Page 75 of Holding On To Good

Verity: Little kids make mistakes. I’m sure Miles let you go with a warning.

He had. Jennings had sat Reed on a bench outside of the Gas ’n Go Reed had just stolen from, bought him a pop and done his best to get through to him. To help him.

But it was too little, too late and Reed was already too pissed, had seen and been through too much to listen. Pissed at the cops who came to his house but never ended up doing anything to protect him and his mother. At his life, the rotten luck at having Pete for a father. At the world in for being so unfair.

What had Verity said about him last night while he’d stood there dripping rain and covered in mud? That he had a chip on his shoulder?

Could be, princess. Could just be.

He’d learned early on that the only person he could count on was himself.

From the time he was eight until last October when he turned eighteen, he’d gotten into plenty of trouble. Had a sealed juvenile record, his crimes ranging from shoplifting and truancy to fighting and breaking into cars. He’d done one short stint in juvie the summer after sophomore year. He wasn’t proud of any of it.

But he refused to hide from it.

Couldn’t, even if he tried. Not in a town the size of Mount Laurel.

Not with people like Assistant Chief Jennings there to remind him of what a screw-up he’d been.

So, no, Jennings didn’t want Reed anywhere near his precious baby sister. That was clear even if the cop hadn’t said spelled it out. It was even understandable. And Reed would keep his distance. Not just because Verity wasn’t for him. Not because he was intimidated by her brother.

But because he owed him.

Whether either of them wanted him to or not.

Reed wasn’t responding.

Verity nibbled on her lower lip as she stared at her last text. Then again, this whole conversation had basically been one-sided. Why change that now?

And she’d thought talking to the boy in person had been difficult.

Well, she’d just move on with her life. Check Instagram. See if there was anything new to watch on Netflix. She wouldn’t even worry about Reed Walsh and his non answers and weird questions or the fact that he’d been having run-ins with the law since he was practically a baby.

Wouldn’t even bother to think about what his life was like to make him such a loner.

To make him so hard.

She sure wasn’t going to start thinking she could be the one to get him to join society or soften him.

Not her job or in any of the plans she had for the summer. She was on the cusp of true adulthood and merely weeks away all from the benefits that adulthood entailed.

Mainly freedom.

The freedom to come and go as she pleased. To make her own choices.

The freedom to finally live her life for herself without one single brother looking over her shoulder, correcting or lecturing her.

It was going to be freedom for them, too. Especially Urban. Poor guy got stuck with them all when their parents died. He gave up everything to keep them together. Verity going away to college was his shot at finally having the life he’d always deserved. The one she’d predicted for him earlier today—the wife and kids and dogs.

His own family. One of his choosing. Not one he got stuck with.

Oh, she knew he loved her and their brothers, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel just the tiniest bit resentful at the turn his life had taken. At having all his dreams and plans taken from him.

She would if she’d been in his situation.

Verity opened Instagram on her phone, then tried to scoot back, but Bella was sprawled across her lap, pinning her to the mattress, like she was a ten-pound cat and not a huge canine that clocked in at eighty-three pounds.

Seriously. They needed to change her dog food or something. Verity couldn’t feel her legs.

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