“Eat shit, man.”
He laughs and grabs the door handle, but I stop him with a question that’s been on my mind this week. “You ever wish we had a normal childhood, man? Do you think life might have been a fuck of a lot easier? Not so much shit to navigate, you know?”
Colt slowly draws his hand back. “We’re going there, huh?” He exhales heavily. “Sometimes I think about it. It’s normal to wonder. But look where the fuck we are now, brother. Look at who we are. I wouldn’t change a fucking thing.”
“You really wouldn’t change anything? Really?” I don’t think I could say the same.
“You don’t have to believe it, man. It’s the truth. What would you change? Your mom not OD’ing?”
He’s going straight for the jugular.
“Yeah, I would,” I snap. “If she hadn’t died, I wouldn’t be such a fuckup. I wouldn’t have picked such toxic relationships or gone through most of this shit.”
He nods slowly. “Maybe not. But she’d still be an addict. And you’d probably be dead or in jail. We can play the what-if game until we’re fucking old and gray. Truth is, we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be.”
“How the fuck do you know that, though?” I ask, frustrated.
He flicks a glance my way. “Because we are, brother. If we were supposed to be somewhere else, doing something else, we would be. Every experience we’ve had has turned us into who we are right now. For better or worse.” He shifts and hops out of the truck, his weight making it rock side to side. “Move your ass, dipshit. I wanna meet your lady.”
He’s a big pain in my ass. But he makes a strange sort of sense.
I think.
What if this is exactly where I’m supposed to be? What if Becca and I are supposed to be together? But then that would mean I was supposed to be with Victoria too. That’s a bitter fucking pill to swallow. I still don’t see how any good came out of that flaming pile of shit of a relationship.
I look at Becca again through the window, tracing my eyes over her smiling face. I owe her a big fucking apology for last night.
I slide out of the truck, shoving Colt aside at the door so I can go into the office first. Becca’s smile falls before a smaller, tentative one takes its place. I see forgiveness there. Acceptance.
How the fuck can she just forgive so easily? I’m such a goner over this woman. She’s on my mind constantly during the day and she finds me in my dreams each night.
I pull my eyes from hers, shifting my gaze to Holly, and see the nervousness on her face. Her eyes are over my shoulder, watching Colton like he’s a predator. I can almost smell her fear from here. I look back at him, wanting to watch the transformation.
Colton’s done this as long as I’ve known him. He’s one of the scariest motherfuckers on the planet with the size and skill set to back it up. He carries his massive build with confidence and no small amount of natural menace, but put him in front of a woman with fear in her eyes, and he becomes a different man.
As soon as he clocks her wide eyes, everything about him changes. I watch his shoulders round, his head duck down, and a soft smile slip over his face. He suddenly looks like a teddy bear of a man instead of the killer I know he can be. It’s not a mask or a deception. It’s the Colton hurt women get. It’s the Colton his mom got. I look back at Holly and see her face and body relaxing. It’s like fucking magic. She even gives him a small smile as I introduce him.
“Becca, Holly, this is my brother Colton.” Becca is smiling her big bright smile again, and it hurts that it’s for him. She moves toward him, her hand outstretched. I suddenly don’t want her to touch him, especially before touching me, but I slap my inner caveman down and watch as they greet each other.
“It’s so great to meet you! What brings you here, Colton?” Becca asks.
“You do,” he says like he’s hitting on her at a bar.
“Fucker,” I cough. He shoots me the middle finger, then focuses on Becca.
“Kade asked my brother Declan to look into that chick that scammed you.”
Becca’s eyes widen and shift to mine in question before she looks back at Colton. “Yes. I remember he mentioned it a while ago.”
Colton nods, “Dec says sorry. He got tied up with another project, and he didn’t have time to work on it as quickly as he had hoped. Anyway, here.” He hands her a sealed white envelope. Becca accepts it and looks at me in confusion before opening it. She gasps as she fans out what I know is thirty, one-hundred-dollar bills.
“I…Oh. I… I don’t understand,” she stammers. Colton smiles and shrugs like it’s no big deal. For him, it probably wasn’t.
“Declan tracked her down for me, and I went and got your money back,” he says simply.
Becca looks suspicious. “Just like that? She just handed it over?”
Colton’s smile gets bigger. “Nah, that would’ve been a letdown. Her man got in my face a bit. Made it a bit more fun for me.” He nods at the envelope. “It’s all there, plus interest.”
