Hope Unbroken (Unveiled Series Book 3) (7 page)

chapter eleven

Guarded

Riley’s eyes met mine long enough to let me know he needed a minute. I nodded, and he took off after Jasmine. Mr. Preston’s stare kept me frozen halfway out of my seat. As soon as he disappeared down the hall, I skirted around the table and through the kitchen.

Outside, I stumbled onto a deck perched above a long grassy slope leading to a riverbank. Riley’d already reached the edge of the water, where he called up to a small tree house hidden inside an old elm’s sturdy branches. Jasmine opened the bottom door, and he climbed the ladder toward a conversation they needed to have alone.

No chance I was going back inside without him. I sat on the deck with my legs hanging off the edge. Something moved in the corner. A chocolate Labrador, who could’ve passed for a much older Jake, hobbled toward me. His tired legs apparently moved far slower than his piqued curiosity. I rubbed his head when his journey finally ended in a collapse next to me. Sitting side by side, we both peered across the yard, waiting.

The quaint view from the front of the house had been misleading. The backyard extended at least a hundred feet downhill. A paddleboat rested upside down underneath a gazebo near two bare hammock stands. The peacefulness swept me in immediately. No guessing why Jasmine had chosen the backyard as a hideout.

“You should see it in the summertime.”

I flinched at Mrs. Preston’s voice.

“It’s really lovely that time of year. Everything comes to life then.” She sat down and folded her arms over her knees. “I’m sorry for my husband’s behavior. There’s no excuse.” She petted the old dog, and he rested his head on her lap. “He and Riley have trouble seeing eye to eye.”

There was an understatement if I’d ever heard one.

But now that I’d seen their broken relationship firsthand, my heart ached for restoration even more than before. “What do you think it’ll take for them to work it out?”

“I don’t know, dear. I don’t know.”

We both gazed at the river until a splash in the water interrupted the silence. Two seagulls circled around the ripples. Mrs. Preston rose to her feet and swiped off some crumpled leaves from the back of her pants. “Come on. I’ll help you with your bags.”

“But I thought Riley said we were leaving.”

“He’ll come around.” She held out a hand and smiled with the kind of intuition only a mother could have.

We cut through the house to the driveway, hauled the bags from the trunk over our shoulders, and trudged back up the walkway. She’d retired her apron but still looked every bit as hardworking. Her eyes held a mixture of compassion and bravery.

I had to smile. “Riley’s a lot like you.”

“Like his father too, I’m afraid—stubborn as a mule.”

We both laughed. Too bad we couldn’t stay on the porch, away from the electricity still brooding inside.

Mrs. Preston looked at me with the same intensity I’d grown accustomed to seeing from Riley. “He loves him, Emma. I know it’s hard to see that right now, but Jonathan loves his son. Always has.”

I lowered the duffle bag onto the ground. “I know. And so does Riley.”

We just had to find a way to make them remember.

Mrs. Preston led the way into the house and down the narrow hallway. She snapped on the light. “You can have Riley’s old room. He can sleep on the couch.”

We maneuvered through stacks of clutter. “It’s become a bit of a storage closet these days,” she said, “but you’ll at least have a bed. It’s only a twin.”

I reached for her arm. “It’s perfect.”

She nodded, laid my bag on the bed, and crossed the room again.

“Mrs. Preston?” I called before she left. “Thanks . . . for letting us stay.”

She smiled as if there’d never been a question.

Exhaustion closed in after only two seconds of sitting down. I hopped right back up. Any longer on the mattress, and I wouldn’t have been able to stay awake to wait for Riley. I ambled around the room toward a desk topped with an array of picture frames from his childhood. I lifted one up and laughed. The guitar he held was at least twice his size.

“Every guy’s worst fear,” Riley said from the doorway. “Bringing his fiancée home to see all his embarrassing baby pictures.”

“Well, luckily for you, your fiancée has much worse baby pictures. Trust me.” I returned the frame. “Though, I was expecting to find a few cute little league pictures mixed in here somewhere.”

He caressed the tops of my shoulders from behind. “When you grow up in a family of musicians, ambition to play sports kind of falls by the wayside.”

I turned to face him. His eyes had released any traces of his earlier anger.

“I’m sorry you had to see that. My dad doesn’t exactly bring out the best in me.” He craned his neck to the ceiling. “I don’t know why I thought it’d be different.”

“Because.” I curled the sides of his Henley in my fingers. “It’s your natural default to hope for the best.”

“You sound like my mom.”

“You must be rubbing off on me, then. You’re more like her than you realize.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Good,” I answered. “It was intended to be.”

He edged closer. “So, does that mean you still want to marry me?”

It wasn’t fair that his smile still made my heart race.

“Now that you mention it,” I teased. “I might need a little more convincing.”

“Really?” He pressed in and kissed the corner of my mouth. “And what kind of convincing did you have in mind?” His lips hovered behind my ear.

I clasped his sleeve. “I’m pretty sure it’s going to involve a lot more of that.”

“More of what?” His lips glided down my neck until I laughed at how much it tickled.

When his eyes found mine again, he held my gaze with complete sincerity. “I’m glad you’re here with me.”

“Me too.” A sliver of the moon reflected off the water through the window. “Why didn’t you tell me you lived on such a beautiful property?”

He shrugged. “It belongs to my grandparents.” He walked over to the window and rested his forearms on the sill. “After we got kicked out of that dingy apartment in Nashville, we had nowhere to go. Gramps said they were ready to move into a condo. That this place had gotten too much to keep up with.” He scratched his cheek, laughed sadly. “More like he was trying to clean up his son’s mistakes.”

