Page 63 of Still Burning

I set my glass down and narrowed my gaze. “What are you saying, Brick?” I asked, not sure I wanted the answer to that question.

He hung his head, and his wide shoulders rose and fell. “I took the note,” he admitted.

A range of emotions ignited with that admission, and although my hands fisted, I didn’t move to do anything with them. This was Van’s baby shower, and I wasn’t going to ruin it by beating the fuck out of my oldest friend here for changing the course of my life.

He reached into his back pocket and slipped out a folded piece of paper. “I tucked it away to show you one day, when you had found the one. When you had fallen in love and settled down. I figured, at the time, you’d read the note and thank me. It was a mistake that I wish like hell I’d never made,” he said gruffly. The regret in his tone was heavy.

I stared at the folded piece of paper, unsure if I could handle reading it. Those memories and the pain I’d caused Salem were my darkest demons. We weren’t the same people we had been then.

Brick was right about one thing. I’d grown up. That boy was no more. I’d changed in all ways but one.

My soul belonged to Salem.

Finally reaching out to take the note from him, I said nothing. I didn’t think there was anything I could say that wouldn’t endwith me putting my fist in his face. I held it in my hand, wanting to read it alone, but then what was the point? Brick had already read it. He was the only one who’d read it.

Glancing up, I looked across the room at Salem cuddling Van to her chest with the nursing-shawl thing she’d bought for my sake. I didn’t like the idea of anyone seeing her tits but me. She was sitting in a chair, laughing at something Goldie had said to her. My heart felt so goddamn full that I didn’t know how much more it could take without bursting the fuck open.

This note was our past. A piece of our story. Maybe if I’d read it, we’d have had this sooner, but you couldn’t change the past. Fate had righted the wrong.

Unfolding the note, I dropped my gaze to her neat script, slightly faded over time.

Rome,

I held out hope all summer that you’d come see me. That you’d change your mind once we had some distance. I didn’t bother you, but I thought about you every day.

I miss you.

I’ve been awarded a scholarship to Rhode Island College of Art and Design. It’s a full ride, and it includes a dorm and a meal plan. Vanna wanted me to go there so badly, and it seemed the in she’d had there came through.

I leave in three days, and if you want to see me, just to talk before I leave, I’ll be around. Just call.

And if you wait until the last minute to decide you want to see me, my flight date and time and my new address when I get there is below.

There are things I want to tell you. Things you should know.

You hurt me deeply, but I love you. I will always love you. And when you love someone, you forgive them. Youdon’t hold their wrongs against them.

I’m here. Waiting.

Love always,

Salem

I closed the note slowly and lifted my gaze to see her sitting there with our son. Salem turned, and our eyes met. The soft smile that touched her lips was a balm to the old wounds the note had opened up.

Then she mouthed the words,I love you.

She was my home.

Brady

She’d had a baby. I hadn’t seen that coming, but then I hadn’t seen the feckin’ cowboy Mafia coming either.

My mistakes were piling up with age. My limp wasn’t as noticeable anymore, but that was thanks to endless physical therapy. Probably should count myself lucky that the cowboy king hadn’t put a bullet through my head and gone for my limbs instead. Bastard was known for his brutality.

Yet here I was.

Blaise Hughes had warned me that the next time he pointed a gun at me, it would be the last time. But I’d made a promise to my brother. And I liked her. Not the way Eamon had, but she was interesting. Even though she despised me, I’d enjoyed her company. There was a fight in her. Eamon hadn’t known her as well as he thought. He had protected her like a fragile flower.

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