Thick Love (Thin Love, #2)(69)

“Mom…”

“Ransom, what the hell is going on?”

“It’s not...” I couldn’t tell her about the dance at Summerland’s. It would get back to Leann and if it did, well, shit, I didn’t know what my cousin would do but I didn’t think she’d be happy that Aly was doing private dances for extra money. Then, I felt like an idiot, just realizing I might not have been the only person who saw her dance. Fuck, if anyone else…It shouldn’t matter to me. She was a liar. And no, she sure as hell wasn’t my friend. “Mom, it’s nothing. We just…there was a thing but it’s not…”

“Luka Ransom Riley-Hale I am nine months pregnant and your little brother is freaking out because Aly has disappeared.” She sounded winded, but so damn fierce I was glad not to be standing right in the path of her fury. “I don’t care what happened, but you need to fix it.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“No, it’s very simple,” she said, her voice level again, but that calm only meant she’d moved beyond rage and right into livid. There would be no argument from me. I knew better. “If you did something, tell her you’re sorry. If she did something, tell her you forgive her. See? Simple.”

“Mom, what she did…”

“I don’t care what she did, son.” She’d opened the door and once again I heard my little brother crying. He had calmed, but hadn’t completely given up the fight. When she spoke again, Mom’s voice wasn’t angry, but still came out clipped. “Aly is a sweet girl and she loves Koa. She wouldn’t just leave for no damn reason at all. Whatever it is, please, just fix it and fix it soon.”

The line went dead and I held that phone in my hand, not knowing what I could do or why the hell it’d been left up to me to mend the fences broken by my stupidity. I did know one thing, for the first time in a long while, I didn’t blame myself.





17





September, 2015





Koa had fallen asleep in my lap and I’d followed, drifted until his small snore woke me up. It was late, later than I’d ever stayed at the lake house and I contemplated just crashing on the sofa. But my first class of the day at the studio the next morning would come early and the drive across the lake would take me a while, especially in the ratty car I’d picked up from a suspicious looking used car dealer. It couldn’t be helped. I had a job on the Northshore now.

I tucked the little man into his bed and headed down the hallway, expecting to find Keira still snoozing on the sofa as she waited for Kona to return from the game. But she wasn’t there and as I listened, her soft laughter and Kona’s deep voice coming from behind their closed bedroom door and I decided to leave without a goodbye that night.

The smile on my face lowered just a bit as I passed the patio doors and caught Ransom sitting on an Adirondack chair with his hands tucked into the pocket of his hoodie and his face turned toward the dark lake. He stretched his neck and looked up, his profile perfect against the reflection of the moonlight on the water. I could have watched him all night—the fleshy plump of his beautiful mouth, the sharp edge of his nose and that subtle cleft on his chin. I could have watched him, thought about touching him, thought of ways I’d invent to smooth out the worried wrinkle on his forehead and relax the hard dip of his eyebrows. Maybe I would have stayed there, just watching him, but then Ransom turned his head again and caught me staring.

The look he gave me wasn’t shocked, it didn’t seem like anything could surprise him and at first, caught in the act, I’d felt my face flame with heat, but pushed I it down, lifting my eyebrows when he nodded me over.

The night was cool, hinting that October was only a week away and I wrapped my arms tight around my waist, shooting for disinterest as I stepped out onto the patio and stood next to his chair, my gaze focused on the lake. “Did you guys win?” I asked him, still watching the waves.

“Yeah,” he said, sounding bored. “But you don’t care about that.” There was a laugh in his voice that I hadn’t heard before and when I glanced at him, I blinked twice, trying not to wonder why he was staring at me.

But, he did have me pegged. I really didn’t care that much about football. “Can’t deny it.”

The patio was a little cluttered, a task I’d handle later in the week, and as I ticked off where the towels and barbeque utensils could be stored, Ransom nudged my leg, bringing my attention back to him.

He pointed to the leg rest on his chair, bending his knee to make room for me. “Stop thinking of shit you’re going to work on out here and sit.”

“Nah, I need to get back home. Early class in the morning.”

He sighed, completely ignored me and pulled me onto the chair with a tug on my wrist. “It’s not even midnight. Sit down and talk to me a little.”

And I did, because he’d asked. I did because even then, a handful of voice lessons into our rehearsals, before that kiss in the studio, Ransom had me. He’d had me with a head nod. He’d had me with a smile that I knew he hadn’t meant. I was pathetic and weak and because I was, I sat next to Ransom and we watched the lake together, not speaking much, not doing anything but keeping each other’s quiet company.

“You sounded good on Wednesday,” he finally said when I thought he might have nodded off. “Your voice is so much stronger now.”