way, which was honestly more than I’d expected when I left him a few minutes ago. That made me feel better about him driving, at least.
“Ready?” I asked as I walked around to the passenger’s side.
The first part of the ride to the hospital was quiet, but not that nice sort of comfortable quiet. Bradyn gripped the steering wheel hard enough for his knuckles to turn white, and his entire body was stiff with tension. The muscles in his jaw were tight, his lips a flat line.
I didn’t know how to do this, how to comfort or help. If he’d been Kaimi or Rose, I’d know what to say or do. Bradyn, I was still learning who he was. What I could do, though, was ask.
I reached across the seat and put my hand on his arm. He startled, as if he’d forgotten I was there. “Will it help to talk to me?”
After a few seconds of silence, he said, “Clancy.” He glanced at me. “That’s my nephew’s name.”
My research into the Traylor family had told me that Bradyn had an older sister, but I hadn’t really looked into her much yet. I’d been focusing my attention on their father.
“My sister, Ashley, is four years older than me. She’s the golden child, can do no wrong, you know?”
I did know, but his question was rhetorical. Not that I would’ve answered it, anyway. Bringing up my sister would just lead to a whole other shitload of questions and baggage.
“She’s always done everything our parents wanted, which means she and I aren’t really close. I’ve never really understood how she fell in line with their rules and regulations, and she never understood why I wouldn’t.” He slowed to a stop at a light, his fingers drumming against the steering wheel as we waited for it to change to green. “Her husband’s basically the same way. Warren’s twelve years older than her.”
A memory popped up. The name Warren. A man named Warren Lester was a junior partner at Check & Sons. I hadn’t looked into him, though. I’d barely even registered his name.
“She was seventeen when they met. He works for the law firm that my family’s always used.”
That answered a few of my questions. The name I’d read and Bradyn’s brother-in-law were the same person. Check & Sons had been the Traylor’s lawyers for a long time. And Bradyn knew the law firm’s name.
“My parents had been thrilled, but I never understood how they’d been okay with a man who was almost thirty pursuing their teenage daughter. I really wonder sometimes if he’d been the one to insist on waiting until Ashley was eighteen before they went out. Makes me think better of him, but I’ve never asked.”
I heard the part of the statement Bradyn wasn’t making. He hadn’t asked because if he was wrong, it would change how he looked at his brother-in-law.
“They got married right after she turned nineteen, and their oldest, Warren Jr., was born a year later.” Some of the tension in him had gone away, and as he turned into the hospital parking lot, he seemed much more in control of himself. “Betsy came along three years after that, and then Clancy.”
The way Bradyn’s voice cracked on the name told me how much he loved his nephew. I felt sick to my stomach, wondering what had happened to the kid. The part of me that fought to put myself first, to run away from anything that could possibly hurt me, begged me to leave. It’d be easy to call a cab and go back to the ranch, leave Bradyn with his family. I didn’t belong here.
As he parked the truck, I thought of what I’d say, how I’d get myself out of my promise to stay with him. Before I could say a word, he reached over and grabbed my hand, his grip painfully tight.
“He’s only six years old, Nyx.”
Fuck.
I couldn’t leave him. Even if this thing between us never went any further than the rest of the time I was here, I’d never forgive myself if I abandoned him. My life was full of enough regrets. I didn’t need to add one more, especially one like this. I knew all too well what it was like to be thrown away by people who should have been there.
“If something happens to him–”
Bradyn shook his head, unable to continue, but I understood. If Rose had been the one in the hospital, I’d be just as lost. I leaned