Her head moved in the faintest nod before shaking. Voice cold when she said, “I want nothing to do with her—I don’t want anyone to have anything to do with her. She’s toxic, whether she’s physically near you or not. Look what she’s done to Lala.”
She pressed her lips tightly together, and I could practically hear the words she refused to give voice to.
Look what she did to me.
I released a heavy exhale and moved my hand into hers. “All right,” I conceded. “All right, tell me you don’t want to know, and that’ll be the end of it. I’ll have my dad tell his guy to stop tracking her, and we won’t find out, I swear to you.”
Emma sucked in a breath, and I knew from the look in her eyes that she was about to take that offer. That all her years of rebuilding herself had her wanting to stay on a path far from her mom’s reach.
But at the last second, her stare slid to my dad, and she asked, “Where is she?”
I studied her for a second longer and then looked at where he was watching me, as if waiting to make sure I thought Emma could handle whatever the news was.
With a nod, he handed Emma his phone as he spoke. “Montana state prison. Serving a ten-year sentence as of six months ago for her second conviction of aggravated robbery.”
Emma studied the details and mugshots on the phone for a few moments, her hands trembling before the rest of her body joined in too. And then she was leaning into me as she gave the phone back to my dad, a pained breath tumbling free when I wrapped her in my arms.
“She looks terrible,” she said when my dad slipped away. Her voice twisting and dipping as if some distant part that would never let go still felt responsible for her mom—felt at fault for her mom’s current state.
“Over twenty years of her lifestyle would be hard on anyone.” When she just nodded against my chest, I begged, “Tell me something about you.”
A soft huff fled from her. “I’m glad that she can’t get to me or Nora or Lala . . . that she can’t get to you. That she can’t poison our lives. And I don’t know if I should feel bad about that, but I don’t.” Hesitation built between us for a few moments before she admitted, “I hate that I feel bad for her.”
“You took care of her for over half your life,” I said understandingly. “And no matter what she did, she’s still your mom.”
“Yeah,” she whispered, then pulled slightly from my hold when Kennedy and Chase came rushing through the room.
“Ignore us, ignore us! We aren’t here,” Kennedy called out as she scooped up her laughing son and started back toward the kitchen.
“We should probably get back in there,” Emma said, her eyes a mixture of pain and love and gratitude.
Curling my hand around her cheek, I lowered my forehead to hers. “I love you.”
She rested her hand on my chest in response, her head nodding against mine.
“How was your run this morning, Emma?” my mom asked when we got back into the kitchen from where she and my aunt were setting out the food they’d brought.
“It was good,” Emma answered, clearing her throat and offering a smile that only hinted at everything we’d just gone through. “My legs feel like Jell-O though, I’d never run on the beach before.”
Liam grunted in agreement, but he was all smiles when he said, “Brutal.”
Kennedy flipped him off and then used her middle finger to point at him. “I’m pretty sure this one was born running on the beach. He’s always trying to make me go with him.”
“You might like it,” he said with a grin that said he knew she wouldn’t. “Chase loves it.”
“Chase also used to like eating sand,” she argued before blowing a raspberry on the little boy in question.
I stepped back to where my dad and uncle were talking—their stares shifting to Emma . . . studying. Assessing. Worrying.
“She okay?” Dad asked once I was beside them.
I dipped my head in response.
“You can see the way she reacts to being near men she doesn’t know,” Uncle Mason began, tone low, and my dad grunted in agreement. “Looks at them and shifts away. It goes along with the way she reacted to you keeping Kenz in that chokehold.”
“That’s a fear that comes from trauma,” Dad finished for him.
I swallowed thickly, trying to push past the guilt that was quick to build from being the one to bring all those demons back. “Yeah, I know.”
“Do you?” he asked doubtfully, considering I hadn’t known much of anything the last time he and I had talked about Emma.
“She told me,” I said through the gravel in my throat. “She told me everything.”
“That’s a trust that isn’t given lightly,” my uncle said, and I just nodded because I was more than well aware of that.
Dad made another one of those agreeing grunts. “It’s easy to see she trusts you though.” His stare shifted to me, the corner of his mouth ticking up in a look that was all sympathy and encouragement. “Your mom and I like her.” My uncle smacked him, and Dad rolled his eyes as he amended, “We all like her.”
“We’re here,” Kira called out just as the front door opened.
Dad grabbed my shoulder before heading over to greet them as my uncle went to steal food from the kitchen.
“Why do you have this face?” Kira asked when she reached me, kissing my cheek and handing me one of her babies so she could continue greeting everyone.
“What face?”
“Like horrible things are happening.” Her voice dipped lower. “Don’t say trouble in paradise, I really like this one.”
“Kennedy decided to play tag and kept tasing me,” I said, giving her the first thing I could think of and avoiding the rest.
Her soft laugh trailed behind her as she left me, going from person to person.
“Look at you with a baby,” Kennedy said when she came up beside me a few minutes later.
A grunt rumbled in my chest as I thought about the little girl my family didn’t know about.
“You notice you can hold a baby, and Emma doesn’t freak out and demand children?” she asked on a whisper. “Night and day, those two.”
