Page 14 of Unbreakable Love

“My sister, Maize, is four years younger than me and I’ve practically raised her. My mom was a mess. She loves us, and when we were young, she worked her butt off to raise us, but she didn’t always make good choices and eventually, it was a pretty toxic environment for us to live in. The thing I’ve learned is that life is messy and sometimes people suck, but things do always get better.”

A soft, sad smile curled her lips. “I’m sorry you had to live like that.”

“I’m sorry you’ve gone through what you have.”

She lifted her glass, and even though her smile was still sad, there was a glimmer in it too. “To new beginnings,” she said.

I clinked my glass against hers and as we waited for Dolly to return, Faye pointed out people she knew in the bar, gave me the rundown on who was who, who was dating, who was single.

“You know,” she said, “in case you’re looking to date.”

She wiggled her brows and I chuckled.

I wasn’t. Not yet at least. For the longest time I didn’t bother trying and then once I started, there hadn’t been anyone who entered my life that I felt like I could trust with the ugliest parts of me. If I couldn’t give everything to someone, I didn’t see the point in handing off only the pretty pieces.

Dolly returned and they kept filling me in on town gossip, and then both of them stalled when the Kelley brothers entered the bar. I recognized them immediately.

Gavin stood a head taller than almost all the rest, easy to catch sight of him in a long-sleeved gray Henley shirt and his dark, unshaven beard.

“That’s Bryce,” Dolly whispered. “The youngest. He’s a younger, spitting image of both Cameron and Caleb.”

They’d been right earlier. They were all drop dead gorgeous, but it wasn’t Bryce who made my heart race and my fingertips burn.

It was Gavin, the scowl on his face like he was forced to be there, the stretch of his shoulders as he stood proud and tall, and when our eyes met from across the room, it was the way he glared at me so deeply, my toes curled inside my faux leather ankle boots.

Gavin Kelley was trouble. I’d recognized that when he scowled at me at the school.

No one had ever made me feel so unsettled in a glance, and it wasn’t a bad kind of unsettled at all.

But it was still dangerous.

FIVE

GAVIN

She was everywhere. On my street. In my daughter’s life. Penny Pesco would have been on my mind even if Josie hadn’t spent the last forty-eight hours chirping nonstop about how great her new teacher was, how pretty she was, and how much better she smelled than Mrs. Bonners.

Clearly, Miss Pesco had supernatural powers. Mrs. Bonners leaving hadn’t seemed to bother Josie at all and she always had a hard time letting go.

I rarely came out to Tom’s, but I’d spent the afternoon helping Dalton move cattle to a new field. Josie went with me and by the time Dalton and I were done, she and my mom decided they needed a girls’ spa night. It meant Josie would come home tomorrow with painted fingers and toes, smelling like lavender lotion and syrup from my mom’s waffles.

Bryce had shown up when I was getting ready to leave and begged me to come out with him demanding I could use the break and a night out.

Except there I was, standing at the bar, drinking a tequila on the rocks, completely aware of every move Penny made where she sat with Faye and Dolly.

“You’re grouchier than normal,” Bryce said and tapped his beer bottle against my glass. “Bad week at work?”

“No.” I took a drink and relished the burn as it slid down my throat. “Work is great. Busy, but things are moving along according to the schedule, so it’s fine.”

“You’ll get those houses wrapped before snow hits?”

“Yeah. Should have the siding up too.” Building this close to winter hitting always came with challenges, but as long as the foundations were poured before the frost, it was usually okay. Sucked to have to scoop snow out of basements and getting the wood framing dry, so it was always best if they were wrapped first. Siding and roofing was best, and it looked like we were going to reach those goals. Snow wasn’t predicted until Thanksgiving, which gave me a little bit of breathing room.

“So if it’s not work, what’s got you all pissed?” A tiny smirk curled the corner of his lips. “Can it be what Josie told me about today?”

I rolled my eyes. “It has nothing to do with that.”

“Really?” He leaned against the bar and turned his smirk into a shit-eating grin. “Because you sounded even pissier when I mentioned Josie talking to me like you know what she was saying, and I didn’t even tell you.”

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