But I had no idea at the time that my worst humiliation and heartbreak were still to come, or that it would push me over the edge and straight into the arms of the worst decision I’d ever make.
Chapter Five
Thorin
Jessica blinks up at me from beneath her fake lashes, and places her hand on my chest. Naturally, I want to step back, but she’s got me cornered against someones cherry red Super Duty F250—who the fuck would want a truck this color, anyway?—and I’m trying to be polite. The house is empty now, aside from my bandmates who have made themselves at home in the living room, and if I could just get rid of Jessica, I’d be quite happy to join them. But, Jessica is as fucking relentless as always and I ask myself for the millionth time what the hell I ever saw in her. Sure, she could give great head, and being the horny fucker I was in high school, I thought her pussy was fucking magic. But I was stupid back then, for not realizing that she was vapid and shallow—which hasn’t changed—and a downright mean bitch. Especially to Reese. The thought of Reese makes my skin tighten. We’ve been avoiding the fuck out of each other all day, aside from the encounter with Jessica at the church. I’d been sweating fucking bullets all morning about seeing Reese, and when I finally caught sight of her, with my newborn nephew strapped to her chest, I felt the urge to shove everyone out of my way and go to her. But then Mom was in my arms, and well, I remembered why we were at the church to begin with. Now though, I have no reason not to talk to Reese, but Jessica is persistent, and eventually, my patience runs out.
“Look, Jess,” I pull my hand over my hair, “I appreciate you coming today, but I really need to spend time with my family.” I’m hoping she’s at least smart enough to catch the hint.
“Of course,” she replies, putting her hand on my exposed forearm. I’d ditched the stuffy jacket, and tie hours ago, and have my sleeves rolled to my elbows. It’s cold outside, but being around so many people, having to plaster a fake ass smile on my face all damn day has me feeling hot, and uncomfortable. “I can stay a little longer if you need me to, I don’t mind.”
God. Someone rescue—
Someone clears their throat, and when I glance to the side, my mother is standing a few feet away, her hands on her hips. Her timing is perfect, and she looks pissed, but you’d never think it until she opens her mouth. “Oh, bless your heart, Jessica, but you need to get goin’. My son has a nephew to meet, and a family to catch up with.” It’s the bless your heart that gives her irate mood away. Everyone knows it’s an insult when a Southern woman utters those words. It’s code for go fuck yourself, get your filthy paws off my son, and get the fuck of my property rolled into one very small, dynamite-like package. Jessica’s quick step back is a knee-jerk reaction to my mother’s snippy tone, and at least she has the grace to look somewhat embarrassed by Mom’s less-than-subtle request to leave. “Sorry, Mrs. Decker, I didn’t mean to overstep.” She takes another step away from me. “And again, I’m sorry for your loss.” She teeters on her heels, and starts for her Lexus. “Thank you, Dear,” Mom replies, her smile saccharine but her tone harsh and unwavering. “You drive safe now, and anytime you happen to pass the ranch, I’d sure appreciate it.” I snort. She never liked Jessica, made it quite obvious when we were dating too. Hell, my entire family hated her, and I never understood why. I mean, Reese hated her too, but that I understand. Guilt, unwelcome and unexpected, washes over me. Jessica made Reese’s life hell in high school, but I was so far gone, I missed the signs until it was too late to stop the train-wreck in progress. Mom interrupts my trip down memory lane when she slips her arm in mine, and we start walking towards the house. “I’m glad you’re home, baby,” she says quietly. “I’ve missed you.”
I lift my arm, wrap it around her shoulders and kiss the crown of her head. “Me too, you did good today.”
She snorts. “I had no hand in today, Thorin. Reese planned it all before I got here.”
I stop at the bottom of the porch steps, and my brows furrow. “She planned it all?”
What the fuck?
“She had no help at all?”
“Not a bit,” replies Mom. “Except for the food, she did everything. She’s got some snap in her garters, that girl.” Something in her eyes reveals her pride. I, on the other hand, feel like asking Reese why she didn’t want help, it couldn’t have been easy doing it alone.
But she was always stubborn.
And then there’s also the fact that Penelope—fucking Penelope— didn’t tell me Reese had been calling several times a day for a week. Maybe if she’d gotten through to me I would have been able to come home sooner and help her. I rub my hands down my face, feeling tired as fuck.
“I need to talk to her,” I mutter, looking down at the ground. “Seems we have a lot to catch up on.” Like how she’s been living with Ryan and Mel since graduating from college with her business degree, and how my brother had built her a house on their property without uttering a single word about it to me. He never mentioned Reese in any of our phone call conversations, so imagine my surprise when I find out she’s not only living here, but has her own damn house on the property. That’s not what has me pissed though. It’s the fact that Ryan never told me Reese was back, that she was left destitute when her parents just up and left without a word (which Mom told me), and that she now lived with Ryan and Mel. He should have told me, I had a right to know, didn’t I?
> Nope, my brain says simply. My heart follows with, you lost the right to anything Reese-related years ago. Both are right, of course, and I rub at the ache it leaves behind my sternum. Maybe Ryan knew that too, and that’s why he never felt the need to tell me.
Damnit.
“Reese set the guest rooms up for you and the band,” Mom adds. “Y’all can stay here as long as you want.”
“Yeah,” I sigh, looking around at what is a much larger version of my childhood home. “I have a lot to figure out.”
“Better get started.” Mom gives me a smirk—real fucking subtle, Mom—and then tsk’s when I roll my eyes. “Thorin Jude Decker, you may be all grown up and world-famous, but I’m still your mamma, and I will tan your hide if you roll those pretty blue eyes at me again.”
I stifle a grin, but manage a ‘yes ma’am’ before following her up the steps. I’m eager to meet my nephew, Mom won’t even tell me his fucking name, but the guys are still here, including Alex and Penelope.
“Dude, your brother made some sweet fucking upgrades to this place,” Carson says. And he’s not wrong. Ryan expanded the original ranch house Dad bought, and it now boasts six bedrooms, five en-suit bathrooms, a home theatre, an office and I don’t know what the fuck else. I haven’t taken a chance to take it all in yet, but I know Ryan made a lot of changes over the years. And not just to the house, but the entire ranch.
“Speaking of, Reese set the guest bedrooms up for everyone.”
Alex looks up at me from his phone. “It’ll just be for one night,” he tells me. “You’ll all stay here for the night, and Penelope and I will check into the inn across town. I’m already in contact with someone about renting a house for a few months, for all of you.”
Under The Same Sky (Horseshoe Bay Book 1) Page 4
