Accidental Knight: A Marriage Mistake Romance(19)

I close my eyes, my tears threatening to renew themselves. But these tears are for Edison. He doesn’t know what happened, why Gramps isn’t here.

Drake clears his throat. “I’m going to fix something to eat. Been a long day. You hungry?”

I shake my head.

“No, thanks. Knock yourself out.” I can’t say much more because my throat ignites.

It’s hard to breathe. Gramps keeps hitting me in bits and pieces, emotional ambushes laid by death.

“You change your mind, holler. I’ll be up for a while.”

Drake gives me a friendly salute and drives away. I stay where I’m at.

Hugging Edison and wondering if I can really do this.

Any of it?

All of it.

I go to the barn and open the door to the corral so Edison can join me.

We stay there for a good long while. I spend another hour brushing him down and talking to him, telling him how I wish things were different. How sorry I am that I didn’t come to Dallas sooner.

I share my anger with him, too. Yeah, it’s stupid to be mad at Gramps, but I can’t deny a part of me is angry that he’d died and left me everything he ever owned without any hint it was coming.

Angry that I’m the one who has to fight my parents. They won’t go down easy when it comes to money.

Angry that it could’ve been even worse. All of this.

Because if Gramps had survived somehow, but needed care, they’d have never fought me over who should take care of him. They’d have let me take on that responsibility without any arguments, except that I keep them updated on their precious stinking money.

That’s all they’ve ever cared about. Shallow people with shallower dreams.

It’s dark when I leave the barn and meander back to the house. Though the lights are on, it’s eerily quiet.

Too spent to do anything else, I head upstairs, not wanting to imagine what tomorrow will bring.

The hall light is on, and a good thing or I’m sure I’d trip. Because sitting outside my bedroom door is a tray.

My brows knit together at what just might be the last surprise of the day. Thankfully, it isn’t a bad one.

There’s a sandwich, some nuts and fruit, and a thermos of hot water along with bags of tea.

I pick it up and carry it into my bedroom, not wanting to hurt Drake’s feelings.

He’s not so bad, I guess. It truly is an act of kindness.

It’s also what I need. I realize that after putting on my pj’s and tucking into the food.

I start with the tea, move onto an apple, and then the rest.

I devour everything, and I actually enjoy it.

Making a mental note to thank him in the morning, I crawl into bed and pass out.

The last thing I see in my head is Drake Larkin and his warm, ever mysterious blue-eyed smile.





4





Some Nights (Drake)





I’ve still got that sweet little thing rattling around my head when I finally crash for the night.

I shouldn’t be thinking about her so much, even if I’m deceiving her as we speak, and part of me feels like a jackass.

But I’ve made peace with it, I tell myself. It’s for her own good, and everybody else’s.

Still, I damn sure shouldn’t be letting Jonah Reed’s granddaughter give me a hard-on that could hit a home run, but I know it’s not just her being sexy as sin that teases my dick.

It’s because we’re drifting into the part of the night I hate, after the day’s long over, and I’ve got nothing left to keep busy.

These quiet, bewitching hours are always the same.

Cursed because they bring back the same fucking ghosts; night after night, month after month, year after year.





Many Years Ago





“No fair! You’re supposed to fight in the open, buttface!” Angie runs around the corner of a snow dune ten times her height, giggling as she whips another snowball our way. She’s leading an entire small army of kids, her friends.

It’s seven-on-two and we’re totally outnumbered. But I’m the kind of brat who loves tough odds, and right now, we have the advantage with our carefully laid trap.

“Gotta catch me first!” I yell back. There’s just a flash of Ang’s red, laughing face before I go racing through the snow, kicking up white powder around my boots.

My little sister can be a royal pain in the ass.

But I’m grinning because she breaks the rules all the time in these games, and it’s only fair she has a taste of her own medicine.

Her and that boy down the street never saw it coming when I crept out under the frozen bushes a minute ago and pelted them both in the back of the head.

I want them to chase me.

“Drake, hurry!” I hear Winnie’s voice from our secret fort, barely a whisper.

It’s just a neat hole hollowed out in one of the big snow drifts, a cave we dug a couple hours ago.

I accidentally tackle her as I go bounding in. She goes down laughing and we roll together in the small space. I sure am glad it’s cold enough to make those walls extra thick; otherwise, I might’ve caved in the roof and buried us alive.

“Up, up! They’re coming,” she whispers, snickering the whole time, pushing me off her.