“Think the idea of kids scares the shit out of her,” I said just as softly.
She seemed to think about that for a moment before asking, “Does that bother you?”
Before I even had time to think about my answer, Kira spoke up as if picking up on Kennedy’s thoughts from across the room.
“Has anyone else noticed that Emma is perfectly fine being away from Reed?” she asked, then looked at where Emma had moved into the kitchen to continue talking to my mom and aunt. “You’ve been really refreshing in every way . . . but this particular thing?” Her eyes rolled. “Sadie would’ve been attached to him like a monkey and would’ve thrown a fit if he ever left her side.”
“Kira,” I snapped, a deep sigh slipping free when Emma looked at me in question.
Kira’s eyes widened in surprise and apprehension as she glanced around when everyone went silent and then settled on me. “Oh my God. I’m sorry, I didn’t—I thought she—” She pressed her mouth into a firm line, sorrow bleeding from her.
“She doesn’t know you were engaged?” Kennedy asked loudly, always the blunt one.
“Jesus, yes, she knows. That doesn’t mean Sadie needs to be brought up or that Kira needs to compare them.”
“Um, one,” Kennedy went on, gesturing between her, Liam, Kira, and Rhys, “our entire lives are the ex-files. Two, why wouldn’t she be brought up? Sadie was the worst.”
“Kennedy, I swear to God,” I began, but Dad cut me off.
“Kenz, unless you want me to hold you while Reed tases you, I’d stop talking.”
My stomach churned and my lungs ached when I looked over to see Emma standing in quiet discomfort, vacant stare on the floor.
“God damnit,” I breathed as my head fell back to the wall.
This day couldn’t get any worse.
She had a name now.
She
had a name, and from what little Kira had said, I had a feeling she was my opposite. Someone who would’ve never pushed Reed away but clung to him. Someone who would’ve never shielded him from her life and probably willingly gave all her thoughts and affection to him.
His family hadn’t liked her, that much was clear, but Reed had loved her.
And I was nothing like her.
I couldn’t figure out why that was bothering me so much, but I was stuck on that thought still, even after we’d finished breakfast and were still gathered around the table. Everyone having their own conversations that constantly morphed as new people were pulled in.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Reed asked, voice nothing more than a breath that seemed to force my thoughts free.
“I’m the opposite of her.”
His brows were raised when I risked a glance at him. “Sadie?” When I simply nodded, his head slanted in denial. “Whatever you’re coming up with about that, I assure you, you’re wrong.”
“Am I?”
The way he looked at me would’ve been answer enough, all searing gazes that warmed every part of me and touched my soul, but he still continued. “If you think I’m with you because of anything to do with her . . .”—his head moved in slow shakes as he leaned closer—“Emma, I wasn’t looking for her opposite. I wasn’t looking for anyone when you crashed into my life.”
“Is that what I did?” I asked, the words holding a hint of playfulness.
He rumbled in both response and amusement, then pointedly glanced around the table before settling on me. “My family talks about her because they hated her from day one, and she caused a lot of tension between us. But she’s my past, and I’m fucking glad to keep her there.” His eyes searched mine, waiting until I conceded with a soft sigh. “All right?”
“Yeah.”
“Besides,” he went on, the corner of his mouth ticking up mischievously, “she had nothing on you—she didn’t frustrate the hell out of me.”
I pushed at his side, a small smile crossing my face when he pressed his lips to my forehead.
“So, you’re from South Carolina, Emma?” Rachel asked, pulling me from my little bubble with Reed into whatever conversation she was having with her husband and Rhys.
“Um, no,” I said, pushing away any lingering thoughts of Reed’s ex. “My grandma is—she’s been in that house since before my mom was born, but I’m from everywhere. I’ve lived in almost every state.”
Rachel’s eyes widened with surprise and wonder and excitement. “What was that like?”
A huff tumbled past my lips because it hadn’t been nearly as amazing as it could’ve been. “Unsettling,” I answered honestly. “Half the time, I woke up not remembering what city or state we were in.”
“Oh, that’s so sad,” she murmured, but I shrugged it off because it had been the least-sad part of my life. “So, were you homeschooled? Or did you get to experience new schools with each new place?”
My smile fixed on my face when it felt like everything else about me fell. “I didn’t have any schooling,” I admitted, embarrassment flooding me when I felt Reed go still beside me. But I struggled to grasp and hold onto my waning confidence. “I got my GED after I moved to New York when I was twenty-one, but everything else, I either taught myself or learned from watching other people.”
Rachel nodded, but her smile was softer and the pity in her eyes was unmistakable. “That’s very incredible,” she said. “I feel like you’ve had the most interesting and exciting life of us all.”
“Mom,” Reed began, but Kash spoke over him. “Do you plan on staying in Colby?”
“Um . . .” I hesitated as a disgusting, creep of a man and a lifetime of running urged me to keep moving while everything else begged me to stay.
Reed slowly looked over at me when I took too long to answer. Jaw tight and a whisper of panic in his eyes.
“I plan to,” I hurried to say, my attention shifting from Reed to his dad, “I do. I think it’s just hard for my soul to stop feeling so restless when going there was an impulsive decision. But I accidentally fell into a job there that I love, and then there’s—” I glanced at Reed again, my words getting all jumbled up. “I plan to.”
