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“You care about Betty,” he says and I shift on my feet.
It almost sounds like a question but he definitely didn’t say it like one.
“We could see it in the way that you looked at her,” Emma says as she steps into her husband’s side.
“Yes.”
“We want to offer you a new job then,” Ryan says and Emma nods.
“I’m not leaving Redwood,” I tell them right away and they smile.
“You won’t have to. We want to hire a bodyguard for Betty. She’s our baby girl and I know that she wants to spread her wings a bit now that she’s graduated, but we worry about her. We’re not just around the corner from her anymore and people still recognize her as our daughter, even though she’s tried to stay out of the spotlight.”
My stomach starts to churn at his words. I had no idea who Betty was last night, but if what her dad says is right, then she could be in danger. I don’t like the thought of other people wanting my girl, and I know from last night that she could use someone to look out for her.
That person has to be me. For my sanity at least.
“Okay,” I say and Emma grins at me.
“She can’t know about this. She won’t like it but it will keep her safe and ease our worries,” Ryan says and I nod, though uncertainty starts to crawl up my spine.
I don’t want Betty to be upset with me, but I need to be close to her. I’m desperate to see her again already and she’s only been out of my sights for a few minutes.
“Okay,” I say again and they start talking about salary and how often they want me to check in with them.
I let Emma put their phone numbers in my phone and I’m shaking their hands and climbing into my truck. I follow them across town to Betty’s apartment, my head filled with doubts.
I just have to make sure that she never finds out that her parents hired me. When we get married, it won’t matter. I just need to get Betty to fall in love with me, and fast.
I stop at a red light and snap out of my thoughts in time to see a police car and ambulance speeding through the intersection.
Just like that, I’m twelve years old and in the back seat of my parents’ car. We had been laughing at my mom as she tried to sing along to some song that was on the radio when a truck ran a stop sign and crashed into our car.
I don’t remember much from the accident after that. I remember feeling dizzy and wiping the blood from my eyes, but it just kept coming. I couldn’t see out of my left eye and I had started to panic and call for my parents, but they never answered me.
Then the firefighters and paramedics were there and getting me out of the back seat. It wasn’t until I was in the hospital hours later that a police officer came in to tell me about my parents.
I didn’t have any other family, so I went into the system. I hated it. So many of the kids were angry and looking to start a fight, and I was an easy target. I never fought back or defended myself and they got to look like a tough guy who beat up the big, ugly kid. I was always moved after each big fight from one home to the next, and I know that the foster home parents never believed me when I told them that I didn’t start it.
The light turns green and I snap out of my memories and hit the gas. I still can’t shake the sad feelings though.
After the fourth group home move, I started keeping to myself and became the loner, the outcast, at each place that I went to until I turned eighteen. Then I was on my own.
I bounced around a few different towns before I landed in Redwood, California, and started working at On the Rocks.
I’ve always had a hard time dealing with all of the emotions of being the sole survivor of the accident. There are times that I wish that I had died too, or that I had died instead of them. In the end though, I had to move on and go on living my life.
Now that I’ve met Betty, I think I might have finally found out why I was the only one to survive. I was meant to be here so that I can take care of my fiery girl.
I knew that she was meant to be mine when I saw her. She makes me feel alive, she makes me feel seen for the first time since I was twelve years old. It makes me feel like a normal person again and I didn’t know how badly I needed that after all of these years.
I pull into Betty’s apartment parking lot and park in the first open spot. I can see Ryan and Emma climbing out of their car a few spots over and I roll back my shoulders and climb out of my truck to join them.
I take a deep breath as we head toward the front door and I try to control my heart rate as we head inside and onto the elevator.
It’s time for me to start winning my girl over. I need to get my game face on though, because if she finds out about my deal with her parents before I can make her mine, then I don’t know what I’ll do.
I spend the ride up to her floor trying to calm my racing heart. Betty lives on the fourth floor so I don’t have nearly enough time to be prepared to see my girl again.
