Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 81584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
“I have to grab my laptop first.”
“That can wait,” she soothed. “Go enjoy the rain.”
She’d already started going through the cupboards when I walked out onto the sunporch. We’d barely beat the rain on our ride home. I guess that was a silver lining. Laying out on the wicker couch, I hung my feet off the side and listened to it splatter on the roof.
I couldn’t believe Gray. The whole time he’d been saying how he didn’t want me to lie or keep anything from him, he’d known that back in Eugene the boys were roughing up Scott. What a fucking hypocrite.
“I brought reinforcements,” Lou announced a few minutes later as she stepped out the back door. Myla was right behind her.
“Your cousin is a fucking dick,” I announced.
“Tell me everything,” Myla ordered.
We tore open a bag of potato chips and some candy that Lou had found in the back of a cupboard before I spewed it all. I didn’t leave anything out. I was too pissed to be embarrassed about what Scott had been doing to me. The week away had given me perspective on the entire ordeal, and while I regretted letting it go on for so long—I knew that none of it had been my fault. It didn’t matter that I’d dated him when I’d known it wasn’t a good idea. A normal person would’ve left me alone when I made it clear I wasn’t interested any longer.
Myla’s eyebrows rose when I got to the point when we’d found the police outside Gray’s camper. I practically spit out the rest of the story, my words coming so fast that I had to backtrack a couple times to clarify.
When I finally snapped my mouth shut, Myla just looked at me.
“Can you believe that shit?” I asked as Lou handed me a new beer.
“Yeah, I can,” she said with a grimace.
“He lied all week,” I reminded her. “He didn’t say a word.”
She shrugged.
“Where is your outrage?” I asked suspiciously, pointing my beer at her.
“Okay, so I’m not sure if you want my real answer or the answer that will agree with you,” she replied slowly. “Which one do you want?”
“The real one.” I narrowed my eyes at her as I sat up.
“Gray did what any other man in my family would’ve done.” She winced. “I know that’s probably not what you want to hear. Cian would’ve done that, too.”
“Seriously? He didn’t even tell me.”
“From what Cian said, Gray was really worried about you—”
I looked at Lou. “I told you people were talking about it.”
“To be fair,” Myla interrupted. “Cian had a huge bruise on his jaw where Gray punched him—”
“Oh, this just keeps getting better and better,” I bitched. I waved at her. “Go on.”
“Cian had to tell me because I wouldn’t let it go. He said Gray was really upset that the boys had told him everything was fine when it wasn’t.”
“Who else did he hit?”
“Cian wouldn’t say. I had to pry that much out of him.”
“Fucking fantastic.”
“Bringing it back around to my original point,” Myla said dryly. “He probably didn’t tell you because he didn’t want to worry you.”
“Not good enough.”
“Okay, but beyond all this,” Lou said carefully. “How is Gray otherwise?”
I set my beer on the porch and fell back onto the couch. “Awesome,” I mumbled.
“What was that?” Myla said with a chuckle.
“He’s great,” I sighed. “I think I’m in love with the asshole.”
“That was fast,” Lou muttered in surprise.
“Not really,” I hedged. “Remember that night that Myla got caught in Cian’s tent?”
“Hard to forget,” Myla grumbled.
“We hooked up that night.”
“No, you did not!” Lou screeched.
“Yup. It was a wham-bam situation, but I was sprung for sure—he just wasn’t interested in anything more than that.”
“He is now.”
“Yeah.”
“He has been for a while,” Lou added. “I mean, a guy doesn’t look at you like that if he’s not into you.”
“Oh, you’re an expert on longing looks now?” Myla teased.
“Shut up,” Lou shot back.
“Gray set up this whole thing to beat the crap out of Scott behind my back,” I reminded them before they could really bicker. “I don’t even know who he told or who he asked to do it. I kept it private for a reason, and he just spread the news all over.”
“It wasn’t Cian,” Myla said with a shrug. “He’s been home every night this week.”
“I trusted him.” I blew out a frustrated breath.
“You’ve heard a lot of the stories,” Myla said, stretching out on the daybed. “But there’s so much family lore that you’ve missed. Shit that no one really talks about anymore.”
“Like what?”
“Well, one of the old timers was married to a man who beat her. The guy disappeared, if you know what I mean. Another one was abused by her stepfather, and I think you can guess what happened to him. Those aren’t the only stories, just a couple off the top of my head. And don’t ask me who they are because it’s not my place to tell you.”