Page 29 of Taking Root

Cal’s brows furrowed. “Makes me wonder what messed-up shit she dealt with in the past. You’re the King of Control, Adrian, and in this situation, you were robbed of it. This implosion was inevitable.”

And this was why he hated talking to Cal about emotional shit. Because every single time, his brother followed the circuit to the source and brought it up, no matter how hard Adrian tried to pop all his problems in a lockbox.

“Yeah, but this is Sam Peterson we’re talking about,” Lex drawled, making his fingers curl into a fist on reflex. How his sister hadn’t gotten shanked in prison was beyond him. “That torch never extinguished.” Lex shot him the pointed “you should’ve told me” look, though the quick way she’d pieced the puzzle together didn’t surprise him.

Cal’s brows furrowed. “Peterson? You mean the family that up and disappeared way back when?”

Adrian tilted his beer back and finished the dregs. He nestled the bottle in the grass beside him and grabbed another one. This wasn’t a one-drink conversation. In the distance, the sunset began to gray around the edges, hinting night’s takeover. Soon, they’d be sitting here in the dark, and that just encapsulated the situation perfectly.

“Yeah, Sam was in my grade back in high school. I know she had some family troubles at the time, but I didn’t pry. Then one day, Sam stopped coming to school. Her house emptied out, and no one had any definitive answers.”

“Even the cops kept their traps shut,” Lex jumped in. “Obviously means they did some sort of cover up, because the shit the Petersons were involved in must’ve been next level. Not some family disagreement bullshit or a job relocation.”

“I don’t know which of the rumors was more unbelievable,” Cal said. “Whether she was a mobster princess or her mom had a psychotic break and got locked away. My personal favorite was they’d been apparitions all along, but the local paranormal junkies fueled that one.”

“Those guys were just three joints deep.” Lex waved a hand to dismiss. “I’d know—I hung with those fuckers half the time, tromping through the graveyards.”

“Well, what could you gauge from her?” Cal asked, returning focus to him, because of course he would. His brother had arrived with a mission, and once he locked a target he could be relentless when prying emotions out of his siblings.

“Any time her past got brought up, she was ready to bolt,” Adrian said, trying to shut out his last sight of her. The hopelessness in her eyes haunted him, and out of their entire exchange, that remained. Logic dictated she might never be available for anything lasting. However, when it came to Danny Reynolds, emotions sat at his control panel and button mashed. “At first, I tried living in the moment. I never thought I’d see her again, and the time we spent together was the best I’d felt in years.”

“The first break in the storm since Betty left,” Cal murmured. That distant look in his eyes was the sort his fans lost their mind over. Hard to think of his little brother as an up-and-coming musician when he remembered attending one too many open mic nights back in high school.

“Look, I don’t need to be put under a microscope. She ghosted me, so that’s it. We had an agreement, and I stepped over the line.”

“You’re going to give up, just like that?” The sharpness in Lex’s voice surprised him. She gripped her bottle tight as she leaned forward, her dark eyes flashing.

“You’re the one who keeps giving me shit for how head over heels I was for her. Look how fast I fell—I’m deluding myself again,” he said, unable to help the bitterness corroding like acid in his chest. Not as if he could read folks like a pro. After all, Betty had blindsided him, so he was aces in that department.

“Adrian.” The serious way she said his name made him sit down and shut up. Lex’s lower lip jutted out a bit, the way it did the rare few times she didn’t project sarcasm and venom. The last time he saw her like that was the night he showed up in the holding cell after she got herself in trouble at the protest. She hadn’t called Mom or Dad—Lex called him.

“First off,” Lex continued, “she was clearly into you. Someone doesn’t subject themselves to our family unless there’s vested interest. If I figured you read her wrong, you know I’d be the first to tell you to stand down.” Lex paused for a moment, took a swig from her bottle, and then decided to chug the rest of it. Adrian’s stomach squeezed tight, and he leaned forward in his armchair, elbows digging into his knees.

“Second,” she said, and this came out low, “if I met someone who inspired that level of passion, one look at them and you see forever—I’d fight a whole army, hell, I’d even fight my own demons to hold tight to them. What you see in Sam, Danny, whatever you want to call her, was true enough to last all these years. And based on how you guys vibed last time I saw you, those feelings have only grown more intense.”

Lex brought her knees up tight to her chest, and she wrapped her arms around them, bottle discarded in the grass beside her chair. “Beats roaming from club to club for random hook-ups in a back alley or bathroom every night.” The stark look in his sister’s eyes told him everything.

Adrian reached forward, ready to slip an arm around his sister’s shoulders on instinct when one dead-eyed look stopped him fast.

“You hug me, and I’ll burn your house down.” The “lit match to 100-proof whisky” Lex had returned.

Cal leaned forward. “You fight for us all the time, even when we push you away. Don’t think I forgot about who showed up at the house to smuggle me a couple of beers and shoot the shit after my first breakup in high school. Or who drove two hours one night to pick up my ass from a gig after my friends bailed. People don’t forget that dedication, and I don’t think Danny would, not if you care for her this much.”

His brother picked at the label of the beer he’d nursed and barely drank, more for something to do with his hands than anything. Cal glanced at him before continuing. “If she wants to be finished, then I know you’ll respect her choice, but at least give her the chance to decide when she’s in a clear and rational mindset, not in the middle of an argument. You’re so busy trying to help everyone else that you forget you’re allowed to do some things for yourself. You need the closure, to hear the truth from a level place for good or for bad.”

His words sounded so similar to Danny’s that Cal may as well have slapped him in the face.

Adrian leaned back in his seat again and tossed the stack of envelopes off his lap. This talk ripped all the scabs wide open and doused them in alcohol. As much as his ears pounded and his chest ached like he’d drowned, the first bit of cinnamon warmth whispered through his veins.

“When did you guys start making so much sense? Almost like you listened to all the shit I’ve been telling you over the years,” Adrian teased, giving Lex a gentle shove. She tossed him the middle finger in response, but the joke settled them both, calming the livewire nerves in the air. “Thank you.” Lex jerked her head in a nod, but Cal’s eyes shone with the understanding he loved to give.

Christ Almighty, he adored his family. All the screaming matches, late night phone calls, and interruptions were worth it, because they’d always given him the foundation he needed to grow. Deep down, even if he avoided the care and shares, he could count on them like they did him.

But Danny didn’t have any of that. From the few things she’d revealed, her life consisted of traveling from one town to another by her lonesome, and based on the way she clammed up about family, the relationship had never gotten better there either. She must have grown up with no one to rely on. No one to care for.

All those lonely looks and the longing in her eyes when he’d brought her over to his parents’ house clicked into place.

Even if the conversation between then caused him to bleed all over again, and even if she never wanted to see him again, he couldn’t leave their ends frayed like this without at least trying to mend the rope. Danny might know how to protect herself better than most, but Adrian would fight for her heart until she learned to do it herself.

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