Messy Love(47)

“You’re playing cop or what?’’

He laughed and closed his eyes briefly. “I’ve been a cop a long time. I can’t shake off some habits.’’ He stared at me a moment without speaking, and I remembered him doing exactly that whenever he wanted to get to the bottom of something. Unfortunately, as good as I was being closed off, I still couldn’t hide shit from him when he had it in his head that I knew something he wanted to be privy. “It’s not like you to evade. Well, it’s not like you to evade unless there’s something you don’t want to say.’’

“Dad…’’ I breathed and crossed my arms, knowing that it would tell him that he was onto me.

“Don’t bullshit me, Wyatt. It’s important.’’

“I know it is!’’ I blurted and jumped to my feet. I paced in front of the table under the watchful eyes of my father who knew me well enough to be aware that I needed a moment to gather my thoughts. “I don’t think Marissa will contact Mom anytime soon.’’

“What did you do?’’

It never failed to hurt like a fucking gunshot when your adoptive father, a man you consider one of the best men, immediately assumed that you fucked up. He was right, of course, but it hurt like hell that he didn’t doubt one second that I did something wrong. He knew me too well to give me the benefit of the doubt.

“For what it’s worth, she has a great family, and she only wanted answers.’’

“Wyatt.’’ He stood up, and while my father was a couple of inches shorter than me, he still held the kind of authority I fought as a teenager but had always respected deep down. “If you don’t want to tell me what you did, it’s fine, but you better find a way to mend things. It’s not about me or you or Ava. It’s about your mother and her past. You should know better than anyone what kind of damages a past can do to someone.’’

Flashes of the past assaulted me, knocking the wind out of me.

“I’ll see what I can do,’’ I answered, but my voice reached my ears as if I was underwater. The sounds distorted, pushed me further into the past. I heard myself cry in the night. I heard his curses. I heard other voices. Mostly, I felt the emotions from back then, and it ruined me.

“Wyatt.’’ Hands touched my shoulders, the touch nothing like the kind from that past. Slowly, my sight cleared and my adoptive father’s face came into focus. “I’m sorry, son.’’

“You said nothing wrong,’’ I whispered. My voice, gone, was barely audible. I took a step back, pulling away from the comforting touch, from the reminder that my past was in the past. “I’ll make sure Marissa calls mom.’’

“Thank you.’’

“Yeah,’’ I said and nodded. “I better go. I don’t want to be stuck in traffic.’’

We both knew it was a bullshit excuse, but he let me go with it.

***





MARISSA


“Marissa,’’ Jade’s head popped through the door of the small office at InkSpired, forcing me to look up from a wicked design of flowers woven through a gilded cage for a new client. Kam agreed to let me work on the first draft of the design and check with the customer in a couple of days to see what she thoughts. I was getting close to finishing my apprenticeship, and that couldn’t come too soon.

“What’s up?’’

“There’s the guy you tattooed a few weeks ago out front. Remember the one with the blonde faux-hawk?’’

“He’s here?’’ I frowned at her nod. My grip on the red pencil tightened. “Is he alone?’’

“Yeah. Why?’’

“Forget it,’’ I said and stood up. “Thanks, Jade.’’

“Don’t mention it. I just finished the tat on the big whining dude. I need a break now. The bigger and scarier looking, the whinier they are.’’

I chuckled and left her to the coffee machine and the prime coffee.

“Hey Marissa,’’ Ralph called out as soon as I cleared the hall leading to the back and came into view of the tall man standing in front of the empty front desk. “Where’s your friend?’’

“Sophie?’’ I asked, startled and wondering if my hunch that it was about his best friend was out of the mark. I hadn’t heard anything from Wyatt in over two weeks. At first, I thought he wouldn’t respect my wish for no more contact, but after a few days, I was convinced that this fucked up part of my life was over. “She took the day off. Did you want to see her?’’

He shrugged and smiled at me, but it wasn’t like his usual flirty smile. In fact, now that I took the time to observe him over he seemed uncomfortable. He fidgeted every few seconds, toyed with the loop in his right earlobe and his eyes kept on going from me to everywhere in InkSpired.

“Ralph?’’

“I’m here because Wyatt asked me to.’’

“Oh no.’’ I shook my head quickly, so quickly that the tip of my ponytail hit my cheeks twice each side. “No. I’m over his shit.’’

“Listen to m—''

“No!’’ I pointed at him and whisper-yelled, “You seem like the most sensitive of the two, so you listen to me. I want nothing to do with Wyatt Burton. Nothing.’’