Page 39 of Unspoken Rules

“It’s probably something I shouldn’t tell you.”

I rear my head back, wondering why the hell that’s something he shouldn’t tell me.

“Why not?”

“A lot of shit’s happened while you were gone, Bryson.” He takes another sip. “A lot of stuff from when you were young too. Hell, even stuff before you were born.”

Whoa.

“What does that mean?”

He shakes his head and mutters, “I thought Chris shared more with you.”

“In just the couple of days I’ve been here, I’ve learned Chris isn’t the person I remember.” Cole nods but doesn’t say anything. “I don’t like saying that to you, but it’s the truth and I don’t have anyone else to talk to about it.”

He nods again, leaning further back against the steps. “Just like I don’t want to cause problems with you and your father.”

“There are already problems with me and my father. Nothing you say could make it worse.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“Then you don’t know me or my father.”

He frowns at me. “I like to think I know you pretty well.”

He does. He really does. Sees parts of me I keep hidden.

“I used to think the only way our problems would be fixed was if I went to law school. He made such a big deal about it, and for so long. But that isn’t happening. Not then. Not now. I mean, look at me, Cole. Do I look like a lawyer?” I gesture at myself, widening my eyes.

Cole chuckles. “Actually, no.” His chuckle fades and turns into a frown. He glances toward me and says, “Used to?”

Caught that, did ya?

I sigh, running a hand through my hair.

The honesty that is about to come out of my mouth is evidence enough that I shouldn’t be drinking around Cole.

“I didn’t want to come here,” I say. “I tried so hard to make things work with him, but he’s impossible. There are a lot of things I’ve learned to ignore about my father, and I can handle him most times. But,” I pause, blowing out a breath. “I finally came out to him, and he told me he wished I were never born and that my mother killing herself was my fault. And that—” I snap my jaw shut, fighting the emotion clogging my throat.

“Fucking hell,” Cole mutters under his breath. He puts his hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Bryson. You know that’s not true, right? What your mother did had nothing to do with you and everything to do with her mental health.”

I nod, sipping my beer, hoping it’ll go down past the lump in my throat. The cold liquid is enough to have it disappearing, and I clear my throat. “Yeah, I know that. But hearing it?” I huff out a laugh, taking another sip. I bump Cole with my shoulder. “Tell me what he did.”

He drops his hand, looking toward the house. “Why do you think he did something?”

“Because if he hadn’t, you’d have no problem telling me.”

His face turns more serious and explains. “I laid out all the plans for him. He told me everything looked great. We started on the house, get a solid month of work in, and your father tells me he’s firing me because I was mismanaging my employees’ time.”

“Mismanaging their time?” I ask carefully.

“He was trying to say we weren’t doing anything.”

I scoff. “Which is bullshit. You take work seriously. You take everything seriously.”

I smirk, but he doesn’t, proving my point.

“You really don’t know?” he says, causing my smile to fall.

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