“Hey,” I said as I walked to meet her.
“You didn’t have to come to the door.”
“Yeah, I did. You deserve that.”
She blushed and her eyes lit up. “Bryony ate with my parents and she didn’t get her nap in today. Mom said to leave her here so she could go to bed early.”
So it was just us. As much as I’d been looking forward to spending time with Bryony tonight, it might be best that she wasn’t with us. My anger was still there under the surface, and if anyone confronted me about this, it was going to get ugly.
“Next time we’ll go earlier for her sake,” I promised.
I opened the truck door for Riley, and she climbed inside. Just as I closed it, Gunner’s truck rode past the house. He slowed and our gazes locked. This was it. He knew now, and I would deal with it. At least there would be one less secret in my life.
I turned and headed for my door. When I climbed inside I thought about not telling her what had just happened. But it was going to come out and there would be a confrontation tonight. Gunner was too hotheaded for there not to be.
“Gunner just drove by,” I told her, then started the truck.
“Do I need to get out?”
I turned to look at her. “No. My life isn’t Gunner’s to control.”
Her worried frown made me want to lean over and kiss it away.
“You have too much on you right now to deal with this, too.”
This was the least of my worries. My mother’s world being torn apart and destroyed made Gunner’s temper tantrum seem mute.
“He needs to get over it,” I told her. “Now is as good a time as any for him to deal and grow up.”
She let out a small laugh. “It won’t be that easy,” she told me.
“I don’t care about easy. I care about you.”
The way she seemed to ease and lean closer to me meant my being completely honest was the way to go. She liked that. I did too.
My phone lit up, and I glanced down at it to see Gunner’s name. I clicked ignore and headed for Rossi’s. It was an Italian place in town that cost more and the high school crowd didn’t visit often. I wasn’t in the mood to throw us out there in front of Serena and her bunch.
“You like Italian?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Yes, but Rossi’s costs too much.”
“It’s worth it.”
Sounds Like Willa
CHAPTER 35
RILEY
I had only eaten at Rossi’s with my parents on Sunday afternoons and twice when I was dating Gunner. It was one of the more expensive places to eat around here. I had a feeling that was why Brady had chosen it. To give us some privacy.
I saw his phone light up again, and he glanced at it and ignored it. Then he stuck it in his pocket and continued to look at the menu.
“Is it still Gunner?” I asked him, worried about how this was affecting him.
“No, that was West. Probably warning me about Gunner.”
“If you need to answer their calls, I’m fine with you stepping outside.”
He shook his head. “All I need to do is help them win a football game. Otherwise they can suck it.”
That was a very un-Brady-like thing for him to say. He was becoming less and less Brady-like. His father’s infidelity was slowly eating at him. I wanted him to win the championship, but I also wanted him to be okay mentally. This was too much for him to cover up.
I studied the menu and decided on the lasagna before closing it and taking a drink of my Coke. I didn’t want to harp on this, but he needed to get it off his chest. Holding all this in wasn’t good for him.
When he closed his menu and met my gaze, he winked, as if he didn’t have a care in the world and this were a normal date. Not one that could possibly blow up at any minute if Gunner Lawton followed us here and walked in that door.
“How was the park today? Bryony make any new friends?”
He wanted to talk about easy stuff. For now I would let him.
“There was a little girl around her age there with her grandmother. They played some before we had to leave. As it gets colder it’s going to be harder to go to the park. I wish we had a swing in the backyard, where I could at least take her out when it is the sunniest and let her play some. She’ll miss having other friends, but I can play with her. I thought about building her a fort or something like that.”
Brady nodded. “She’d like a place out back to play. That’s a good idea. Hopefully you can put her in preschool next year. It’d be great for her to play with the other kids.”
He actually cared about this, and that made me want to tear up and cry. Bryony hadn’t had anyone other than me and my parents in her life. Having someone else that cared meant more than he would ever know. Even if it was temporary.