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They had ridden next to each other on the school bus and ridden back home on one too. They had also eaten lunch together in the cafeteria or outside on the stone benches. If anybody had ever made fun of her clothes for being secondhand, Jude defended her.
He had gotten into fist fights for her.
How could she not have loved him?
Her beautiful warrior, who fought for her in a way that nobody else in her life ever had.
Ever would.
And now he had a kitchen. Like a real grown man.
He was a real grown man. Only twenty-three and his muscles were already sculpted. Probably from the kind of work that he did.
He made her heart flutter.
“This is beautiful,” she said.
It was an old kitchen but meticulously cleaned. She imagined him doing that himself. The trailer that he had grown up in had been a mess.
His mother had never had time to clean. It didn’t surprise Penny that his own space was meticulous.
“Thanks,” he said. “It’s serviceable. Of course, I haven’t lived here very long.”
“You were living in Portland,” she said.
He nodded. “It was the best place to find job opportunities. I had to go to so many garages to try and get them to take me on as a kid who didn’t know anything. I dropped out of high school after my mom died.”
Her chest went cold. “When did your mom die?”
“When I was seventeen.”
“Why didn’t I hear about it?”
“I don’t know if you realize this or not, but Four Corners is its own world.”
She did realize it. In fact, she had relished it. For a long time. The Kings had become her family. Arizona had been like the sister she never had, even though she was prickly. Denver, Daughtry, Justice and Landry had been like brothers.
She had been welcomed into the fold, welcomed to the one-room schoolhouse. She blinked back tears. Because she realized then that what he said was true. She had left him. She really had. She had been so desperate to escape all that turmoil that when she had been given an out, she had taken it. Grabbed onto it with both hands and never looked back.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I really am. I was just so tired. I was so tired of that life. Of being hungry. Of being ignored. Of not knowing what a real family was like.”
Looking at him, she had the sudden realization that perhaps she’d had a family in a different way all along. And she hadn’t appreciated it. Hadn’t fully realized it.
“Like I said, you had to do what you had to do. Hell, sticking it out with me certainly wouldn’t have gotten you a degree.”
“There’s more to life than degrees, though, isn’t there?”
“Not if you want to start a business and need the degree to have the know-how. You did what you had to do.”
She sat in that knowledge. That what he said was true, even if it was kind of hard. Even if she did feel guilty. She did what she had to do. She had been happy with the Kings. They had given her security like she’d never known before.
“So you went and learned how to be a motorcycle mechanic,” she said. “Started from the bottom and worked your way up to where you can own a business?”
“Yep. And of course, it seemed important that I not be competition for the guy who helped me get here. Clyde is a good man. He did a lot to restore my faith in humanity. He helped the scrappy kid just because it seemed like a decent thing to do. He had know-how that he could pass on. He’s not a saint. Drinks too much, has some run-ins with the law here and there.”
“What about you?”
He chuckled. “Oh I manage to keep my head down. I had no interest in ever getting involved in the kind of things we saw back then.”
