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He starts to step away but must think better of it because he pulls me in for a hug. “You’re amazing, Britt. Don’t let an encounter with the past make you forget it, yeah?”
I nod into his shoulder. “I won’t.”
He releases me and jogs to his truck. He fires it up and, as always, waits on me to leave first. I put my car in gear and steal a quick glance at the Chevy again. This time the headlights are on and it’s reversing out of its parking spot.
I lightly press the accelerator and pull out of High Road’s lot. I glance in my darkened rearview mirror to find my own reflection staring back. The past won’t ever drag me down again.I won’t let it.I’ve come too far and fought too hard to be where I am now. Hawk Abbott won’t ever make me lose sight of what’s real again.
Iknew it.There’s something going on between Brittney and the owner of High Road Bar, Zander Bailey. I saw them share an embrace after hours. I’m not sure why I went back—curiosity with nothing else to do I suppose. It got my mind off other things I’d rather not think about. But it certainly seems like she’s carrying a torch for her boss, not that I care. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve wiped any memory of her from my mind.
I grab a beer out of the fridge after I get back to my small house on the outskirts of town. It’s not much, just a two bedroom, one bath on a little over an acre of land, but it’s only five minutes from Valley B. It’s mine—I got it on my own. It’s all I need. I have no plans of having a wife or kids—at least not for the foreseeable future—not with the mess my family is. I’d never want to risk someone else’s safety—not even for love. It’s hard enough at times constantly watching over Mamma and my sister.
Mamma was right, when I found my father, I opened doors that should’ve stayed shut. I close my eyes as the cold beer slides down my throat, temporarily cooling the ever-present sting of betrayal. My father isnota good man. I wouldn’t exactly call him evil, but he’s about the furthest from being a saint a person can be. I don’t know that I ever thought he was good, or he wasn’t…I simply wanted to know him and make up my own mind about him and everything revolving around the fact he wasn’t in our lives after we moved to Greendale Valley.
Mamma knew I’d ultimately do what I wanted, but nonetheless, she tried to warn me against it. It turns out Mamma didn’t stop loving him, but he betrayed her, and her entire family. She would only ever hint at things as I got older, but she wouldn’t point-blank explain what he did. Unfortunately, I found out too late on my own. I went for many reasons, but I was nine when we left, so I did remember glimpses of him as my father and my mind couldn’t make sense of him being bad for us. I remembered a man I admired—a man I loved. Everything shifted when we left. It had me feeling all twisted up.
My entire family is twisted. Mamma got out, but only because her dad is an extremely powerful man. For lack of a better way to put it, Mamma’s family is wealthy and can walk on the wrong side of the law. Some might call them a crime family. But they have morals and respect for people and life in general. They don’t shy from the gray areas. She’s from an Italian bloodline. She rarely speaks to any of them now.
Her father may not be active in any of our lives, but she’s always been the apple of his eye. He finds ways to make sure she’s okay, and my sister and me too, but he doesn’t try to contact us directly. I had memories of him as a child as well. A condition of her leaving was starting over by herself with me, her nine-year-old son and Wren, her five-year-old daughter…no real connections to the life she left behind. She did keep her married name though—Valentina RossiAbbott.
In fact, my grandfather—Marco Rossi—didn’t care for my father. Theirs wasn’t a union he gave his blessing. My grandmother, Gianna, and my uncles Vincent and Victor weren’t happy about their union either, even though Victor started out as his friend. Then, when my dad betrayed the Rossis in the worst possible way, it was over.
To be honest, I think she hates herself for still loving a man who could be so cruel…a man who put his own vengeance over his wife and kids. Many nights, I’d hear her crying in her bedroom when she thought we were sleeping. She keeps his picture and the last one taken of us as a family in her nightstand. Mamma is a strong and proud woman, so to know he broke her spirit, even though she wouldn’t tell me how, was a hard pill to swallow. It was another reason I went searching for my own answers. And then that move broke mine.
