When You Come Back to Me (Lost Boys #2) - Emma Scott Page 0,128
while my heart was firmly locked on his.
I’d rented my own apartment to have some privacy, but every night I came home to an empty space. Ate alone. Slept alone. Irony of ironies, I now had privacy coming out of my eyeballs.
That’s called loneliness.
So when Brad Martin, with his easy smile and nice eyes, asked to grab some dinner at the Mexican restaurant down the road from the shop, I said yes. I had to do something that wasn’t reading Holden’s book cover to cover every night until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I’d sent his journals back to him—they were never mine to keep—and dove into the words he shared with the world. Because that’s where he was.
That’s all I had left of him.
I blinked out of my thoughts and patted my dad on the shoulder. “What about you, Dad? Ever think about getting back out there?”
“Oh no, no,” Dad said gravely, shaking his head. “Your mom…she was the one for me, River. She was something special.”
“Yes, she was,” I said gruffly.
Dad’s eyes on the TV turned glazed and distant. “A woman like her doesn’t come around but once in a lifetime. We were living in Alabama when we met, you know.”
I knew. He’d told me this story a hundred times.
“She would’ve moved with me no matter where I was drafted, but she loved the ocean. When I got injured, we came here. Easiest decision I ever made in my life. I was hurting real bad. Not just my knee, but from missing my shot at the NFL. Seeing her face light up when I told her we were moving to Santa Cruz…” His eyes filled. “That was worth everything.”
His voice cracked and his body bent with sobs. I put my arm around him as best as I could, lending him my strength. But his tears tried to draw out mine; I teetered on the edge of that black pit of grief but couldn’t let myself fall in. Too much was riding on me keeping my shit together.
The roar of an engine sounded from the driveway, followed by a rattle.
“Someone’s got a hole in his exhaust system,” I said.
“That’s Amelia’s prince charming,” Dad said, pulling himself together, wiping his nose on a napkin. “Go kick his ass, would you?”
I smiled. “I gotta get going, actually. I’ll see Amelia before I go.” I stopped at the door. “You’ll be okay?”
“You don’t worry about me.”
Too fucking late.
Worry compounded on top of worry for him and my sister. Instead of holing up like Dad, Amelia was running around but not going anywhere. I hurried down the stairs just as she was coming in. She stopped short when she saw me.
“Oh. Hi.”
“Who was that?”
She immediately rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry about it.”
I caught her arm before she could head upstairs. “Hey. Talk to me. I just want to know he’s a good guy.”
She snorted. “No, he’s a serial killer. Dad got to you, didn’t he? Told you all kinds of shit about Kyle?”
“I don’t want to hear it from Dad. I’m asking you.”
Amelia’s hard expression softened for a second, as if she felt the distance between us and hated it just as much as I did. Then she hardened again.
“Who I date is none of your business.” She yanked her arm out of my grip and stomped up the stairs. “Go home, River. You don’t live here anymore, remember?”
Her door slammed. I scrubbed both hands over my face and sagged against the wall in the entry where Holden and I had once kissed. We’d mauled each other’s mouths until I couldn’t think or breathe and didn’t want to so long as I had him…
But that was a million years ago. Another life.
I went out, back to my little place that was dark and empty.
The next morning, I was at the shop with Julio and three other guys, a new team I’d hired as both the car restoration and the general repair business grew. Dad didn’t show up though he was on the schedule.
Julio gave me a commiserating smile. “He’ll snap back.”
“When? It’s been three years.”
“When he’s ready. How you doing? You look tired.”
“I’m fine.”
“You say that every time I ask.”
I mustered a smile. “Then stop asking.”
“No can do, boss. You’ve been working to the bone, after-hours, weekends…”
“Dad’s not showing up. Someone’s got to be here.”
“You’re always here. In the four years I’ve worked with you, you’ve never taken a day off.”