Secrets Behind Those Eyes (10 page)

She looks back at me serious before
she shuts the door. “Ryder, thank you for a great
night.”

“Anytime.”

She shuts the door and I text
Judd.

Hey man. Date was a
success. Thanks again for your help. But I think I’m in trouble. I
think I’m falling in love.

I shove the phone in my pocket and
take off for home. I know it’ll be a while before he reads it with
the time difference. I wish he were here.

Chapter 15

Scarlet

What in the hell are Cade and Daria
thinking? I read over their texts again.

Cade:
Hey so Daria told me about your wreck and that you were
worried about coming here for the baby to be born. I want you here
and I don’t want you going back to work so late at that bar. ---Yes
I talked to Gable and I did some research on the place. So in the
morning my old car will be sitting in front of your house I’ll have
the keys dropped in the mailbox. Don’t argue with me about this,
I’ve already put it in your name. I’ll see you when the baby is
born. I mean it call and quit that bar, the insurance is paid for
the year and you have an unlimited gas card in the glove box. I
want you to go to school.

Daria:
Sorry my husband can be a bit of a bully when he’s trying to
protect people. But I do want you to take this offer. He’s just
found you and he loves you. That is just Cade he couldn’t be your
big brother growing up so he wants to be one to you now. Trust me
one day I’ll get a chance to tell you our story and you’ll
understand just how protective he can get. Can’t wait to see you
when the new baby gets here. Be careful We Love You.

I guess I should respond to them, but
I’ll wait until the morning when I see exactly what kind of car
Cade sends over here. If he sends some brand new expensive car I’m
going to kill him.

I climb in the shower and wash the
evidence of my night away. It doesn’t make sense to me how I became
so comfortable and open with Ryder. I dated Dustin for a long time
and never felt like this with him. Never felt this much attraction.
But after just a few weeks I can’t get within ten feet of Ryder
Abbott without wanting to take my clothes off and rub our bodies
together.

I hate that I acted that way toward
him about it but Cade’s text caught me completely off guard. I’ve
never had someone even be able to think about giving me something
of this magnitude

I was so overwhelmed. I mean the only
time someone has given me something like this was when I got my
scholarship and I could accept it because I worked so damn hard for
it. My mother never got much from my father when he left. She was
always happy with us getting by on her job at the museum and the
craft fairs and shit she did. It always aggravated me that she
never got much from my father. Then again how much money can
someone send you from prison? Hell even after he was released from
prison his ass just ran off, none of us have ever heard from him
again. He’s probably making a new family somewhere since he seems
to be so great at that. Fuck he’s probably got two or three by now.
The water starting to run cold pulls me out of my
thoughts.

Looking at myself in the mirror and
seeing my flush cheeks, I think about Ryder again. I should text
him. I walk into my bedroom and grab my phone and see a text from
Gable.

Gable:
I know you are probably pissed about Cade sending you a car.
Shut up about it. Also since he did some investigating and found
out what that bar is really like I’m going to beat your ass when I
get home. You told me it wasn’t that bad. So Quit. Don’t worry
about my car I’ll have enough money to get something when I get
home off tour, plus I’ll get a little insurance money from it. I
mean it Scarlet quit that place. Also where the fuck was mom in all
of this? Love you little sister just looking out for
you.

I guess I’m going to have to text a
bunch of people in the morning. Right now I’m texting Ryder and
apologize for how I acted.

Me:
Goodnight. Sorry I was kinda a bitch after that text. Please
come see me in the morning and I’ll explain. I had a wonderful time
tonight and I can honestly say I thought about you quite a bit
while I was in the shower. ;-) LOL

My phone dings right back.

Ryder:
I can’t be there in the morning I have to help Judd’s dad
around here we are still waiting on some calves to be born. But can
I come by tomorrow afternoon? I had a wonderful time with you too
and I’m glad you thought about me in the shower ;-D

Me:
That’s fine just text me. See you then. XOXO

Ryder:
Can’t wait. <3

Wow. I gotta get some sleep I have a
bunch of housework to catch up on tomorrow. I also have a bunch of
return texts to make tomorrow.

~*~

Waking up this morning I step outside
to see a black four door Infiniti. I’m going to kill Cade. Yes this
car was a few years old but it was a freaking Infiniti. I retrieve
the keys from the mailbox and climb inside. There is a note on the
dashboard. I open it.

Scarlet,

This is yours I don’t want
to hear shit about this. I may not have been there for you when you
were younger but, I’m here now. Our Dad shit us all. I just
happened to have a mother who came from a little money. I talked to
Gable about this, he is pissed that you were working in a place
like that and agrees that this what you need. If you want to work a
few hours a week that’s fine but not in a bar and not late though.
Your job is school right now. Once you get finished and start
making big bucks doing artwork for all kinds of musicians you can
pay me back. Maybe. You may have just found me, but you are my
little sister and I will always take care of you. Taking care of
family is what I do. Not something I get from our father. Take
Care. I love you.

Cade

I wipe my eyes. Okay so maybe I won’t
kick his ass. If Gable and I had ever had the money like this we
would have probably done these same things for each
other.

My momma finally pulls in the
driveway. Once she gets out she looks at me in the car.

“Scarlet, who does this car belong
to?”

“Um well while you were gone. I was in
an accident and Gable’s car got totaled. Cade sent me this
car.”

“Cade? As in your dad’s child from his
first marriage?”

“Yes momma you know Gable and I met
him. This is his old car he’s helping me out because he doesn’t
want me waiting tables at the bar I was working at.”

