Page 123 of Holding On To Good

“Who did you ask?”

They knew all the same people—there’d only been just over two hundred kids in their graduation class—but they weren’t part of the same crowd. Not even close. Hell, he wasn’t part of any crowd.

A thought occurred to him, had him going cold. He stepped in front of her, forcing her and the kid to come to an abrupt halt.

“Did you go back to my house?” he asked, the thought of her doing that making his stomach turn. “Did you talk to my dad?”

“No,” she said, but he wasn’t sure he believed her. Couldn’t stop picturing her coming face-to-face with his old man. She laid her hand on his forearm, her fingers soft and warm. “I didn’t go to your house. I didn’t talk to your dad. I swear it.”

Her voice was gentle but it was the sympathy on her face, the understanding in her eyes that threatened to bring him to his knees.

Goddamn her.

He tugged free of her hand. She didn’t understand shit. She couldn’t. Her life was too neat and tidy. Too clean and innocent to have any idea what it was like for someone like him.

“Is he mad at you?” the kid asked Verity, his voice unsteady. Pressed against Verity’s side, he sent a worried, fearful look at Reed. “Should we have Uncle Miles arrest him?”

Wincing, Reed took a step back. Great. Fucking great. Not only was he scaring a little kid, but he was about to have Assistant Chief of Police Jennings riding his ass. Again.

“I gotta get back to work,” he muttered but before he could turn, she grabbed his hand. Held on as she spoke to the kid, not letting him go.

“Reed’s not mad at me. Well, he was but not in a mean way. Do you remember last month when you wanted to go with Uncle Urban in the big truck and ran out into the driveway?”

He nodded. “Uncle Toby yelled at me ‘cuz I went behind the truck and could’ve been run over.”

“Right. But Uncle Toby wasn’t really mad at you. He was mad that you could’ve been hurt.” Now she looked over at Reed. “He was worried. Scared for you.” While that blew through him like a hurricane, that she could read him like a kindergarten level book, she dropped her gaze back to the kid. “Understand?”

“I think so.” But the kid shot him another wary glance.

Smart kid.

“Good,” she said then she squeezed Reed’s hand, a reassurance. A comfort. “Now, let’s get some ice cream.”

He tugged free but could still feel the imprint of her palm against his. “I should go.”

Hadn’t he already said that? Then why was he still standing there?Verity studied him for a moment, trying to dig even deeper inside his brain, just in case she hadn’t already gone far enough.

“If that’s what you want,” she finally said.

It was.

He didn’t need this. Didn’t need to get tangled up with the likes of Verity Jennings with her cop brother and ice cream dates and searching looks.

Didn’t need it. Didn’t want it.

“And here I thought big, bad Reed Walsh wasn’t afraid of anything,” she added quietly.

It was a challenge.

It was her seeing him too clearly once again.

He shouldn’t fall for it. It’d taken him a long time to stop responding to dares, to realize he didn’t have to prove anything to anyone.

But when she and the kid started walking again, Reed found himself falling into step beside them; a well-trained dog on a leash.

“How many brothers do you have?” Reed grumbled as they approached Custard City’s parking lot. He knew she had at least two, the cop and one she lived with since her parents died when she was little.

“I am the lucky sister of five older brothers. Or at least, that’s what they try to tell me.”

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