Frank knew the Parkers. Hell, the whole damn town did. Their name carried weight, and not the good kind.
People wrote them off as trash long before Marlee was old enough to prove them wrong. Her mom OD’d when Marlee was a teenager. The boyfriend died, too—same needle, same night. That left Marlee and her baby sister, Oakley, in the care of their grandma, Kim.
She lived in a rusted-out trailer on the edge of town and had no business raising kids. Barely raised her own before tossing Marlee’s mama out on her ass. Cold, cruel, and sharp-tongued, she was the kind of woman who didn’t believe in softness. She’d raised her daughter with fear and fists, and she didn’t change for the next generation.
Marlee protected Oakley the best she could, but she was still just a kid herself. I tried, too. Got my parents involved, but things were different back then. Small town, no protection, and a tiny police force.
Eventually, Marlee got free just by turning eighteen, and shortly after, Kim passed away. Best thing that could have happened for Oakley. She wound up in foster care by the time she was eight, and last I heard, she had a good life a few towns over.
The reminder is like a slap in the fucking face. My palm rakes through my hair, tugging hard enough to hurt. It doesn’t help. I still feel sick. And confused. Andsad.
Maybe things between us ended badly, but the thought of Marlee’s little girl winding up in the same kind of hell she and Oakley survived?
Fuck no.
I swallow back the acid clawing up my throat and shove the painful memories where they won’t ache. Leaning forward, elbows braced on my knees, I pick a spot on the worn walnut table to stare at and don’t look away.
“Marlee and I met in kindergarten. She hated me right off the bat, and I—” I swallow hard. “I loved her. Loved her from the second I saw her. Followed her around for years, begging her to look at me. To see me.” I scoff and a sad smile spreads across my face without warning. “Every boy was after her attention, though, and I was just a scrawny little farm kid with a gap between my teeth and cow shit on my boots.”
She didn’t want a damn thing to do with me. She always wanted bigger. I should have known, even back then.
Marlee treated that cow shit on my boots better than she treated the boy wearing them. She flirted with and dated everyone else, barely sparing me a glance unless it was to throw an insult my way.
“Freshman year, I’d finally shot up, went through a round of braces, started putting on muscle from working the farm and hauling hay, but I wasn’t a jock. No time for football or baseball like everyone else. Still, that year—”
I huff out a breath, remembering it clearer than I’d like.
“Every jock in school was falling all over themselves, begging her to be their date for homecoming. And then, one afternoon, there she was. All pompoms, swishing hips, batting lashes—prancing straight up to me. Demanded I be her date like it was the most obvious thing in the world.”
A humorless smile pulls at the corner of my mouth. “To this day, I don’t know why she picked me. Thought maybe it was a joke at first. But I said yes—showed up in a too-tight tux, my voice cracking from puberty, and a red corsage that didn’t match her dress.”
She was so fucking mad, too. Didn’t let me hear the end of it for months.
“Didn’t matter. I was gone for her after that. We were gone for each other. Fast and hard. That’s how first love works, right? All in, no seatbelt, no second thoughts.”
I scrub a hand over my jaw. “We had a plan. She worked her ass off to get into college, and I joined the military. She’d do school. I’d do the Army. Four years in, then we’d be together forever. I had six months left on my contract. I was ready for—”
A pause. I can feel the rest pressing against my chest, too heavy to speak out loud.
I was ready for everything. Had the ring. The house. The goddamn plan.
Telling them that makes me feel desperate, and foolish, but I force it out. They need to understand how perplexing this whole damn situation is. How out of her mind Marlee must have been to appoint me as her kid’s guardian.
If they understand the circumstances, maybe they’ll find a better solution.
“I was ready for the future,” I say, my eyes fixed on a knot in the wood grain of the table. “But she had other plans in mind. Broke it off in a letter. Said she couldn’t grow old and die in a shitty town like Heart Springs. Said it was too small; she wanted the city. And since the country was all I wanted—she didn’t want me.”
My fingers twitch, curling into a loose fist.
“Never spoke to her again after that. I extended my contract and stayed in nearly ten more years before I was discharged with injuries. I always figured she left for good. Moved in with her sister in Rydell or maybe Sioux Falls since it’s a bigger city.” I shrug, sighing. “Just knew she wasn’t in Heart Springs when I came back.”
When I finally lift my gaze to Georgia, I brace for the blow. Judgment, maybe. Sympathy, if she’s feeling generous.
But I’m not prepared for the anger.
Her eyes are bright, blazing with something fierce and unspoken. Jaw tight. Shoulders tense. She looks like she wants to hit something. Or someone.
Like she’s angry for Marlee. Angry at me.
