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With that, he left, and I watched him go.
Then I shuffled to my room, making sure to pick up the strawberry muffin that had landed icing side up on the ground as I went.
Fifty-two second rule on the food…right?
***
“Some guy’s come to visit twice,” I said softly to my brother. “He knew that I had a daughter, and he knew that I liked those cupcakes.”
We looked down at the cupcake that Linnie brought me every time she came to visit.
They weren’t actually my favorite. In fact, if I was to put a name on what I liked most, it would probably be the strawberry muffin, or something similar, like a strawberry shortcake, that Liner had brought me this morning. However, since Linnie picked it out specially for me and brought it to me, I’d eat it no matter what it was.
She was very perceptive for a five-year-old and noticed when I didn’t eat. She’d started bringing me the cupcake last year when I’d told her that the food here wasn’t good enough for me to eat in an attempt to explain why I wasn’t eating when she was.
It’d been The Bridge’s version of Thanksgiving.
“Let me guess,” Tyson groaned. “He’s about six foot three, two hundred and thirty pounds, wears jeans and a plain black t-shirt, and has a red/gold beard that is in desperate need of a shave.”
I blinked and smoothed my hand down Linnie’s mop of curls, dropping a kiss down onto her forehead. “I wouldn’t say it’s in need of a shave, per se. I would say that it’s quite attractive, honestly.”
I had a lot of time to sit and do nothing while I was in here.
So it was either read or watch TV, and I did a lot of both.
I’d found myself gravitating toward a few of the shows, the motorcycle one that I’d stopped watching because the main character’s girl had died, and Vikings.
When I read, I usually steered myself in the direction of historical or the biker genre. All because I liked how overprotective the men were of their women.
I liked how, at the end of the day, the women always had their men to count on. They never went a day where they thought that something might happen to them because their men always made sure that the women knew they would be there for them if it ever came down to it.
I wanted that.
Not that I would ever have that, but I wanted that.
And that was what Liner came off as to me. A man that would protect his woman no matter what.
“Well, you say to-ma-toe, I say to-ma-toe.” He shrugged. “But yes, it sounds like that’s him.”
Then he let out a huge sigh.
“What?” I leaned forward.
He shook his head.
I pushed his shoulder with mine, grinning at him. “Come on.”
He shot me a funny glance that I was unable to read, but then explained it.
“I haven’t seen you smile like that unless it was pertaining to Linnie in years,” he clarified softly.
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything at all.
He was right.
I didn’t smile often. There wasn’t much reason for me to smile.
I mean, what would be the point? Smiling meant that I was happy, and I sure the hell wasn’t happy.
“He brought me a cupcake yesterday, and a muffin today,” I shared.
He made a sound in his throat, causing my eyebrows to raise. “Tell me before Linnie gets back from the bathroom.”
He sighed in a resigned way, then leaned back so that his back was resting against the bench that Liner had sat on hours earlier.
“Had a feeling he wouldn’t leave you alone.” Tyson sighed. “So I had him investigated. He came back clean. He’s part of a motorcycle club…the same one that Rome’s a part of.”
My heart skipped a beat when Rome’s name was mentioned.
My hopes, what little that I had left, took a drastic plunge hard right.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting.
It wasn’t like Liner would fall in love with a woman accused of doing what I’d been accused of. It wasn’t like he was there because he wanted to be there. He was part of a therapy group. He was there because he loved his dog. Not because he had any desire to see me.
Sure, he’d brought me a muffin today.
Big deal.Chapter 5I would have called you sooner, but I had a frog in my throat.
-T-shirt with Ms. Piggy on it
Liner
The next day loomed even darker and muggier than the day before.
The storm that was hours away from hitting us dominated the mid-morning sky, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it would only be a few more hours of peace and quiet before my day got really busy.
I could feel the storm in the air, and I knew that at this time twelve hours from now, I’d be cold, wet, tired, and hungry.
