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“I don’t suppose it’s because you’re feeling guilty for scaring the shit out of everyone, is it?” he asked.
I smiled. My story had gone off without a hitch… well, depending on how you looked at it, anyway. The kids had cursed me to hell and back afterward, and I’d seen more than one take a buddy with them when they’d gone to answer nature’s last call before bedtime. If they hadn’t been so worn out from today’s hike, I suspected at least two or three of them would have been sitting with me around the fire, too rattled to go to sleep.
Unfortunately, my insomnia came from a whole different place.
My eyes automatically drifted to Xander’s tent.
He hadn’t spoken even one word to me since our run-in in the woods. I’d caught him shooting looks my way now and again, but his expression had been unreadable. I’d been surprised to see Lucky approach him and even more surprised when Xander hadn’t chased the young man off. I was tempted to ask Lucky what topic had had them in such deep discussion, but I’d managed to hold back. I’d known how hard it was for the troubled teen to open up to anyone, so I hadn’t wanted to make a big deal about it or make him feel self-conscious. And whatever Xander had said to him hadn’t seemed to upset him, nor had he dismissed the teenager outright.
“I don’t like seeing you like this,” I heard Aiden mutter. I could tell by his inflection whose shoulders he was placing the blame for my mood on, and that didn’t sit well with me. Yeah, I knew Aiden wanted to protect me— it was in his nature, after all. But I didn’t like that Xander was the target of his fury.
I lifted my head and glanced at him. “You don’t know him, Aid… he has a reason to feel this way.”
“So do you, B.”
I shook my head and turned my attention back to the fire. “It was different for me.”
“Why? Because you were the one with all the advantages? Because you had money and his family didn’t?”
“It was more than that. He never saw me as Bennett Crawford, son and only heir to the Crawford fortune. He didn’t care who my dad was or that people were making all these plans for me from the moment I was born. To him I was just… Benny. It wasn’t until high school that he started to look at me differently,” I murmured. “Not that he didn’t have a reason to.”
“You didn’t have a say in the matter, remember?”
“I never told you about his family and mine, did I?” I asked.
“No.”
“After my parents realized I wasn’t going to stop asking to see him, they began arranging play dates. Sometimes I’d go over to his house, sometimes he’d come to mine. When we were seven or so, our parents finally started hanging out… I guess they figured it just made sense. My parents actually liked Xander’s mom a lot… it took them a little longer to warm up to Mr. Reed because he was pretty quiet… like Xander,” I said with a smile. Xander had definitely inherited his mother’s dirty brown-blond hair and cool blue eyes, but he’d had his father’s quiet nature and stoic attitude… something I’d worked my damnedest to overcome.
“Mr. Reed eventually came out of his shell… we even vacationed together once.”
“Let me guess, Daddy’s yacht, the South of France,” Aiden drawled.
I elbowed him. “Greek islands.”
Aiden rolled his eyes. “So what happened?”
I shook my head. “His mom just up and left one day. Filed for divorce and moved to Europe to become some marketing bigwig. Kicker is, she didn’t even fight for custody of him. I don’t think he ever saw her again… not even after his dad died, not if he went to live with his Aunt Lolly.” I reached down and grabbed a small rock off the ground and began rolling it between my fingers. It was a nervous habit I’d tried to break, especially since it pissed my dad off to no end, but Aiden knew all about my weird quirks.
“He was devastated. Kept asking me what he’d done wrong… why his own mother hadn’t loved him. I didn’t know what to tell him,” I whispered.
I felt Aiden’s hand settle on the back of my neck. It was a testament to how upset I must have seemed, because he rarely touched me when emotions were involved. Aiden didn’t do emotions well— not showing them and most definitely not being on the receiving end of them.
“Xander’s mom leaving was hard on his dad, but for a lot of reasons.” I glanced at Aiden and said, “She was the breadwinner in the family and Mr. Reed stayed home to take care of Xander. I guess he was planning on going back to school, but then Mrs. Reed left… anyway, he didn’t have a job and things were tough. So, my dad offered him a job.”
