Sinner (Shelter Harbor #1)(38)
I knew it was the dumbest idea in the world.
But back then?
Back then it was adventure. Back then, it was stepping outside myself, and stepping away from the path that had been laid out for me. Some kids get stupid tattoos, or get drunk in Cabo, or try hard drugs or whatever.
Me?
My stepping off the path was driving a getaway car for an armored truck robbery. And when I say I zigged and life zagged, I mean it fucking zagged.
That night ended in shattered glass, an upside-down car, my leg smashed in four places, and the end of my scholarship.
And it coulda been worse.
It was Silas who stopped me from making the biggest mistake of my life that night. Silas who showed up at the last minute and told me what a fucking idiot I was being, and Silas who jumped in and took my place at the wheel and took off as the bullets started flying.
Silas who went off the road when I punched him in the arm — mad somehow that he’d “taken it” from me.
And then it was Silas who carried me on his fucking back two miles back into town to the E.R. at Sacred Heart.
Me, and that night were a big reason shit blew up for Ivy and Silas back then. My dad had always offered him a warm home back then when we were kids, because of the shit life he had living with his uncle, and because Dad had known his parents from church.
But dating his daughter pushed it to the line with Jacob.
Driving his son into a guardrail at forty miles an hour, after mixing him up with his uncle’s criminal schemes shoved it right over that line.
Dad basically banished Silas that night, and no amount of me swearing that I hated him or telling him the full story was going to change that. In his head, Silas was the kink in the chain of his family, and it needed to be hammered out.
Course we never knew until Silas came back to town a year ago to make things right that he and Ivy had gotten fucking married a couple days before he left town that night.
Anyways, it’s a long and complicated story, but suffice to say, I owe Silas my life and then some.
A whole damn lot of ‘then some’.
“I don’t look like shit,” I mutter, looking out the window as we drive into Lynn towards the job site. Dad managed to wrangle both of us into helping out today with some of the carpentry stuff.
“You do, trust me.”
“Whatever dude, least I’m not letting Ivy put fucking coconut product in my hair, or wherever that shit is in yours.”
“It’s a healthy, natural shine, dude.”
We both snort into laughs.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Ah shit,” Silas grumbles as we pull into the parking lot. He nods, and I glance up to see Leonard Ellis screaming at some poor worker.
“That guy,” Silas mutters.
“That guy needs to cool the fuck out or they’re never going to get this place done.”
“He wanted the framing crew to take turns passing around the book of Isaiah the other day in between framing out windows. Those guys are on a deadline, they almost walked off the job. He knows it multi-denominational, right?”
I frown. “I honestly don’t know. I’ll get Dad to simmer him down. They’ve got that divinity school connection. Besides, he scares the shit out of me.”
“Yeah? And why’s that?”
I turn to see Silas grinning at me.
I swallow, shrugging. “Cause he’s intense.”
“About?”
“This going somewhere, man?”
He shrugs. “Nope.”
“No, please, speak.”
“Rowan.”
“Silas.”
He grins and shakes his head, turning to look out the front of the truck. “Dude, I’ve known you for a long time.” He turns back, giving me a knowing look.
“What.”
“Quite a bathroom break you took the other night at dinner.”
“Had to take care of-”
“Right, right. Bar stuff.” He grins. “So weird that Eva had such a hard time finding a serving bowl.”
I frown. “It’s not like she knows Mom’s kitch-“
“They’re literally on a shelf at eye level next to the oven.”
My mouth snaps shut.
“You think Preacher Leonard’s calling down fire and brimstone now.” He shrugs as he opens the door and starts to step out. “That dude’s going to call down the fucking Rapture if he catches you messing around with his daughter, I hope you know that.”
“Hey!” I jump out of the truck. “Not what you think.”
Silas puts his hands in the air as he walks away. “Lying is a sin you know!” he calls back over his shoulder.
“Asshole.”
“Love you too, buddy.”
Chapter Seventeen
Evangeline
“You’ve never done this before, have you.”