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“What do you do, Anya?”
“I’m a lawyer.” Her eyes widen in surprise, which I kind of expected. Not very many people expect that to be my answer when they ask what I do for a living. It usually works to my advantage.
“That’s awesome!” This entire exchange seems kind of odd. There’s definitely history between these two and my mind can’t help but wander. Did they date? Maybe they were high school sweethearts. They obviously grew up with each other.
“We have to go.” Hunter’s slightly abrupt, but Melanie is either used to it, or just doesn’t notice. She pulls Hunter into another hug, this time it’s even tighter and lingerie than the last. I don’t think I’m meant to hear what she says to him, but I’m paying too close attention to miss it.
“I’ll never be able to thank you enough.” Hunter just pulls away from her and gives her a sharp nod. I don’t know what that’s about, and I can’t decide if it’s my place to ask him about it or not.
“It was really nice to meet you, Anya. You’re a lucky woman.” She gestures between hunter and myself, and I can’t help but smile back at her. We may not have talked about it, but Hunter is mine. That’s a fact I know and I won’t let go of.
“Yeah, I am.”
She hurries back across the street and climbs into a Porsche cayenne. I’m surprised she felt safe enough to bring that nice of a car to this neighborhood, but maybe since she grew up here, she felt comfortable enough to do so. Hunter watches as she drives away, his eyes tracking her car until it’s out of sight. He seems lost for a moment, most likely thinking of something I have no clue about. I want to ask so many questions, to get some answers about this entire day. But I know that’s not what he needs right now.
“I believe someone promised me some food.” My statement seems to snap him from his thoughts and he looks down at me with an unreadable expression.
“And I can’t break a promise now, can I?” I give him a bright smile and let out a sigh of relief that his dark mood has seemed to lift at least slightly for now.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Anya
After our run-in with Melanie,Hunter didn’t really speak as he drove us to Fairmount Park. We walked straight to the restaurant he told me about, still in complete silence. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said it was a hole in the wall. With Hunter’s large size, the place was barely big enough for the two of us. We ordered our cheesesteaks and left quickly. Now we’re sitting on a bench overlooking the Schuylkill River. It’s not excessively busy, but there is a steady stream of people walking or jogging, and kids running around and playing. It’s actually kind of nice. Seeing how simple life can be for some. There was a time when life felt simple for me. Now I have no idea what’s going on.
“So, you wanna tell me who she is?” I'm quiet, not wanting to make him mad over my inquiry. He lets out a sigh and his hand runs over his cleanly shaven head. His muscular arm taunts me with every flex of his muscle, but I focus on the words coming out of his mouth.
“She was my best friend.” Considering they grew up together, that makes perfect sense. But it’s obvious that’s not the extent of it. Hunter was way too tense during the exchange for them to just be best friends who lost touch.
“What happened?”
“Well, I fell in love with her.” I try not to let his words affect me, but they feel like a punch in the gut.
“So you guys broke up?” I don’t want to push him too hard, but I’m too desperate for more information not to probe at least a little bit.
He shakes his head. “Nah. We were never together.” His eyes flick out over the water, and he does that thing where his mind seems to go through what he’s wanting to say, but weighs it before he puts it all into words.
“You don’t have to tell me, Bash.” At first I think he’s taking the out since he finishes his sandwich and soda, all without saying another word. But he tosses his garbage into the trashcan near the bench, then turns to face me directly.
“We lived a couple of houses down from each other most of our lives. We became close pretty young. Even when my mom started to go off the rails, we stayed close since I still always lived in the neighborhood. I spent most of my time at her house because even though they didn’t have a lot, her parents were great. They worked hard, and they loved their daughter. They loved me, too. Treated me like their own. The older we got, the more my feelings for her developed.”
I finish off my sandwich and drink, then throw them away, but my attention stays on him and what he’s saying. “In high school, I played football. I played with this guy, James. We became pretty close, the three of us did.” It doesn’t take much to figure out where the story is going, but I let him keep talking. “James was rich. Really rich. His family lived in the largest mansion in Maynor Park. I knew I couldn’t compete with that, and at first it didn’t seem like I needed to. We were inseparable. The three of us did pretty much everything together. During the summer before senior year, everything changed. James decided to tell Melanie he was in love with her,afterI told her how I felt. She chose him.” There’s so much pain etched into those words. He’s trying to hide it, but it’s there.
“That’s her husband?” He shakes his head harshly.
“No. Toward the end of school, I started to notice some changes in him. He started hanging out with shitty people, getting into dangerous shit. At first I thought it was just him rebelling against his parents since his whole future was mapped out for him and the clock was starting to tick. But after a while, I realized that he actually liked it. He was doing all kinds of shit for some really shady people, selling drugs and stuff like that. When I graduated, I tried to talk to Melanie. I was going to college in Ohio, and I tried to convince her to come with me. I knew she saw what was happening to James, she was just as concerned as I was. I told her I still loved her and wanted to take care of her and make sure she was safe. She said no.”
I can’t tell if it’s sadness in his voice, or anger. I don’t blame him for either emotion. Clearly he was just trying to do what was right.
“She loved him.”
He shrugs up one large shoulder. “Maybe. But she wanted out of Maynor Park. At least the part of it that we grew up in. She was convinced that I couldn’t actually give her that future, but James could.” There are so many parts to his story that I’m not sure I’m fully following along with, but I’m just thrilled that he’s actually opening up to me. Something tells me that this is a part of Hunter that no one else really knows, that this is the part that made him who he is. So I’m not going to push, I’ll let him take his time and tell the story in his own way.
“So then what happened?” If James isn’t her husband now, obviously something had to have happened after he left for school and my curiosity only keeps growing with everything he tells me.
“I left for school and cut off communication with both of them. It may have been selfish, but it’s what I needed to do. She didn’t want me, and it stung.” He breathes in through his nose, making his chest expand, before letting out slowly. “I was determined to start fresh and build a life for myself. Mel was convinced she didn’t want to be a part of it, so I wasn’t going to hold onto that. To her. I got a pretty good football scholarship, but still had to pay for room and board. I had a few part time jobs in the beginning, but they were taking up too much of my time. I found an underground fight club, pretty fucking stereotypical. Single light bulbs, cage matches, all that shit. But I decided to give it a try, and next thing I knew, I was winning. A lot. I was making a shit ton of money. That’s where I met Alec.”
I sit up a little straighter at the mention of my brother. A fight club doesn’t exactly sound like Alec’s scene. Then again, there’s a lot about my brother I didn’t know before moving to North Carolina.
