Page 19 of When It Reins
It never mattered to me if she wore makeup or not. The most beautiful part of the woman is the heart beating in her chest.
I shake my head. “Don’t let this guy hurt you, Starling. You don’t deserve that.”
She looks at me and sighs. “I don’t know how to do that, Mitch.” Her eyes glance to the cut I was wearing and her nose twitches. “Or Hero,” I smirk, and she looks back at me, trying and failing to hide a smile. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about it.”
“Don’t do anything,” I respond, my voice hard and worry creeping into my tone. “He and his company are the ones doing this. You don’t need to worry about that.”
She blows out a breath and nods her head. Reaching out, she gives my hand a squeeze. A jolt runs through my arm at the touch, and I brace myself.
For what, I don’t know.
But it feels like her touch could change the course of my life.
I pull away and open the door.
It’s only when she’s safely in her car, heading home, that I realize I never really answered her questions.
Juniper can read me like a book, so my face must have told her that whatever rumors she is hearing are true.
11
juniper
It’sfunny how you think life is going so well, and then you find out that your boyfriend is a dirty, rotten liar.
After I left the clubhouse, I went straight home and ignored David’s phone calls. It’s not that I’m scared to talk to him. I just don’t know what I want to say yet, and the fact that this whole town seems to know more about him than I do just solidifies that I never really knew him at all.
It hurts.
Maybe we’ve only been together for a few months, maybe I never even really felt that deeply for him, but it still hurts to know he lied. And if I am being honest, it hurts to know that I fell for it so easily.
Which was why, first thing the next morning, here I am, stalking the neighborhood that is supposedly being sold off to some big company and evicting its residents with no notice.
I don’t know exactly what I am going to do here, other than see it for myself. It is an older place, with cracked asphalt roads, overgrown weeds in areas, and broken-down chain-link fenced yards. But then there are trees that look sixty or more years old.There are the painted mailboxes with little handprints, the kids that are playing street hockey down the road.
This is a community. Whether it is sparkly and shiny or not, it is a home for a lot of people.
My stomach churns as I park and get out, looking up and down the road. I pull my coat tighter and look to the first house I see, walking to the front door, and knocking.
An older man who looks like he’s seen better days answers the door, looking me up and down in a way I don’t feel great about, but I smile and give him my best professional voice.
“Good morning, sir. How are you doing?”
“What do you want?” His voice is rough with age and judgment passing, probably years of smoking.
“I’m here to inquire about a certain company coming through this community, offering to buy out houses?”
“Yeah, what about it?” He shakes his finger at me. “I’m not giving the money back.”
“Money?” I ask, a furrow to my brow.
“Yeah, money. Company came and gave me a check, bought my house outright.” He scratches his chest, and I keep my eyes trained on his. “Says I can live here for free.”
My weird, twisted heart springs with some kind of hope. “Really? So they don’t want to keep the house for themselves?”
“What would they do with this piece of shit?” he asks, as if not expecting an answer, then says, “If you work for them, tell them I’m not giving it back, and I’m not going anywhere.”
He steps back without waiting for a reply from me and slams the door in my face.
