Page 103 of The Brave and the Reckless

My phone immediately started ringing.Gotcha.I picked up with an innocent “Hello?”

“Tell me you’re lying right now. I told you not to get knocked up by a country boy,” Adriana shrieked into the phone.

“Yeah, I was lying. I just needed you to pick up the phone.”

“Lies aren’t a great start if you’re calling to make amends,” she said.

“What if I win your love back with a drink tonight? You’ll just have to drive my car to Nashville,” I offered, mirroring the same tactic she’d used all summer to weasel her way into everyone’s heart.

“I’m listening.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

THE HUDSON FAMILY HOME

Step back in time as you walk through this historically accurate replica of a family home in the Old West. You won’t find electricity or running water here, but that doesn’t mean it was a wholly uncomfortable place to be. The house’s inhabitants will be more than happy to answer your questions on how they live and spend their days here.

NOAH

“Oh, comeon,” Sanny groaned and let his screwdriver clatter to the floor to pick up his phone instead. He swiped over the screen, shaking his head at whatever message had just come in.

I’d stopped asking. They were never from Esra.

I didn’t have to ask though. He turned his phone around and showed me a picture of Esra walking next to some polo-shirt-wearing guy with way too much gel in his hair. It was taken from behind their backs, so I assumed at least one of his parents was there too. That couldn’t be some super-romantic date. Or maybe it was. I’d never really asked Esra how her parents felt about her dating life. I knew they had been vehemently against Sinan livingwith a woman unless he’d put an engagement ring on her finger.

“Who’s that?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

“They’re making her tour Yale.”

I wanted to yell at him that that didn’t answer my question. I wanted to know who the fuck the smarmy guy was and why the hell he was standing so close to Esra. Instead, I just said, “Huh.”

“I hate this guy.”

“Oh?”Smooth.

“I mean, I don’t know him now. But he was a walking shit stain when we were kids. Whacked me in the face with a tennis racket once and pretended it was an accident. I had two black eyes for weeks. One summer, he put Esra in the hospital when he shoved her off his family’s boat.”

“Then why the fuck’s she talking to him now?”

“I think he goes to the school she’s touring or something. I don’t know.”

“She shouldn’t be around this guy,” I said.

“Which is why my first reaction was‘oh, come on’.”

That was not an appropriate reaction if you asked me, but I was also losing all common sense when it came to Esra. She was probably perfectly safe. Little kids with violent tendencies didn’t always grow up to be violent adults.

I still wanted to rip that phone from Sanny’s hands, call his parents and tell them to get her the fuck away from that man.

Sinan sighed and picked the screwdriver back up, then went back to putting my new drawers together with me. Well,forme, because I wasn’t doing much other than staring at his phone right now. If I could have, I would haveasked for hourly updates, just to make sure that guy wasn’t trying anything.

Unfortunately, I’d already asked Sinan to build this wardrobe with me due to my unrelenting obsession with his little sister, so I was all out of sister-related favors. I hadn’t spelled it out like that. But after Esra left the staff housing complex, I didn’t want to stay either, so I had to make the ranch livable.

I’d lived in the Bravetown staff house for five years, but after a few weeks with Esra, I could see her standing in every corner, walking through every door, sitting on every surface and dangling her feet.

I’d been close to asking for his parents’ address once or twice now, but every single time, her pained scream echoed through my mind. Sanny may not have blamed me, but I should have held Tornado still that day. It was horsemanship 101, but I’d been so in my head about losing another person I cared about, I’d fucked up. Maybe Esra didn’t need someone who took care of her, but at the very least, she deserved someone who wouldn’t endanger her. She deserved better than me.

Sanny took off in the late afternoon to pick Zuri up from work, leaving me alone at the ranch. There was always something to work on, so I wandered past the to do lists taped up in the hallway and picked an item. The gate of one of the stalls in the stable had come off its hinges. That seemed easy enough and matched the unhinged thoughts I’d been harboring since seeing that photo on Sinan’s phone.

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