Again I didn’t want to chat with him, but he was giving us a ride. So if he wanted to pretend that he cared, I would try and participate. “Fifteen months.”
“Wain!” she cheered as lightning struck outside.
Brady chuckled. She was adorable. He was going to be smitten before we got to my grandmother’s.
“You’re a big girl, then,” he said to her.
She nodded her head vigorously. She liked being called big. Even though she also still liked for me to rock her to sleep at night and cuddle her like a baby.
“Does your grandmother still live in the same house?” he asked as he turned down her street.
“Yes.” He would know how to get there. We’d grown up together. Been at the same school, gone to the same parties, played at the same park.
Finally he pulled into her driveway, and I wrapped my arms tightly around Bryony. I needed to get her inside before I got the stroller.
“Let me run her inside, then I’ll get the stroller,” I told him.
“I got the stroller. Y’all go on in.”
I didn’t argue. Opening the truck door I hurried up the sidewalk to the safety of the house. Walking inside I called out for Mom, but she didn’t answer. I wanted to hand her Bryony so I could run back out and get the stroller. Instead I set her down. “Wait right here. Let me get your stroller.”
She nodded, and I turned to walk back out when Brady ran up to the door holding her saturated stroller.
“Thank you,” I said again.
He nodded. “You’re welcome.”
Bryony’s small hand tugged at my pants leg. “Momma is wet.”
Brady’s eyes widened, and I realized what she had just said. Guess he knew now. She wasn’t my little sister after all.
I gave him a tight smile and closed the door before he could say anything else.
Especially for Riley
CHAPTER 4
BRADY
Momma? She’d called Riley Momma. I had heard it, and the look in Riley’s eyes had confirmed it. Which meant what? Had she gotten pregnant that soon after leaving town?
Or before? Could her lie about Rhett been her way of trying to pin her pregnancy on someone she thought she could get money out of? If so, that was sucky. She’d almost ruined Rhett’s future over her need to land someone as a father. It couldn’t have been Gunner’s because she hadn’t slept with him. We all knew it. Someone had gotten in her pants, so she’d had to lie. That much was obvious.
Had she cared too much about Gunner to sleep with him? That was what I’d never understood. Why lie on his older brother? Why not lie on her boyfriend? Unless she thought Rhett was more believable than Gunner. I guessed I’d never understand why she did that. No point in trying to figure her out.
Fact was, Riley had a kid now and the little girl was cute. She appeared to be a good mom, but then I’d barely seen them together. She could be a terrible mom for all I knew.
The whole experience with Riley and Bryony stayed with me the rest of the evening. I didn’t tell anyone I’d given her a ride simply because I didn’t want to explain myself. I shouldn’t have to. I’d like to think any of my friends would have done the same. She’d had a baby and it was storming. But I wasn’t so sure. The hate they all had for her ran deep.
Although I had seen an ugly side to Rhett recently. He clearly wasn’t above being an ass, especially to Gunner. I wondered if Gunner could believe Riley now that he knows the kind of person Rhett really is.
The idea that it was possible Riley hadn’t been lying was there. But I just couldn’t bring myself to accept that Rhett was so twisted and sick he’d actually rape her and lie about it. He had his issues, but he wasn’t cruel. Not like that.
Shaking my head and wishing I could get all this out of it and think about something else, I headed for the attic stairs to escape to my bedroom, which was now up there.
My old bedroom door was open, and my cousin Maggie was sitting on the bed with a book in her hand. I paused and stopped at the door.
“Where’s West?”
She glanced up. “He’s spending the afternoon with his mom.”
He was good about that. Making sure his mother was okay and staying stable. After his father’s death, they had been through some rough patches.
“That’s good,” I said, still standing there.
Maggie folded the page and closed the book in her lap. “You need to talk about something, Brady?” She tilted her head and studied me like she already knew the answer to this.
Maybe I did need to talk.
I shrugged. “Not sure.”
She sighed and held up her book. “Might as well talk. You’ve interrupted my reading.”