Rule(32)

He chuckled without humor.  “No word from your mom?”

“No.”

“I don’t know how someone as softhearted as you came from those two.”

“Me either I’m just glad I only have to deal with them in limited doses anymore.  Being a constant disappointment is exhausting.”

He lifted a dark eyebrow.  “My little brother probably knows a little bit about that.”

“Clever.”

“I try.”

“What happens at birthday dinner stays at birthday dinner, right Rome?”

“I’m not going to say anything.  If he hasn’t noticed it after all this time it’s not my job to hit him over the head with it, but I do think there is a good chance the two of you might be really good for each other.  Opposites attract and all that.”

The problem with that was I didn’t think Rule and I were really all that opposite, I mean yes he had ink from the top of his mohawked head to his booted toes, and he was all metal barbells where I was pearls and antique cameos but we were both people trying to live beyond the boundaries everyone else seemed to want to set for us.  We both had deep, painful issues with our parents, we both loved the other Archer boys beyond measure, we both desperately wanted to be seen for the value we had without other people’s expectations of what we should or shouldn’t be doing and after Saturday I now knew we both wanted sex to be just a little bit rough and just a little bit dirty.  Yeah not as opposite as one would think at first glance.

“I’ve been trying to keep Rule from living dark ever since Remy died, it’s only gotten worse, not better and I just can’t keep going down that path if there’s never going to be an end.”

Rome sighed as we got up and headed out into the chilly air.  “At the end of the day little girl we’re all each other has, so no matter how tough it gets for any of us we just have to power through and keep it together.”

I gave him a hug and rubbed my cold hands together.  I clutched the picture close to my chest and shivered as the bitter night breeze got past my scarf.  “That’s easier for you to say because you’re an ocean away, most of the time it’s just me and Rule in an uneasy truce and your parents breathing down our necks and mine ignoring me.”

“You said it yourself Shaw, you’re not a kid anymore you can figure this out.  I have faith in you.”

That was just Rome.  He was the protector, the one that ultimately wanted what was best for all of us.  I told him to call me before he headed back to Brookside and made my way back to the apartment.  It was a rare day that Ayden and I both had off so she was sprawled in the living room with books everywhere.  She was studying so intently with the radio up so loud I don’t think she heard me come in.  She had been giving me crap all week about Rule.  While she was all for me sewing wild oats and making decisions that made me happy, and believe me he had made me oh so very happy.  She knew that my feelings for Rule were more complicated than I tended to let on and was convinced I was courting an even more thoroughly broken heart.

I tip toed up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder making her shriek and whirl around.  The reaction was so dramatic it made me double over in laughter.  I flopped on the couch with a groan and took off my coat and scarf.  She scowled up at me as she reached over to turn down the radio.  “Not cool.  How was dinner?”

“Good.”

“Just good?”

“He grilled me about Rule; he seems to think we can fix each other or some nonsense like that.”

“Speaking of the troublemaker have you heard from him?”

I shook my head.  “No.  I know how he works, Ayd.  Do you know how many sad, bewildered girls I‘ve seen him ditch the morning after?  I refuse to be one of them.”

“Yeah but you guys know each other, you were kinda friends.”

I shrugged a shoulder.  “That doesn’t matter to him.  Women have always been interchangeable.  It’s been that was since we were young.”

I ran a hand through my tangled hair and stifled a yawn.  I had been studying extra hard because midterms were right around the corner and the extra weekend shift at work was starting to wear on me.  Add in the fact I was waking up in the night all hot and bothered and I was tired girl.

“I think I might go curl up with a book and crash out early.”

“I’ll keep the music down.”

“No worries have a good night.”

“You too, and hey at least the hickey is starting to fade.”

I stuck my tongue out at her and went into my room.  I flopped face first on the bed and swore under my breath when I heard my phone ringing from my purse normally I would have ignored it but it was playing Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re not gonna take it’ and I knew it was my mother and if I didn’t answer she would just keep calling back until I did.  Her time was deemed just that valuable.  I rolled over and dug it out.

“Hello mother.”

“Shaw, I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you about your birthday.  We were in California.  Jack had a business trip and since it’s so cold here I thought the kids would like the beach.”

I guess phones didn’t work in California.  “No problem.”