Inhaling a deep breath, he pushes forward. “I imagine not. She’s not a sharer.”
I keep a steady pace beside him, both of us facing forward to keep the conversation from being too intimate.
“How did her mother die?” I’m winded trying to keep up with his pace but I try not to let it show.
As we push forward over the crest of the hill, he huffs out, “Ask her yourself.”
“She won’t tell me,” I admit. She won’t. I’ve tried digging into her past. “Not without something in return,” I add, so he knows I’ve attempted. But everything has a price. One I’m not willing to pay.
The smug bastard smiles at me. “Seems like you’ll have to cough up the info she wants.”
I want to punch him. Seriously. I want to kick one of his legs out from under him, watch him fall, and then beat the ever-loving shit out of him. But I don’t. Instead, I give him the only bargaining chip I have left. Something he wants more than anything.
“I will concede,” I mutter quietly.
He pulls to a halt. “What did you say?”
I stop running and circle back, raking the sweat from my hair. “You heard me.” I know he did. He just wants to hear me say it again. Prick.
He cocks his head expectantly. He knows I’ll repeat it. I want the information too bad. I’m desperate for the information. I would do anything for it except disclose my own secrets.
“I will concede,” I grit out painfully. I don’t want to lose her but then again, I never really had her in the first place.
This makes the little prick happy, as he flashes me a cocksure smile. “And why would you do that?”
Now he’s just being a dick. He wants me to spell it out for him so he can rejoice in his victory.
He paces in a circle, huffing out breaths as he waits for my answer.
“As much as you may think it’s true, I’m not an asshole. I recognize a deep-rooted love when I see it. I may not understand why she loves you but I can respect her wishes. I thought she deserved better than you and I still think she does, but I can see that you love her. You know her better than anyone ever will. I can accept just being her friend.”
When I finish, he looks up and gives me a terse nod. It’s a brotherly code. I’ve accepted my fate in her life and given my blessing to him in hers.
He swallows thickly, probably swallowing down some asshole remark, and starts walking. I follow, eager for the other piece of the story.
“Her parents were young when they got pregnant. They married. Her dad joined the military to earn a living. Her mother, Sarah, was on the way to the grocery store one afternoon when she lost consciousness and crashed her car into a ravine. A brain aneurysm, they called it. She was being airlifted to a local hospital when she coded. They kept her alive long enough to get Anniston out. She weighed like a pound or something.”
He gives me a sad smile. I chew the inside of my cheek, giving him my undivided attention.
“Anyway, you heard about all the issues, the vision, CP, brain bleed, etc.—”
I cut him off. “Vision?”
“Oh, just that she can’t see shit. She wears contacts now, though, instead of those huge glasses.” He laughs, probably remembering how dorky she looked in glasses. I don’t. This is serious.
He clears his throat after my scathing look and gets back to his end of the bargain.
“They called her dad home from overseas. He took one look at her, handed her over to her grandfather, and said, ‘Look after her.’ Later, he was injured by a roadside bomb. He came home, not knowing how to care for a child or function at his job at the mill. One day, he never showed to pick up Anniston from their house. Hines, Anniston’s grandfather, found him dead in the car. Asphyxiated, carbon monoxide from the exhaust. She was two.”
My eyes widen with that information. Her dad was military? Is that why she felt like she needed to help me? Is this her redemption for not being able to save her father? I have so many questions but I stick to a safer one. “So, her grandparents raised her?”
“Yep.”
He begins to jog, so I do, too, keeping up easily this time. My endurance is getting better every day.
“How did you come into the picture?” I want to know how this angel of shit came in and swooped her off her feet.
He makes a soft noise, almost like he’s reliving the memory. “Would you believe she saw me next door and fell all over herself to meet me?”
