I turn to find Brooke standing in the mouth of the hall. The pain in her eye hits me like a semi-truck to the chest. She turns to my mom. “I-I shouldn’t b-be here. I’m going home.”
Brooke bolts for the door, ignoring everyone trying to stop her. Derrick steps in front of me. “I’ll go after her.” I nod, grateful to my friend.
“Daddy?”
I turn to look at my son. “What, bud?”
“She’s fwom the pictures.”
I nod.
“She looked sad—we should cheer her up.”
Fuck, how is this sweet boy all mine?
“I think that’s a good idea,” I tell him. “Mom, I’ll go grab some takeout.” I look out the front window and don’t see them. I walk into the kitchen and look into the backyard. The sight before me fills me with both rage and sadness. Brooke and Derrick are lying in Mom’s hammock. She’s wrapped up in his arms crying.
“I’ll get her back in bed while you’re gone,” Mom says from beside me. “It’ll be okay, I promise.”
***
I sit on my back deck, drinking a beer, and watch the sunset. It’s been a week since Brooke’s moved in temporarily with my mom and dad. When Tripp is there, she doesn’t leave her room, and I hate that, because I know if she got to know him, she’d love him.
The brothers and I have been looking for Austin, but the guy’s gone to ground. I’m not worried because we’ll definitely find him, and he’ll be fucking sorry when we do.
Luckily most of the bruises Brooke’s been sporting are starting to fade. Mom says she won’t talk about what happened and is planning on going back to work tomorrow.
I think it is too soon, but I know that if I said anything she’d laugh in my face, or she’d slap me again.
The brothers are going to help me keep an eye on her, whether she wants it or not. The sliding door opens, and I look behind me to find my boy coming out and crawling onto my lap. “What’s going on, buddy?” I ask quietly.
“Why doesn’t Brooke like me?” He snuggles up under my chin and my stomach pitches.
“Oh bud, that’s not it. Remember I told you about Gage?” Just saying that name makes my heart hurt.
“I member. Do I remind her of Gage?”
The kid is too smart for his own good. “Yes and no, but I promise you that once she gets to know you, she’s going to love you to pieces. Maybe tomorrow morning we can bring her flowers before her first day back at school.”
I know it’s pushing it, but Brooke used to tell me I was pushy, so…there you have it.
“That’s a great idea, Daddy. We’ll pick her up da prettiest flowers ever.”
I drain the last of my beer and carry him into the house. In his room, I toss him on his bed. I cover him and bend down, kissing his forehead. “I love you, little man.”
“I love you too, Daddy.”
He smiles up at me and then rolls to his side, closing his eyes. I turn on his nightlight before I step out of his room, leaving his door open a crack. I head out to the living room and sit down on my huge dark-brown leather sectional.
I grab my laptop, opening my photo app, and begin the slide show I made of the only woman I will ever love. Brooke was so fucking sassy when we were kids, I’d asked her out, she’d said no because she was super shy, or at least I thought she was. To make her jealous, I’d asked another girl out right in front of her.
Brooke stood up and stomped toward me, kicking me right in the balls. I fell in love with her while writhing on the ground in pain—we were inseparable after that. We were each other’s first.
Our first time had been in my basement while my parents were at the compound partying with the club. It had lasted about three minutes. Luckily, I had gotten really good at making her come with oral before we went all the way.
I won’t lie. We got good at sex because once we got the hang of it, we did it all the time. There haven’t been many since Brooke—my primary focus is my son. Of course, I’m no saint and sometimes I needed something more than just my hand.
The last picture pops up, it’s from our wedding. She wore a white dress with super short sleeves. It showed off her cleavage and hugged her slim body. I wore a black suit and white dress shirt. Next to Gage and Tripp being born, it was one of the greatest days of my life.
We were so happy and so in love. She was my world, and I destroyed her. I’ve never stopped loving her and I’m going to win her back—I’m going to give her the happy ending I should’ve given her before.
Chapter Five
Brooke
I check myself in the mirror one more time. My bruises are all mostly gone, the stitches in my lip were dissolvable, which means they’re gone too. I still have a variety of aches and pains, but overall, I’ve improved—physically I’m healing, but mentally I’m a mess. I should’ve arranged to stay somewhere else, but Hank’s mom forbade it when I brought it up to her.
She’s been there for me since Hank, and I started dating. My dad split when I was too young to remember, and my mom was a mess. She ran off with her boyfriend when I was seventeen and I never saw her again.
I’ve always considered Judy and Mick my parents. Even after Hank and I ended, I visited with Judy often. This past week every time Hank’s son was at the house, I hid like a coward. A part of the reason is because he’s a reminder of what I lost and how he came to be.
It is not his fault, he’s an innocent boy—it’s just my issues, my hurt, and my grief. I’ve heard his voice outside the room, asking if he can come in and say “hi”, and then Judy telling him that I was sleeping. He always sounded so disappointed, and I hated it.
I grab my flat iron and give myself some loose beach waves. After I shake them out, I clip my bangs off to the side. I lean forward, looking in the mirror—I’ve managed to cover up the dark circles under my eyes—from lack of sleep—without it being obvious that I’ve got a thick layer of concealer on.
My eyes appear dull. I have heterochromia—my students have always been fascinated by it—and it is more noticeable today. My right eye is green, and my left eye is brown—they’re both surprisingly lackluster.
“You are going to have a great day. You’re going to be safe.” I’m not thrilled that Hank has demanded that he and his brothers watch over me. Since I apparently don’t get a choice, I’ll just have to deal with it, but hopefully it’s anyone but him—I don’t want to see him.
I shake my hands out and head back into the bedroom. I pick up my dirty clothes, placing them in the hamper. Now that I’m going to be teaching, I need to get some more clothes from home.
My phone rings and I see it’s Riley. “Hey girl,” I answer, trying to sound light and breezy, not sad and depressed.
“Derrick told me what happened.” Of course, he did. “My god, are you okay?”
I begin to cry. “I thought he was going to kill me.”