Piece by Piece (The Riggins Brothers #2) - Kaylee Ryan Page 0,16
spot that’s not littered with tourists, we sit on the sand and begin to eat in silence. The sun is starting to set, and I realize we’ve spent the entire day together when it only feels like minutes.
“I love the ocean,” I say, breaking the silence. “Growing up, life was hard. My father, I never knew him, and my mom, well, she blamed me for him leaving. She was hooked on drugs. We moved from one dumpy apartment to the next, following whatever man she’d latched herself onto at the time.” I take a break and grab a sip of my milkshake. “I turned eighteen three days before I graduated from high school. Something, I wasn’t sure I’d get to do with all the moving around we did.”
“That had to be hard.” His deep timbre is soft. Soothing.
“Yeah. I wanted better, you know? I knew that I had to graduate. That I had to get that little piece of paper, or I would end up just like her. That wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted out. I wanted a new life.”
“Where are you from?”
I look over at him and smile. “Indiana.” My eyes scan the ocean with the setting sun as its backdrop. “I’d been saving, working after school, and hiding the money. Mom didn’t care if I was home or not. On the rare occasion she did ask, I simply told her I was out with friends. I bought a bus ticket for the day of graduation. As soon as they handed me my diploma, I walked off the stage and out the doors. I didn’t have close friends, I was always the new girl, and it’s not like I could invite anyone over. So I stayed to myself. With just a backpack filled with a few meager items of clothing, I walked onto the bus and never looked back.”
I turn to look at him and find him watching me intently. “This is the first place I came to—this beach. I sat here for hours, just looking out at the ocean. It was the first time I’d ever seen it, and I was in awe of its beauty. The way it’s never-ending.”
“The water, it matches your eyes,” he says huskily. “Like you, I could stare at them for hours.”
“You are unlike anyone I’ve ever met, Owen Riggins.”
“Good.” He leans in and presses his lips to mine. “Now, eat up, and we’ll take a walk on the beach.”
“Thank you for dinner. It’s my favorite, and I don’t get it often.” I can see the question in his eyes as I gather our trash and place it in the bag. “Eating out isn’t a luxury I can afford most days,” I say, avoiding eye contact.
“I’m sorry you were dealt such a shitty hand at life.”
“I’m doing okay,” I say, shrugging. “There are rough times, but all I have to think about is where I came from. How I’ve gotten where I am on my own, and it gives me the strength to keep pushing through. Even on the days when I let the thought of giving up filter through my mind, I keep fighting my way through life.”
Something passes over his features, but I can’t describe it. “You ready for that walk?” He doesn’t wait for me to answer. He stands, grabs our bag of trash, and walks it to a nearby trash can on the pier. I follow along behind him like the lost soul that I am. When I’m within reaching distance, he offers me his hand, and without hesitation, I take it.
I don’t know this man. He could be a serial killer for all I know, but something in my gut tells me he’s good. Everything he’s done for me, a complete stranger, solidifies that. I’ve always been one to follow my gut. My gut told me to get out of Indiana as fast as I could. My gut told me Florida was where I needed to be.
“Tell me about you,” I say once we’re on the beach.
“I grew up in a big family. I have four brothers. One older and three younger.”
“Wow. I can’t imagine what that’s like.”
“Chaos.” He chuckles. “We were always getting into something growing up. Luckily our parents guided us and kept us on the straight and narrow. We have a lake on our family’s property, and we spent every waking moment there growing up.”
“You have a lake?” I ask in disbelief.
“Yeah, we would fish, ski, Jet Ski, swim, you name it. We still