Page 5 of Broken

Yeah. I did. I bit my lip; my thoughts went back to last night. We both got off. I told Danielle every detail about sex with Eric. I told her about the anti-climactic tongue show, which left me horny and in need of more. I told her about the two-way mirror and the woman I gazed at as I rode him last night.

"Oh, my gosh! Riley, don't give the squirrel a chip!" Aines' voice squealed from a couple of picnic benches over.

And like magic, the headache came back. Not because of the Aine. Never because of her or her friends. Aine was everything good in my world. The only person to look at me, love me, and trust me wholly. My reverie of last night's sex gave me a reprieve from the hangover.

"Why not? He's so cute!" Aine's best friend had a bleeding heart for animals, to the point where she wanted to bring every one of them home with her.

"Because the animal might have rabies," Danielle shouted and glanced down at her cup. "We should call the kid Mindy from now on."

I snorted. Oh god. My brain pulsated with every sound and every movement I made.

"Who's Mindy?" Both girls called out in unison. I had no mental energy to deal with this. I wanted my coffee and for the fucking sun to hide behind some clouds or something.

"An obnoxious cartoon character, obsessed with animals from a show from when we were kids," Danielle explained. I glared at her and raised an eyebrow.

She shrugged. "A kid I used to babysit watched it all the time." "Well, I'm not obnoxious." Riley stated, followed by a confident "Yeah" from Aine.

Obnoxious or not, Aine found a real best friend in Riley. It didn't take long for the two of them to change their focus to something on Riley's phone.

After slushes and more coffee, we saw a few more animals, then took the kids to feed the giraffes, a huge hit with the girls. They giggled over the length and color of the giraffes' tongues while Danielle made inappropriate comments under her breath about the same things.

My phone rang and distracted me.

The screen flashedUnknown Caller. Danielle snatched my cell out of my hand.

"Thank you for calling Heaven. Saint Peter speaking." She lifted her sunglasses and winked at me. "How may I direct your call?"

The mirth quickly faded from her face as she listened to the person on the other end.

"Oh. Yeah. I'm so sorry. Here she is." Danielle's face looked as though she had been told her favorite band broke up.

"Your mom." Danielle handed me the phone. An invisible fist punched me in the gut and pushed all the air from my lungs to my head, making me dizzy. My chest tightened; my heart raced. It had been years since I spoke to my mother, and I never gave her a number or an address to write to.

Sweat coated my palms as I took the phone from Danielle.

"Uh, hello." I braced myself. I didn't want this conversation with my mother. My heart jumped into my throat. My empty hand automatically started counting my fingers over and over. One, two, three...

"Sinclair?" A deep familiar voice questioned — husky and deep with a promised hint of trouble.

Kai Carter was one of my best friends growing up. One of the few people who understood the darkness I came from, witnessed how bad things got at home. He knew things no one else did.

Things ended in disaster between Kai and me. Towards the end of high school, we dated and planned to spend the whole summer together. Kai, Mia, and me. She was going to stay home to help her parents with the store.

Kai got accepted to San Diego State. I was going to ASU. At the beginning of our junior year, we made plans for summers and holidays. I planned to go home to Mias, never my mother's house, and Kai would go home too. We would all be together forever. We thought we would start our families and raise our kids as cousins.

My sweet Mia. I missed her so much sometimes. She was the heart of the group. The free-spirited lover of all. She and Tess were the daughters of two hippies who believed in free love, auras, and tarot readings.

Her parents owned a small gift shop in the town we grew up in. They lived in a little three-bedroom cottage behind the store. The place was small, but they always had room for me and treated me like a third daughter. I spent more nights there than I did at my home. Mia would always be home to me.

I didn't want to think about Adam, though. Those demons could stay in whatever depths of hell they hid in.

I had ghosts and darkness around me that I couldn't let ruin their lives. I had a knack for ruining the lives of the people I loved most.

So, I did what I do best, and I ruined everything between us. I burned my world down and ran away. I don't regret it. I saved them from the heartbreak of having to say goodbye and from the disaster of Sinclair Grant.

Mia and I still talk. We didn't have much to say, and I think we kept in touch out of a sense of loyalty more than anything else. We send cards to each other every year, but it hadn't been more than that since I left home. I never told her about Aine. If I did, it would bring my darkness and demons begging at my daughter's feet. Ready to devour her like they did everything else I love.

"Kai. Yeah, it's been a while." The relief in my voice was obvious. "Is everything okay? Saint Peter said you mentioned my mother?" Saintly was not Danielle in any context.

---