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Fox doesn’t answer, just studies me for a beat before revving the motorcycle and speeding off.
I don’t make it in the front door before my brother and father are in front of me.
“What were you doing with him?” Dad demands.
He’s always been overprotective, it’s why he often goes along with Mom’s strict parental decisions, but he doesn’t raise his voice like that to me. Between the two of them, Dad’s remained more himself than Mom, but the weird edge in his voice has my steps faltering.
“We had detention. Remember?” I make to move past them, but they both plant themselves in front of me. “He just gave me a ride home. I didn’t think you were here.” Lifting my brows, I glance between them. “Um, can I go inside now? Seriously, you’re giving me double vision with this whole ‘grr men of the house’ vibe.”
“Don’t give me the attitude, young lady,” Dad grumbles.
“My maiden virtue is perfectly intact.” I make a show of bowing. Holden coughs to cover a snort while Dad’s graying brows flatten. “Chill, guys. It was just a ride.”
They finally move when I nudge my way past them.
“I don’t want you anywhere near him,” Dad says, expression stern.
He used to smile so much. I miss it. Most days I just want back the man who would laugh with us.
“I agree,” Holden says. “I told you, I don’t want him to hurt you.”
Everyone around here is a broken record. It’s like they all forgot about Fox and just believe what the town says—that he’s bad news and a twisted monster, troubled like his dad. It’s all bullshit.
I whip around, tired of it all. “Why, Dad? Tell me.”
The cagey expression doesn’t bode well, turning my stomach into a knot. Whenever I’ve pressed about Fox and his family in the last year, even to bring up good memories, my parents get like this. At first I thought they were just upset—they lost their friends as much as Holden and I did—but now I’m wondering if it’s something more.
Could they be hiding something?
Maybe Fox isn’t the only one who won’t be honest with me.
“Why,” I repeat more firmly. “I’m not a kid, so stop treating me like one.”
He opens his mouth, then scrubs a hand over it, shaking his head sharply. Turning his back on me, he sets our Fort Knox-worthy security system. “Just stay the hell away from him, Maisy. Pretend Fox Wilder never existed in the first place and all our lives will be better for it.”
My stomach swoops as I think of everything my family doesn’t know about between Fox and I.
Too late.
Twelve
Fox
Regret filters in and out as I pull into the garage at the warehouse. Once I park the bike, my thumb finds the old ding in the chrome and I rub it.
I don’t know what made me fold and give Maisy a ride. Instead of stranding her, I hesitated. Something about that stubborn expression cracking at the thought of being stranded, alone. I couldn’t take it, so I gave her the ride.
Her broken promise stole my dad away and I enjoyed driving her around for an hour. The feel of her arms locked around me and the echo of her body plastered against my back lingers. The sound of her joyful yell as my bike cut through the mountain roads plays on repeat. Every minute is burned into my brain. For a short while, it was like everything was how it should be.
Feelings I’ve suppressed and rejected for so long unfurled in my chest, refusing to be smothered completely.
A heavy breath leaves me.
The girl I used to climb trees with loved being on my bike. And I fucking liked it.
She still wears that same damn bracelet from when we were kids. I recognized it as soon as I snagged her wrist for a better look. My skin prickles with awareness. She wears the stones as a reminder of the ocean, and I tattooed it on my skin. I remember the day I found those stones for her.
The rocks and shells we picked have piled up in our bucket. My concentration was focused on the damp sand in search of more. Holden trailed behind me, climbing a rock jutting from the sand while Maisy poked her nose close to a tide pool at the base.
