Bad Boy Brody(23)

I was surprised and impressed all at the same time. “Did you like Peter?”

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She ended with a shrug before adding, “She loved him. That was all that mattered.”

I fell silent, digesting. I was learning so much and not enough. “I’m playing him in the movie, but I’ve never met him. My manager reached out to see if I could meet him, for research purposes. He said I could ask his children for any insight needed.” I remembered when she read the words to me from her phone, reciting them word for word. “He sounds like a peach of a guy.”

She laughed a little. “That seems like him.”

“When did he stop sending people here for you?”

She mulled it over. Her mouth puckered up again. “When I turned eighteen. He came to tell me everything was legally in my name now. A lawyer came the next day to tell me about my inheritance, and the staff was all gone that same day.”

I shot forward. “Wait. These are your lands?”

She nodded.

“Shit.” A nice piece of information I was pretty sure Shanna didn’t know about.

“Matthew drove out the next week. He took me to the bank and got me set up so I could get money when I needed it. He helped set up other things.”

“You don’t drive?”

She shook her head. “None of the staff offered to teach me, and I didn’t care. Shoal could take me anywhere I needed to go.”

“Do you want to learn?”

“Are you going to teach me?”

I nodded. “I would if you wanted me to.”

Her mouth opened. She was thinking about it. Then she shrugged again. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Well, think on it.” I reached down for the bourbon and took a large swig. God. I needed that burn.

Her eyes were on the bottle as I held it.

“You’re still drinking.”

I listened for the judgment. There was none.

I relaxed a little, nodding. “It helps.”

“With what?”

The air shifted between us. It grew more intimate. It’d been playful, light before. She was getting into a second layer of shit.

I motioned around the patio, still holding the bourbon. “Ever been haunted? Because I have. I am. You aren’t the only ghost here.”

“I’m not a ghost.”

“That’s yet to be proven.” I grinned at her, but I felt Kyle. He was sitting with us. He was either laughing at how much of a dumbass I was being or he was flipping me off.

I added, “He visits me often.”

She leaned forward, reaching for the bourbon. When I relinquished it, she took it and leaned back in her seat. “Does he get stronger when you drink or does he fade?” She took a sip. She swallowed it slowly before handing the bottle back, and I hadn’t wanted her as much as I did in that moment. I’d have to readjust in a minute because my hard-on was becoming too uncomfortable. But until then, I took the bottle, as well as a second shot.

I placed it on the floor between us.

I thought back to her question. “He gets stronger, but I can sleep. I can’t sleep unless I drink. I don’t want to take fucking pills. They mess up my head. If it’s going to be messed up more than it is, I want it to be from booze. At least then I can have some fun while I’m at it.” I flashed her a grin.

I waited.

Normal girls would try to be cute. Smart girls would try to say something witty. She only reached for the bourbon and took a long swallow. She hissed this time, setting it back down between us.

She coughed, rasping out, “They tried to make me take pills too.”

“Whe—” I remembered. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Her chin dipped to her chest, and she pulled her legs up so she could hug her knees to herself. “I was young when my mom died. I had to take the pills, but I got off them. I slipped some to Finn. He liked pills back then.”

“You saw them after she died?”

She looked down and was silent for a beat. “Matthew brought them out a few times.”

But it wasn’t enough. They’d basically left her.

My hands went back to digging into the goddamn chair. I wanted to throw the fucking thing at Kellerman, but this time wasn’t about the piece of shit. I could hear Kyle telling me to calm down, so I took his advice. I had to. I couldn’t scare her away. That was the last thing I wanted.

Forcing myself to chill the fuck out, I asked, “Have you talked to your siblings since we’ve all been here?”

She was chewing on her bottom lip again.

Between the need to pound Kellerman’s face in and the way she was kneading that lip of hers, my dick was raging. I couldn’t remember when I had this big of a hard-on. Holy fuck. I tried telling him it wasn’t the hottest thing he’d ever seen. I wasn’t being convincing.

“I’ve talked to Matthew but not Finn or Abby.”

“Would you like to talk to them?”

Her teeth stopped nibbling. She smoothed her hands down her legs instead. “I always liked Finn. He made me laugh. He scared me a bit because he could be reckless, but he was funny.”

I raised an eyebrow. That preppy-looking prick was funny? “Really?”

She nodded. “Abby was too. Both of them would dare each other to do pranks. I remember one time when Matthew had a date. He’d just turned sixteen, and he was so proud of his car. He was taking out Molly Connors. Finn dared Abby to smear peanut butter all over the backseat. Matthew didn’t notice when he left, and then it got dark. I guess he found out later when they went back there.” She started laughing, her shoulders shaking. “He came home with peanut butter all over him. He blamed Finn the whole time, and I guess it was kind of his fault, but no one told him it’d really been Abby.”