Questions swirled in his eyes, but he held them back, waiting for when we were alone.
“Oh, what job?” Rachel asked, all excited interest again.
“It’s this . . .” My stare drifted from her back to Reed when he pulled his phone from his pocket to see messages lighting up his lock screen.
Butler: Where are you?
Butler: Answer your phone.
Rowe: 911
“It’s this bookstore,” I said slowly, unease winding through my body and squeezing my chest when Reed pushed his chair back and stood, already calling Peter as he stalked off. When I continued, the excitement over the store was weighed down by my worry for whatever was happening back in Colby. “It looked abandoned and looted when I found it a few weeks ago. But the owner is the sweetest woman, and it’s been in her family for generations, so I helped her get a loan and renovate it. It looks incredible—like a completely different store—and it reopens tomorrow.”
“What an incredible gift you’ve given that woman by helping her,” Rachel said. “I would love to see it and check out this town my son loves so much.”
“We have to go,” Reed said as he came storming back into the kitchen, face tight and fiercely terrifying. “Now.”
I was so taken aback by his expression that I just sat there, watching as he reached out for me.
“Come on,” he said as he helped me up.
“What’s going on?”
“Go pack,” he demanded, voice soft and dark and stare refusing to meet mine.
“Tell me—”
“Emma,” he said through clenched teeth. Begged.
I studied the sharp lines of his jaw for another second before hurrying through the house to his room. Throwing things into my bag as quickly as I could and then rushing to pack for him.
Once I had all of our things, I grabbed the bags and turned just as he came into the room. “I got your stuff.”
“Let’s go,” he said with a nod as he took the bags from me.
“What about your family?”
“They understand.”
My heart was racing, and I didn’t even know what was happening. My stomach twisting up until I felt sick because I’d never seen Reed this way. And it had me equal parts terrified for what I would find out and wanting to comfort him.
But he was rushing me from the house, barely giving me the chance to say goodbye to the majority of his family where they lingered in the living room, watching with ranging looks of sorrow.
“Emma, it was wonderful meeting you,” Rachel said from where she and Kash were waiting next to Reed’s truck.
I tried to smile, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded. “Thank you for letting me crash your family weekend.”
“Of course.” She wrapped her arms around me, squeezing me tight. “Come back anytime.” Offering me a worried smile when she pulled back, she whispered, “Thank you for making my boy happy.”
I nodded and then turned to say goodbye to her husband before Reed was ushering me into the passenger side of his truck.
By the time he climbed into the driver’s seat, my chest was tight, and I was struggling to pull in air as the weight of Reed’s urgency and fear started to fully settle over me.
“Reed, what is going on?” I softly pleaded as he tore away from the house, knuckles straining from his tight grip on the steering wheel. “What did Peter say?”
It wasn’t until we were out of the neighborhood that Reed finally spoke. Voice detached as he accelerated well past the speed limit. “Lala and Nora were in a wreck.”
* * *
We’d made the trip back to Colby in five hours.
Nora had a broken arm and a couple cracked ribs. Reed lost his mind when we’d arrived and been told they’d sedated her bec
ause she’d been screaming and thrashing—unable to see reason that she’d only been hurting herself more.
Lala still hadn’t regained consciousness but had managed to escape any broken bones even though she was bruised all over.
From what people on the scene had said, Lala had flown through a red light on the way back from church. Never slowing and seeming to go much faster than the speed limit before another truck had T-boned them.
“My Emma?”
My heart stalled before racing at the soft, uncertain voice that was claiming I was hers. I looked up from where I’d been researching on my phone, scanning all over Nora’s small body in the big hospital bed. “Yeah, Nora?”
“Is my Lala going to be okay?”
The assurance was on the tip of my tongue—anything to soothe her when she seemed so fragile, but I swallowed it back. Glancing over to where Reed stood just a couple feet away, exhaustion dripping from him, I whispered, “I don’t know. But I hope so.”
Reed’s stare shifted to me, his head dipping in a small nod just as the door opened.
“Ms. Wade?”
I turned to see Lala’s doctor glance from the file in his hand to me expectantly. “Yes?”
He stepped back out of the room, holding the door open. “Let’s talk in the hall.”
“Come on, Tanner,” Reed said, voice like gravel.
The doctor grimaced. “You aren’t family, Reed. I’m sorry.”
My mouth parted to tell the doctor it was fine—whatever he was going to tell me, he could say in front of Reed since I would just relay all the information to him anyway. Besides, Reed was more family to Lala than I was. But I thought about the little girl behind me and stepped toward the doctor instead, glancing at Reed over my shoulder as I did.
“I’ll be right back,” I whispered and let my stare slide to Nora meaningfully.
He nodded and released a heavy exhale as he sank to the chair next to her bed.
I closed the door behind me as I followed the doctor into the hall, my knotted stomach sinking when the doctor gave me a look he’d clearly practiced.
Folding my arms around my waist, I drew myself up tall and tried to hold myself together when it felt like that simple look already had me crumbling. “Is she awake?”
Lie to Me Page 35