“So you were in a wreck and no one
thought to get ahold of me?”

“Momma they tried to get ahold of you,
but um hello your phone was off. You were at a spiritual retreat.
Remember.”

“Well what happened?”

“I was on my way home late after work
the other night and someone ran me off the road.”

She shook her head. “Honey I’m sure
they didn’t do it on purpose.”

“ARH! It was on purpose. Everything
isn’t all peace signs and happiness.”

“So negative.”

Ugh I can’t handle her ‘love the world
shit’ this morning. “Mother it was on purpose there is proof.
Anyway. Ryder drove up on the wreck and called 911. I had to let
Gable know about his car and I called Daria, Cade’s wife. I needed
to let her know that I wouldn’t be able to come for the baby to be
born.”

“You’re going for their baby to be
born, you don’t even know these people.”

My momma is obviously having a hard
time with the fact that I went looking for my brother. “Yes Mother
I told you this when we came back from meeting him. We hit it off.
Cade is a good brother. He’s nothing like our douchebag father.
Anyway he sent me this, paid the insurance for a year and gave me a
gas card. He wants me to go to school and not be working somewhere
that I get felt up every five minutes or witness people snorting
lines of cocaine in the backroom. Whatever beef you have is with
the asshole who was married to a couple of unsuspecting women at
once. Not Cade so get over it.”

“I loved your father.”

“Well he didn’t really love anyone.
But Cade loves Gable and I both, so lay off. You are always talking
about free love and being good to people. Well don’t just say it.
Do it. Now I have some errands to do, before I come back and catch
up on laundry and stuff.”

“Scarlet. I’m sorry. It’s just hard
you know. I’m glad you’ve found someone else that you can count on,
I know it takes a lot for you and Gable to trust people. So did
Ryder think to try and call me or Gable?”

“Yes I did but I couldn’t get anyone
to answer the damn phone. So I took care of her myself.”

We both turn startled at Ryder’s
voice.

Chapter 16

Ryder

I walk up on the end of a
heated conversation where her hippie ass mother is actually
defending their father or her love for him rather. She’s pissed
that her brother sent her a car
that I am
still a little confused over
. But when her
mom questions why I didn’t get up with them, I hit protective
caveman mode.

Scarlet runs over to me. She kisses me
on the lips. “Hey I thought you weren’t coming by until
later.”

I smile down at her. “Well we had a
calf born this morning now we are only waiting on a couple more, so
I told Nelson I’d meet him around 1. I wanted to come surprise you
and take you to breakfast.”

She gives me a smile that I hope I
always make her have. “That sounds great.” She pulls me by the arm.
“Whisper Johnson, meet Ryder Abbott. I believe you guys have met at
the museum.”

Her mom nods. “Yes, he used to come in
and drop off paperwork and things for his daddy. You have certainly
grown into a handsome young man.”

I smirk. “Thank you.” I look over to
Scarlet. “You ready to go?”

She bounces. “Yes just let me grab my
purse and I’m driving.”

As she turns to run I grab her arm.
“Babe not that I don’t like seeing your cute polka-dotted jammies,
but you may want to change before we head out to
breakfast.”

She starts laughing. “Oh come on I was
trying to make a fashion statement.”

I shake my head as she runs in the
house. Her mom looks at me. “She seems happy.”

“I hope she is.” I turn to her. “Look
I’m sorry I popped off like that, but I’ve never- I mean never had
someone affect me like Scar. So I’m a little defensive when someone
questions that.”

She nods. “Well I’m sorry they
couldn’t get in touch with me. I guess it’s one of those things you
just don’t think about until it’s too late.” She leans against her
car. “I’m sorry my questions came off like that, it’s just I’ve
always taken care of my kids myself. So to find out one of them got
hurt and they couldn’t get in touch with me. It’s just hard on
me.”

“I can understand that. Trust me I
tried to call you several times. Gable and I did talk when he
finally got back to the bus where is phone was that
night.”

She looks at the ground. “Did you know
that was the kind of bar she was working in?”

“I knew it was not the place I wanted
her working. As a matter of fact I sat there one night just to keep
her safe. Is she planning to quit? I’ve been asking her
to.”

“Yes Cade and Gable asked her to after
all of this.”

“Oh Cade is her other brother right?
The one she just found?”

Her mom nods as the front door opens
and Scarlet comes bouncing out. She smiles. “Ready?”

I grin. “I guess.”

I sit down in the passenger side of
the Infiniti. “So who does this car belong to?”

“Well me now I guess.”

“Ok I’m a little lost. Your mom also
said something about you quitting your job. I’m happy but also a
little lost on that one too.”

She smiles and starts with the text
from last night. Once she’s finished explaining we are pulling into
the Waffle House for breakfast. I laugh. “Oh I bet you were pissed
about the car. You get all pissy about people paying you
compliments or giving you stuff.”

“What do you mean I get pissy about
compliments?”

“Look how you treated me when I first
gave you compliments.”

She punches my arm playfully. “You
were being a chauvinistic ass.”

After we get out I walk around to her
side and press her against the car. “I can say however that I am
very excited that you will no longer be working at the bar.” I kiss
her hard on the lips.

She pulls away for a second. “I think
I can feel just how excited you are.

“If you look at me like that much
longer I’ll be eating for breakfast but it won’t be Waffle
House.”

“Well I’m hungry and not for tube
steak, so let’s go eat.”

~*~*~

An hour later we are driving back to
her house. “So when are you going to let them know that you’re
quitting?”

“
Well I’m not due to work
again until Wednesday, but I’ll probably go by or call
tomorrow.”