After a brief debate, I decided it was worth it. I needed pink toenails. I only wore the red press-on nails at work. My natural fingernails were bare, and I made the decision to paint those pink too. Rio March wouldn’t know what hit him. Or at least, I hoped so. I could very possibly be making an idiot of myself. But then I thought about the way he’d looked at my mouth, and I smiled.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rio
“Might not want to tell your aunt you had candy and a cupcake,” I told Cullen as we pulled back into the apartment parking lot.
Cullen nodded. “Okay, but I really want to tell her that I got to go inside the candy store and buy something.”
“Why is that? She doesn’t take you in there, so I’m guessing she doesn’t want you eating candy.” And I didn’t want to do anything to make her mad at me.
The kid’s eyes had lit up when I suggested it. I hadn’t thought it through before I asked him. There was no way I could have backed out of it.
“We tried once. They don’t like Aunt Bryn, so we can’t go in there,” he said in a soft voice, as if he was telling me a secret and felt bad about it.
Why the fuck did Charles Denney not like Bryn? Had Tory done something to the old man? I’d known him since I’d moved here. He was a nice old man.
“I think I can talk to the owner. Mr. Charles seemed to like you just fine. I’ll tell him how nice your aunt Bryn is.”
Cullen’s eyes went wide, and he gazed at me as if I had hung the damn moon. “Really? You could do that?”
“Of course I can. I’ve known Mr. Charles a long time.”
“Do you know the man who owns the pizza place? Because he don’t like us either. That’s why we make our own pizzas. But I sure would like some pizza from there. It smells real good when you pass by it.”
What the fuck did Dan O’Neil have against Bryn? Jesus, was this entire town full of assholes? Just because Tory had done something, they didn’t have to blame it on Bryn and Cullen.
“We will be eating pizza from there tonight,” I assured him.
Cullen let out a woot. I unbuckled him, and he climbed out of the Jeep on my side. “I can’t wait to tell Aunt Bryn!” he said. “She loves the smell of that pizza too.”
He started to run for the stairs and stopped, then came back to me to take my hand.
“Sorry. I forgot I can’t walk in the parking lot alone,” he said to me seriously. “Aunt Bryn don’t want me hit by a car.”
I nodded and held on to his hand firmly. “She’s a smart woman,” I said.
“She’s real smart,” he agreed. “She’s got a job that pays her lots of money. I get to drink milk every day now, and we got snacks in the house, and I get to eat ice cream almost every week!”
I felt a tight knot in my stomach as he talked about all the food he had now, thanks to his aunt Bryn’s job. Things most kids took for granted. Things I knew all too well what it was like to go without. Bryn’s job made more sense to me, the more the kid talked.
I was a fucking asshole. Just like the rest of this town.
When we got to the door and knocked, I was struggling to swallow past the lump in my throat. However, the moment the door opened, everything I had been struggling with vanished as Bryn stood there, looking like a damn goddess.
“Hey, Aunt Bryn!” Cullen said, rushing inside.
“Hey, buddy. Did you have fun?” she asked.
“The best! You won’t believe it, but we are eating pizza tonight from the pizza place in town. They like Rio, so he can buy us pizza from there,” he said. “I gotta pee.” Then, he was gone.
My eyes never left her. She turned her gaze to me then, and I stood there, speechless. Bryn was beautiful in baggy shirts, no makeup, and unbrushed hair. However, Bryn like this was the most gorgeous being on the planet.
“So, you’re staying for dinner then?” she asked with a smile.
I opened my mouth, and nothing came out. Then, I laughed at my own reaction. Finally, I managed to find my voice. “Damn, Bryn. A man needs a warning before you show up at the door like this.”
She blushed and bit her bottom lip. She’d done this on purpose—or at least, I was pretty damn sure she had. This was for me. Although I hadn’t needed any more of a push. It felt good to know she wanted to give me a reason to stay.
The short skirt showcased her legs that I knew only led to more perfection underneath, and, God, did she give me a view of cleavage. I had fought not to stare at her nipples through the damn T-shirt this morning, which was several sizes too big. I didn’t need to see the tops of them. But there they were, taunting me. Her breathing was heavy enough to make them rise and fall slowly.