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“You know damn well it doesn’t,” I said, trying to keep my temper in check in front of Leona.
Mulaney seemed to want to do the same. She looked out the window as I raced down the road. A thick silence descended on the truck, tense and uncomfortable. The night was dark, other than the stars and the bright moon, and it matched the mood in the cab.
A stop for gas had turned into a shitshow. Why would I be surprised at anything else? This was Mulaney’s effect, and damn if it wasn’t one of the things I liked about her.
Chapter Seventeen
Mulaney
I tappedmy boot at a rapid clip against the floorboard.
The past had cloaked me with the unwanted pain and embarrassment I’d had at seventeen and refused to release me. Things had worked out for the best. Bryce and I were never meant to be anything. It had never been about that.
I’d liked him a lot, and he’d tossed that aside like yesterday’s trash. He’d destroyed my ability to trust another guy. He’d humiliated me. Betrayed me. And even though I’d promised myself no one would ever make me feel that hurt, it had crashed down on me in a fresh wave.
The worst of it was Easton had seen it all. He’d backed me up without knowing anything. That just brought on a new kind of emotion I still didn’t know what to do with. Maybe if I hadn’t built a fortress around my feelings all those years ago, I’d be better equipped to handle all of it.
Easton parked his truck near the front steps and killed the engine. He leaned over the center console and opened the glovebox, took something out wrapped in red and green paper, and set it on my lap.
“That’s for you,” he said gruffly.
Leona discreetly slipped out of the back seat, carefully closing the truck door and leaving Easton and me alone.
“I don’t want this.” It was too much. My emotions were so scattered I couldn’t deal with anything else.
“I don’t care.”
Damn it. When he used the tone that said he wasn’t to be argued with, it irritated the hell out of me. It also lit up my insides, like he’d thrown a match on gasoline.
The gift was long and thin, but I didn’t dare touch it.
“I’m going inside,” I said, anxious to get away from him. He’d defended my niece’s honor and pissed me off all in the same trip. I needed air.
“You can open that later.” He pulled on the door handle and light flooded the cab as he got out.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Going to say hello to your family.”
We stepped insideand heard loud chatter from the kitchen. The scent of pine hit my nose. I stood inside the front door, caught in limbo between past and present. This place was what had shaped me, the people who lived here were the ones whose mold I was made from. It was just a house, but it was part of me, a big chunk I sometimes took for granted.
I remembered Christmas morning when I was six years old, plain as day. Mitch had gotten this big fire truck that had a siren and a ladder that extended and swiveled. We’d been sitting right there by that tree—still in the same place it had been for as long as I’d been alive—Mitch playing with his toy, me sulking because I wanted it. He’d loved that truck more than anything else he’d gotten that year. I remembered the way he’d howled along with the siren as he pushed it around on the old hardwood floors. All the adults had disappeared while the three of us kids stayed by the tree to play. Mitch had rolled the truck over to me, told me to take it. His pesky little sister who got on his nerves way worse than their little brother. But Mitch gave me that fire truck because he wanted me to be happy. Because he cared more about me than himself.
Stone had broken the ladder when I let him play with it. Granddaddy patched it up as best he could, but it didn’t matter. Every time I looked at the toy, I remembered somebody loved me more than they loved their stuff. My big brother had taught me to be the same way.
My throat got thick at the sound of my brothers laughing and my grandmother’s voice rising above it all from the other room. I wouldn’t change my life, but in the last few months I’d gotten lost. I’d forgotten that if I ever needed to find myself, this was the place to start. But when I wanted to hide, it was harder to be here. For the first time, I wasn’t sure what was the right thing to do. I had plenty of people here who would be more than willing to tell me, but I wanted to figure it out on my own.
“Mulaney?”
Easton was halfway down the hall when he realized I wasn’t behind him. No matter how cold I was to him, he bounced back easily, setting aside how he felt to make sure I was okay. He was so like Mitch in that way, which was one of the things I most liked in Easton Carter. But it also scared me.
“I can’t do this right now.” I stowed the gift he’d given me in my purse and set it on the stairs before bolting back out the front door.
It wasn’t just my own life I’d screwed up. Leona had been hurt because of my stupid pride. I was no better than Bryce. I couldn’t let go of what he’d done to me, and I’d had to have retribution. My niece had very nearly ended up pregnant with a boy’s child, who more than likely wanted nothing to do with her.
Thank God for small miracles that the tests were negative. All the newlyweds eager to start their families around here had come in handy.
I pumped my legs faster. Easton easily caught me, but instead of trying to stop me he ran right beside me. That only made me go faster. He matched me stride for stride.
