I look out at the sky. We’re in the middle of Kansas, and it might not be much too many, but there’s one thing we’ve got that I never tire of: a view. You can see for miles on a clear day. Might seem flat at first glance, but we’ve got enough dips and dives to make any artist beg for a chance to paint it. Especially with how the sky reaches the horizon just after sunset, where you get both the stars and last rays of sunshine. It could take a man’s breath away if it wasn’t already spoken for by the beautiful blonde who’s looking at the same view.
“You going to tell me who Troy is to you?” I glance over at her and see her shoulders sag, as if letting out a deep sigh. “I take it he’s more than just your boss.”
“Yeah.” She looks at me but doesn’t take a step toward me. Wish she would. I want her in her arms when she tells me something I’ve already guessed, because I know I ain’t going to like the full story. Not from the way she puts her arms around herself, like she’s going to protect herself. She doesn’t need to do that. She’s got me now.
“He’s my ex-husband.” She hesitates, like she’s waiting for me to freak out. But I don’t.
“And?”
She sags even more. “I really need to tell Jules to stop telling you shit.”
I shake my head as I get off my bike and reach out to her. I pull the belt loop on her dress to me as I lean back on my bike. “Jules didn’t tell me.”
She looks at me with a tilt of her head. “But you knew.” She says it with conviction, and I nod.
I shrug when she gives me a confused look. “Guess the boys were right to call me Gator. I dig in when I want something.” I don’t think I need to tell her how much digging I did on her before this became more than an obsession for me. Doubt she’d like to know that I know her credit score, the reason she was in the hospital as a kid, and what her favorite online stores are.
She doesn’t seem upset that I know this, so I chance my luck. “I might know you were married and got an annulment when you were eighteen, but I don’t have the backstory.” I leave it open, giving her an out to not tell me more if she doesn’t want to. While I want to know everything about my girl, I know some things take time. If this isn’t the right time, I can wait, to a point. I’ve already proven I’m better than most at it when it comes to her.
“We dated in high school,” she starts, then huffs out a laugh and rolls her eye. She looks back at me and then places her hands on my chest as I fold my arms behind her back. Her fingers trace over the patch on my vest. Her eyes stay there, too, as she continues to talk.
“Actually, we didn’t date. We snuck around. He thought it was best, and at the time I thought so too. Neither of us wanted our friends to say anything. As you can probably guess, none of us misfits were in the ‘it’ crowd.” She glances up, and I nod before she looks back down and traces the three-headed dog. “I thought we were in love, and when I turned eighteen, he had already graduated. We spent as much time together as possible. With him out of school, no one could do anything to us, but we still never went out. Then one day, Troy asked me to run away with him. He said he was done doing what his dad wanted, and he just wanted to be with me. I thought it was the best idea, so I drove with him to Vegas that night, and we got married. But as soon as we said, ‘I do,’ his parents showed up. They yelled at him, threatened to cut him off if he didn’t drop this with me. Apparently having a daughter-in-law who was adopted because her mom was a junkie who overdosed was an embarrassment.”
She looks up at me, a tear at the edge of her eye. I wipe it away with the pad of my thumb before tasting the salt of it.
“I thought there was something different between you and your parents.”
Her bark of laughter is the effect I wanted, as all sadness drains from her face. “You mean you can’t see the resemblance between my white ass and my black-as-night parents? You might not be the first to have missed it.” Her smile is back, and that’s all I want.
I pull her close and kiss her nose. She sighs into me as I hold her against me. “Sorry that happened to you, baby. I didn’t know he agreed because of money.”
“Yeah. He went back to dating Carolyn a week later, or maybe they never stopped. I don’t know. He told me they had, but who knows? I didn’t think he would choose money over me, but I guess I never really knew the guy. Only saw what I wanted. I wasn’t starved for attention. My parents were both loving. Mom adopted me the first chance she got, since she was the nurse who delivered me and took care of me when my biological mom overdosed. That’s why when she and Dad adopted me, and then Jules a few years later, it went through pretty fast, as they already knew the system and the judges already liked them. Which is probably why Carolyn always hated me.”
“Why’s that, baby?”
“Her dad was the judge who granted the adoption both times. But not only that, he also came around a few times when I was a kid. Even brought Carolyn and we’d play together, till something changed. She was younger than me, but I got sick easily because my bio mom did drugs when she was carrying me. I was born with a hole in my heart and was in and out of hospitals for a while. Even got held back a few years, which is why I’m older than Jules and the rest of the misfits. Maybe Carolyn hates me because Troy was nice to me, and he was the older classman she wanted. Guess she got him in the end.”
I lean back and lift her chin up, searching her eyes for the truth. “Did you love him?”
“I thought I did.”
I swallow hard, because I have to ask the next question, and I know it’ll be hard to hear the answer. “Do you still?”
She moistens her lips, and my eyes are drawn to it. “No. I… I like someone else now.” My eyes snap to hers. “I really like someone else.”
“I knew you’d be worth it.”
“Worth what?”
“My time, baby. All my time.”
I crush my lips to hers and don’t let up till the sun fully sets and stars shine above. Only then do I get her back on my bike and take her home.
To where we belong, together.
Chapter 22—Bailey
Ihang on tight to Reese and don’t let go. I don’t want to. Not now, not ever. Telling him about Troy was like shedding the last of my skin. It’s been a secret that not even the misfits know. I told Jules once when we got drunk years ago, but with her memory issue, I don’t think she even remembers. My parents know because I had to call someone to pick me up outside a Vegas chapel at two in the morning.