Now, my father is tangled up so much with the Rossis’ enemy—the Leones—he won’t ever be free of them. But I’m not sure he cares. When he lost my mother, and he lost his kids, he hardened his heart even more than it was before. All he cares about now is power and proving he’s better than any Rossi. I learned the hard way. I was almost in his world—almost at the point of no return—then my eyes were opened to the depth of deceit and hate. I fought for my life…literally. I have the scars to prove it. Once I was free, I didn’t turn back, except to make sure they all stay where they are…far from me and my family.
Tonight though, cracked open another locked door from long ago—one I wasn’t expecting. Seeing Brittney’s amber eyes took me to another time and place. I could’ve loved her. She could’ve been the one.If she hadn’t lied. If she hadn’t told me she hated me.When I found out what she’d said and went to confront her, those were the only words that fell from her perfect lips…I hate you.I didn’t stop to ask why or what I had done to deserveherhate towardme.I was leaving anyway, and even if I’d loved her then, I’m not sure that could’ve stopped me. It was easier to make a clean break and try to forget. But it damn well may have brought me home sooner and spared me the hell I lived for the next few years.
I shake my head to try and push away the memory of her tears. I’d never seen her so…broken. I thought about her more often than I’d like to admit, even when I was mixed up with life in Nashville. But the moment she spewed her lies about me to her sister and uttered her words of hate, it was over. We may as well have been enemies the way she glared at me. I may not have known true deceit then, but it was a heavy cloud over me growing up, even if I didn’t understand why.
Brittney and me…we were friends. From the moment I moved in next door to her and her family, she always made me smile. We were only kids, but she welcomed me home first, before anyone else. She’s closer to my sister’s age, but it didn’t matter. She seemed wiser and more mature.
Her family life was not without the drama growing up either. For several years, we lived beside each other. We played together. We grew together. We shared secrets. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do as long as it meant hanging out with me. The thought surprisingly brings a smile to my lips.
Not long after I’d turned fourteen, her family moved. Apparently, her parents were both having affairs and they thought moving would help. I know it seemed silly with me being fourteen and her being eleven, but she was my best friend, and I was so upset to be losing her, I didn’t say goodbye. We didn’t write or talk on the phone. We simply disappeared from each other’s lives…like strangers.
Brittney’s parents kept their house as a rental over the years. Many families came and left. It wasn’t until one Saturday when I was about to turn nineteen and graduation was approaching—I was the oldest student in my graduating class—I stopped behind a little black car at a red light. I remember like it was yesterday…
It was a warm day. I had my windows rolled down and so did the car in front of me. In her driver side mirror, I could see she had on sunglasses, and I could tell she was checking me out. To my surprise, she waved at me in her mirror before she flashed me the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen. Needless to say, I waved back but pointed for her to turn into the grocery store parking lot. I had to know her name. I felt a connection even though I didn’t know this girl.
Imagine my surprise when we parked, and I approached her vehicle to find my long-lost childhood best friend. My female best friend…who was no longer a little girl, she was very much what makes a young man’s heart, such as my own, beat a little bit faster.
My cocky grin disappeared as recognition hit. She pulled her sunglasses down the bridge of her perfect nose allowing me to see her amber eyes. Her smile never faltered. “Hi, Hawk. I gotta admit, when I waved at you back there, I had no clue it was you. I’m a little embarrassed.” She laughed, and it was the best sound I’d heard in years. “What’s it been…five years?”
I grinned at her, still a little stunned by seeing her again. “Yeah, something like that.”
She unbuckled and got out of her car. Then she propped her hands on her hips after pushing her sunglasses on top of her head. “Can I have a hug?”
“Of course, get over here, dolcezza,” I said on a laugh as I opened my arms for her.
She giggled as she walked into my embrace, and it felt like home. “I missed that. But I’m not sure if sweetness really fits me.”
When we pulled apart, I told her, “You’ve always been sweet, Britt. I’m sure nothing about that has changed.”
She stared at me for a moment, taking me in. “So, how’ve you been?”
“Good…really good. I missed you, though,” I admitted.
She placed a hand on her chest, drawing my gaze there to the swell under her tight purple T-shirt. “Me? Surely not.”
