Risk (Gentry Boys #2)(52)

When I arrived at Cluck This, Saylor was standing in the break room with a miserable look on her face. She had circles under her eyes. She didn’t see me at first and I just stood there for a moment, puzzling over her. Saylor didn’t hide from the truth. She said she’d learned the hard way that reality, no matter how ugly, couldn’t be ignored. She’d even told me everything about herself and about Cord in a matter-of-fact way. I didn’t know how much of her openness was always there or if it was something Cord had brought out in her.

“Hey, girl,” I said, squeezing her shoulder.

Saylor turned and gave me a vague smile. “Damn, look at you. You’re practically glowing.”

I blushed. “Hmm, yeah. I got some sun yesterday.” It seemed a little awkward to regale her with the bawdy times I’ve been having with her boyfriend’s brother.

She laughed. “I’ll bet you did.” Her smile faded and she cocked her head. “How is Creed?”

I was confused. “Creed?”

She nodded.

“Why are you asking? Don’t you see him every day?”

“Not today,” she said and the troubled look returned to her face. “I mean, he was home but I didn’t talk to him. He was brooding out on the patio and Cord told me to leave him alone.”

Now it was my turn to be troubled. “I don’t know what that’s about. He seemed like something was bothering him last night and then he left real early.”

The expression on her face was strange, intense. “So he hasn’t said anything to you?”

“About what?”

She didn’t answer. I was becoming weary of trying to drag information out of people. I tried again. “Saylor?”

“Creed’s going to be in a fight,” she blurted. She immediately looked as if she wished she hadn’t said it.

“A fight?”

She looked at the clock. “If we don’t get in the dining room Ed will come in here and start yelling loud enough to give me a headache.” She coughed into her arm and started to leave. “I already have a headache.”

I grabbed her arm. “What fight, Say? I thought they weren’t doing that anymore.” She’d told me a little bit about how the Gentry boys used to earn money by fighting in these heavily gambled underground brawls. She’d also led me to believe those days were behind them. Creed had certainly never said a word about it. I thought he worked as a security guard and that was it.

Saylor looked unhappy. “It’s some kind of prior obligation. Honestly, I’m not sure about the details. Cord’s being all tight-lipped about it and hell if Creed will open up.” She leaned against the wall and began combing her fingers through her long brown hair. I’d spent enough time with her to know it was something she did when she was feeling uneasy. The black letters inked on the inside of her arm caught my eye. She’d had the tattoo done several months back when she was in the first blush of love with Cordero Gentry. I’d raised my eyebrows the first time she showed it to me.

Amor vincit omnia.

Translation: Love conquers all.

If that was true I hadn’t seen much evidence of it. But then, I had more than one reason to be so pessimistic.

“He didn’t say a word,” I said flatly. I didn’t know why it bothered me so much. There was sure a hell of a lot I hadn’t told him. Maybe I shouldn’t have assumed I was the only one with secrets.

Saylor was looking more miserable by the second. That was the thing about Say; there wasn’t an ounce of guile in that girl. You could tell everything she was feeling by the expression on her face. I let out a thick sigh and began to walk into the dining room.

“Truly.”

I turned around. The corners of her mouth turned up.

“He likes you. A hell of a lot. Creedence might be a stone wall at times but there are some things he just can’t hide.”

I nodded absently. “He likes me. That’s good. It’s good he likes me.”

“You like him too.”

I exhaled shakily. “Too much, Saylor. Too much.”

She reached out and grasped my hand, squeezing it briefly. I left her with that thought and tied my apron around my waist as I left the break room. I envied Saylor. Not because she’d found love. But for another reason. I knew what had happened to her in California. I knew how she’d run back to Arizona bruised and damaged by someone who was supposed to care for her. Yet she was still able to look at a man, even one she’d once despised, and see possibilities. She’d been able to fall in love quickly and without reservation.

Saylor kept an eye on me all afternoon. I was slower than usual and Ed frowned in my direction a few times. I tried to concentrate on taking orders and delivering plates. My mind kept wandering back to Creed though.

I figured I could press Saylor into telling me everything she knew but that wasn’t really fair to her. A lifetime ago I would have sought the company of my sisters when I was feeling low and uncertain. Aggie was especially my touchstone but Mia and Carrie were also big pieces of my heart. When I was fourteen I’d had to start high school in a rural part of Georgia where it seemed we were the only ones who didn’t have local family histories going back two hundred years. I didn’t have a friend in sight and even my sisters were all down in the middle school. I was flattered when a senior named Toby Carter took an interest in me. I was foolish enough to believe that when a boy brought you out in his car and put his mouth on the large breasts you were already embarrassed about, it meant he liked you. But Toby just had me do a few things for him before calling me a trashy slut and dumping me a mile away from the motel which was our temporary home. When I told my sisters what happened they were even more hurt for me than I was for myself.