“Why don’t I give you my phone number? Text me, and we’ll set up a time to chat. Whatever it is that’s going on, Bernadette, it isn’t too late. It’s never too late. We can always fix what’s broken.” I almost laugh at that, but the sound would be so caustic, it’d burn Sara’s pretty face off. Is she kidding me? When glass shatters, it cannot be fixed. You can collect the pieces, but your hands will bleed after. There is no putting those little shards back together. They will forever remain dangerous fragments of a thing that used to be.
“Thank you,” I tell her instead, handing over my phone so she can input her number. I wonder if I’m being too awkward or weird, but maybe that’s what helps my case? Gives my lies a sense of believability. “I’ll be in touch. I really appreciate this.”
“If you ever need anything—beyond just a chat over coffee—call me. Don’t leave yourself in a dangerous situation because you’re scared to ask for help.” Sara looks down at me on the second step of her porch, her savior complex shining so bright that I want to look away. Instead, I stare at her until there are white splotches in my vision.
“I appreciate it,” I say after a moment, turning and heading back down the pathway. The grass has been cut back on either side, but there are no other plants of which to speak, adding to the strange fifties catalog-style Americana bullshit with the freakishly green lawns and shiny cars in the driveways.
It’s a relief to climb onto the back of Vic’s Harley and wrap my arms around him.
“Don’t ever stop me from riding with you,” I murmur against the sun-warmed leather of his jacket. I might be showing my cards a bit, but I can’t help myself. Victor isn’t allowed to cut me off from his influence. Not anymore.
“Even when Hael finishes your car?” he asks, a bit of a laugh hiding in the smooth fluidity of his voice.
“Even then,” I confirm. “Don’t cut us off from each other to punish me, Victor.”
He stays still for a moment before kicking the engine to life.
“Never,” he agrees, the wicked purr in his voice telling me that it’s just clicked for him. He’s figured it out, and I am fucked.
We take off down the road and into an entirely different sort of business transaction.
“What the hell is this place?” I ask as Vic parks his bike in the dirt outside of what looks like, quite literally, a haunted house. “This is your idea of a wedding venue?” Victor climbs off the bike, lighting up a cigarette as the Bronco and the Camaro pull up alongside us. I’m getting mad déjà vu from when we visited Billie’s trailer to find a dress for the brunch thing at the country club.
“You don’t like it?” Victor asks, studying the admittedly beautiful foliage. This place is the opposite of Sara’s neighborhood. The house is falling apart—not all shiny and perfect like hers—but the land is alive. There are mature trees with lineages far deeper and more beautiful than my own. And the ancient rhododendron near the porch? It’s such a far cry from South Prescott with its tract housing and shitty duplexes, all that cement and chain-link and urban decay.
“Whose place is this anyway?” I ask as the other boys climb out to join us. I’m surprised they’re all here, seeing as Vic is possessive as hell over this whole wedding idea. “Enjoy your time as a free woman because I’m counting down the nights until I fuck that wedding dress off of you.” I’m still not entirely sure what Victor expects after the wedding, but … glancing Aaron’s direction, I know that I’m not ready to give him up, not with all the time lost between us.
He doesn’t look like he wants to give me up either. His gaze is angry, and his fingers are squeezing into fists and then relaxing, a sign of the tension riding hard and heavy inside of him.
“My grandmother’s house,” Victor says, throwing a smile over his shoulder at me. Well, I’m not sure that I’d really call whatever that expression is, a smile. More like a fucking anti-smile. Yep, that’s what it is: an anti-smile.
“Such a shame,” Oscar sighs, leaving his iPad on the front seat of the Camaro as he looks up at the house. He rode with Hael while Callum tagged along with Aaron. “A