Page 12 of Ky
I moved around, grabbing things and throwing them into the backpack that I kept for longer trips. I was half aware of what I was tossing in. My brain was with it enough to figured that I needed a shitton of underwear and shirts. As well as deodorant, shampoo, and a razor. I snatched up my toothbrush and toothpaste and tossed it on top without much care. Socks and pants went next.
I knew Ingram had entered but I didn’t give her my attention, not even as she stood there awkwardly taking in her surroundings like a wide-eyed lost child.
“Do you, uh, need anything?” I asked once I’d zipped up the pack with a jerk.
“No,” she said shaking her head. “I have a few things. Grandma gave me enough money to get here and a little extra. I bought what I needed and some simple clothes at a…thrift store?”
“Yeah, that’s what they’re called.” I nodded as I gave her my eyes for the first time since she’d walked into my room.
My heart sank. I was sad and angry all at once. There were too many things stuffing themselves into the angry category for me to try and fight the rising feeling. I realized she didn’t need my fury right then, hell, maybe she didn’t even need my pity, but it was hard not to grip on tight to all those emotions as I took her in.
For a blink, I was glad Chris offered his help. I knew once we got to his house he would not only know what to do, but how to put Ingram at ease. This couldn’t have been easy for her. And I wasn’t just talking about being seventeen and pregnant.
Only, I didn’t have the first fucking idea how to explain all of this to him. Or to anyone, really.
“How’d you even find this place?” I asked.
I knew Grandma had an idea of where I was. I kept in touch with her, I even called her once a month at least. But it wasn’t like we handed out this address to just anyone. Sure, in town we were known pretty well, and if you asked the right people, they’d point you in the right direction, but I needed her to connect the dots for me, nonetheless. Maybe part of me didn’t trust her. That was a shit thing to say about your own blood family. The only people I trusted were my brothers—the men that stood beside me, some of them had even fought beside me, through all the shit we came up against.
“I took a bus here. At the place where the bus dropped me off, I asked the man behind the glass if he could tell me how to find where the Steel Paragons Motorcycle Club resides. He looked at me funny but eventually, he told me and when I clearly looked lost he said he would get me a…something foreign sounding. Anyway, it was a car to take me here. Well, to the place out front. The bar? The driver asked for money, so I gave him the last of what I had and ran inside the…bar.”
The look on her face would have been comical if it were any other situation.
“The sinful looking man that told you I was here asked me if I was lost. Then I told him I was looking for my brother. After a moment of explaining what I remembered you looked like, he walked me back to this place.”
A heavy sigh escaped my lips. There was a headache looming on the outskirts of my head. None of what she’d said, or how she’d said it, surprised me. I knew what it was to see the world through sheltered eyes once. I hadn’t forgotten it. The thing that wasn’t lost on me, was that I happened to be the same age as she was when I’d thrust myself into the real world. To be honest, everything that she’d done to get here was really fucking brave considering.
“Come here, kid,” I said as I moved to pull her into a tight hug. While it was strained at best, it was something. A little thing I knew she needed right then.
“I missed you,” she said as she wrapped her arms around my middle. “I was wrong, I think. And I am truly sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Let’s just get this figured out, okay?”
She nodded and tried to cover a small sniffle as she eased herself out of my embrace.
“The car is up at the garage. You stay here and I’ll drive it back so you don’t have to walk.”
“No,” she said timidly. “I will come with you. Have you been gone so long that you have forgotten? I am used to being on my feet.”
“Yeah, fine,” I mumbled as I took the small bag out of her hands and headed for the door.
Half the ride to the beach was quiet. Ingram didn’t miss the opportunity to take everything in. No, she hadn’t been living under a rock most of her life, but it was pretty damn close to it.
“This man, the one that offered his house, is he nice?” she asked, her eyes still looking out of the window watching the scenery go by. “He has kind eyes.”
My mind clogged and I couldn’t answer. If I did, it would have meant that I’d have to think about the guy that confused me on so many levels lately.
“Kynaston?”
“Ky,” I practically grunted, then cleared my throat. I wasn’t mad at her, exactly, and I knew she needed things to go as easily as possible right now. “Everyone here calls me Ky.”
“Ky,” she said and out of the corner of my eye, I saw her eyes look up to the heavens as she tested it out in her brain. I knew her well enough to know what she was doing, repeating it over and over so she would remember it right, even though it was something as simple as shortening my name to the first syllable. “Can I be Ing, then? No, that sounds strange. I do not think I like that at all.”
I chuckled at her as I pulled the car into the driveway and parked beside the older model Accord. I was surprised the damn thing was still going. I knew Chris had enough money to get a new car—not that he boasted about it—but for some reason, he kept the old thing.
I cut the engine and slid the key out of the ignition before I turned to Ingram.
“You can be whoever you want to be.” I held a tender sincerity in my tone. It was a lot for her to think about and I knew it. So, instead of sitting there, letting her get lost in so many possibilities, I opened the door and stepped out.
