Nix
“You missed her?” Zane snorted. “Bro, it’s barely been a few hours.”
I flipped him off, not dignifying him with an answer. I didn’t mean I’d missed her for the few hours since we had said goodbye outside Miller’s house. I’d meant the last nine months.
All those wasted days, weeks, months. Thinking she’d chosen her father over me. A better life over the one I could give her.
Fuck.
I didn’t know how the hell to deal with all the rage coursing through my veins. The bone-deep anger at the fact her father had kept her from me. Lied through his pearly white teeth to break us apart. As if he hadn’t hurt her enough already.
I couldn’t get my head around it. The vindictiveness and malice. But most of all, I couldn’t believe that I’d fallen for it. That I’d bought his lies so easily.
Growing up, Harleigh rarely talked about her father. As far as I knew, she’d known little about him. Known little about her mom’s life in Old Darling Hill. There were no grandparents on the scene. No aunts or uncles. Nothing.
It was almost as if when Trina left, she hadn’t looked back.
And it killed her.
Slowly and painfully, it drove her to the brink of madness. The wounds so deep that they festered, only made worse by all the liquor.
I’d known Harleigh for over ten years, and I’d never known a time when Trina Maguire wasn’t drunk or sleeping off a hangover. Michael Rowe did that. He ruined her and then he ruined Harleigh.
I pressed a fist to my thigh, trying to rein in the tidal wave of emotion inside me. “She’s in The Row,” I said.
“What? Now? How—”
“The sister.”
Zane’s eyes narrowed. “You’re shitting me?”
“You sound surprised.”
“Didn’t know she had it in her.” He almost sounded impressed.
“Could be there’s a lot about her you don’t know?” I arched a brow.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing… just thought that maybe a girl has finally gotten under your skin.”
He made a choking sound. “Not fucking likely.”
“So you don’t want to come to the old grain mill with me to meet them then?”
“Where we going?” Kye appeared with fresh bottles of beer.
“Birdie is in The Row,” Zane answered.
“No shit. She coming here?”
“That’d be okay with you?” I asked.
“Hell yeah, it’s B. She’s one of us.”
Something loosened in my chest. It was that simple with Kye. Zane was different. More guarded and suspicious of the world. But with Kye everything was easy.
“Invite Chloe,” I said. “And ask your mom if we can grab some supplies.”