No wonder Riley was so cautious about his career in the music industry—so scared of repeating his father’s mistakes, terrified of putting that pursuit above his commitment to me. Nick couldn’t possibly have understood the history that played into Riley’s decisions. If he had, he wouldn’t have been counting on me to change his mind. What could I say to convince Riley his experience would turn out differently? That it was worth the risk?

“You’re not the same person.”

He didn’t move. “You honestly believe that after today?”

How could he ask that? “Of course I do.” I swallowed. “Which is why going on tour is the right decision—”

He turned. “Why are you fighting me on this?”

“I’m not. It’s just . . .”

“What?”

Head down, I rubbed the top of my sock with my other foot. “Nick called me last week. Basically threatened things would turn legal if I didn’t persuade you to uphold the contract.”

I risked a glance up from the oak floor. Riley’s nostrils flared.

I hurried to him. “I’m sorry. I only want what’s best for you.”

His chest rose and fell with a lengthy breath. “I know.” He kissed the crown of my head. “You’re what’s best for me, Em. Please trust me in that.”

He diverted his gaze to the bed. “It’s been a long day. You should get some sleep.”

“Thought you wanted to leave.”

He tugged on his ear. “Nick isn’t the only one who can be convincing.” A soft laugh petered into an exhale. He hung his head. “I owe it to Jazz to stay.”

Being here, feeling his heartache as my own, made the reason he’d left me last year seem so clear now it hurt. I closed him in my arms, wanting to take it all away and restore what he’d lost.

He rolled back the covers. Unwillingly, I traded the comfort of his warmth for the blankets’. He leaned down to kiss my forehead and let his lips linger over my skin longer than usual. “Goodnight, Emma.”

“Goodnight.”

The door closed behind him. My eyelids had no problem shutting out the day. My thoughts, on the other hand, weren’t so accommodating.

I wasn’t sure how his contract would affect our wedding date. But now that I’d met his family, I couldn’t imagine getting married without them there. They
needed
to be a part of it, a part of our lives. All of them.

I rolled onto my side, then onto my back, and stared at the ceiling.
Sleep. You can do it
.

Useless. I fumbled over the handful of items on the nightstand in search of my cell. The lighted screen cast a glow over the wall behind me.

“I was starting to wonder if you were going to call,” Austin said, skipping hellos.

“The phone does work both ways.”

“Funny, yours only seems to work in the middle of the night.”

I glanced at the clock. It wasn’t even midnight yet. And he called
me
dramatic. “Funny,” I said right back, “you’re always up when I call.”

His laugh echoed through the line. “Someone has to stay up to show these fools how to snowboard.”

“You’re snowboarding now? In the dark?” His girlfriend wasn’t giving him flack for that?

“If we only boarded in the day, it wouldn’t be called an extreme sport, now would it?”

I bunched the covers under my arms. “You better be careful.”

“You know me.”

That was the problem.

“So, you gonna tell me what’s up, or not?”

How did he always know? I ran my fingers along the stitching across the comforter. “I can’t sleep.”

“Your trip to the almost-in-laws isn’t turning into a
Meet the Fockers
scene, is it?”

I squeezed my pillow. He was lucky he wasn’t here to get a good smack with it. “I’m trying to be serious.”

His laughter tapered. “Sorry. Switching over to Emma-mode now. Okay, go.”

If I weren’t so distracted, I might’ve been able to think of a comeback. I sighed into the phone instead. “Riley and his dad don’t get along. I mean, I knew that before coming, but it’s kind of painful to watch.” More than I’d expected.

I stared at his childhood pictures cloaked in moonlight. “We’re lucky. We got to share more love in the years we had with Dad than some people do in an entire lifetime. I’m scared they won’t see what they’re forfeiting until it’s too late.”

“If Riley upholds the character I’ve seen in him so far, he won’t let that happen.”

I wanted so much for him to be right, but the scene from dinner replayed in the shadows with the reminder that it was a two-man show.

Background conversations seeped in from his end of the line. He needed to get back to friends, but there was one more thing on my mind.

“Austin,” I said slowly, “there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.” I rolled the top of the comforter down to my knees and let it unfurl. Why was this harder than I thought? “Since Dad can’t be here, would you walk me down the aisle . . . on my wedding day?”

I sank deeper into my pillows the longer his pause stretched.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said.

The beginning of tears coated my throat. No matter what else changed in my life, I’d always need my brother. “Aust . . .” My voice cracked.

“Love you too, Em. Now, get some sleep.”

“Night.”

The glimmer of light from my phone faded. In a house of fractured memories, I closed my eyes and tried to drift into a dream where everything in life was whole.

The splinter in Riley and his dad’s relationship widened the longer we were there. Even on Christmas Eve.

While Mr. Preston tinkered out in the garage, the rest of us hung out in the family room around an artificial tree decorated in mismatched ornaments. I rocked in a recliner, listening to Jasmine show off her saxophone skills. Melody kept her nose buried in a book and her headphones on, as usual. And Mrs. Preston wielded a cross-stitch needle while Riley filled her in on his upcoming album.

His cell vibrated on the end table. One glance at the screen, and he ignored the call. Same as he’d done five times over the last few days. It was probably Jess, or maybe Nick, hounding him about his contract. He couldn’t keep ignoring them.

I checked my own cell for any notifications. No new updates since Trey’d called yesterday to let me know he’d gotten rejection notices on some of my grant requests, but he managed to talk our landlord back into the original notice he’d promised us. With how easily Mr. Glyndon seemed to be swayed, I wasn’t inclined to hold my breath. And right now, Riley’s situation was all my heart could handle focusing on, anyway.

Mrs. Preston rubbed her bare feet on the dog. “And when will you go on tour, dear?”