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“You wanted to see if she’s happy? Marrying one of the men she cheated on you with while you were away?”
“One of the men?” Barrett huffs, causing Lyla to visibly wince. My brother has no idea the number of men we heard rumors about his ex running around with while he was in the Army.
“Sorry. I thought you knew.”
This time when I swing the light in Lyla’s direction, I see a line of red on her temple, and it’s definitely not her hair.
“She’s bleeding,” I tell them.
“I know that, RJ,” Barrett responds, dabbing at her wound with a piece of cloth.
“Ow,” she murmurs.
“You’ve got a bad scrape. Just making sure the bleeding has stopped,” he says to her. “Did you hit your head hard? Could you have a concussion?”
“Do you want me to take her back inside so we can get out of here?” I offer since I have had enough of this place for a lifetime.
“I definitely can’t go back and tell them now,” she remarks. “Nobody else needs to know that I fell when I was running on rocks in heels.”
“Why were you running?” Barrett asks her.
“Ah. Just in a hurry to get out of here.” That makes two of us. “Did you, ah, see anyone else? I mean, was anyone else out here to witness my faceplant?”
“No. I didn’t see anyone else,” Barrett replies.
“Well, um, thanks for checking on me, even though you shouldn’t be here.”
“You were laid out on the ground bleeding. I couldn’t just leave you there, even if it meant outing myself for showing up here.”
“I won’t tell anyone you were here if you never tell anyone I tumbled across the rocks like an idiot.”
“Deal,” my brother agrees as he flashes her a small smile that she returns.
In fact, the two of them just stand there staring at each other silently for several long seconds, reminding me of the moment I had earlier with Thane.
Groaning internally at that embarrassing scene, I shine the light over the cars and trucks, looking for our rides so we can get the hell out of here before Thane shows up again.
“Where are our bikes?” I ask.
Barrett clears his throat. “Down that row,” he tells me, pointing further down the left side of the parking lot with his finger.
The two of them continue to stand there awkwardly until finally, Lyla says, “Could you help me find my phone before you go?”
“Sure,” my brother easily agrees.
Both of us use our phone lights to search the area around us because the sooner we find her phone, the sooner we can hopefully leave.
I search like crazy until I finally spot it. Picking up the device that’s cracked in several places, I take it over to Lyla.
“Thank you. I need to get a ride home,” she says.
“I would offer to take you, but we’re gonna need rides of our own since we had too much to drink,” Barrett explains to her, reminding me that making a quick getaway isn’t going to happen. Dammit!
“That’s okay,” Lyla replies as she stares down at the damaged phone.
“You calling a friend to come get you?” Barrett asks.
“No, an Uber if I can get it to come on.”
