Authors: R. K. Ryals
Not possible.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I
breathed.
Blue eyes set in a handsome, rugged face met
mine. The guy—who looked completely out of place standing in the
clinic’s orange-tiled lobby—was a walking billboard. Name brand
jeans. Name brand shirt.
“
Well, if it isn’t roof
girl,” he said, surprised.
A handsome redhead with freckles and a
crooked smile stepped out from behind him. “Roof girl?”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, ignoring
the redhead.
I didn’t want to remember this guy’s name, or
him quite frankly, but I did. Eli was a dream I had. That boy on
the roof, the one with the hurt in his eyes who shouldn’t fascinate
me, belonged to a day which shouldn’t have happened.
Eli shrugged. “Community service.” He
gestured at himself. “Drunk rich boy, remember? Second offense DUI,
and one unlucky son of a bitch.”
Vanessa stood, her gaze raking over him. “You
must be Eli Lockston, then? They told us to expect you.”
“What about you?” I asked, nodding at the
redhead.
Russet-haired boy’s grin widened. “Jonathan
Blackledge, Eli’s brother, and all around good boy.”
“He wishes,” Eli mumbled.
Jonathan’s eyes twinkled. “You have a name,
roof girl?”
“Tansy,” I answered, immediately drawn to
Jonathan’s bright personality. He was the sun to Eli’s storm
cloud.
“What are
you
doing here?” Eli
queried, throwing my question back at me.
“My grandmother works here.”
Vanessa stepped forward. “Vanessa Whitehall,”
she introduced. “I’ll show you to the rescue.” She looked at me,
brows raised. “Think you can handle things?”
I glanced at the empty lobby. “Yeah … I think
I have it. If the invisible dog in the corner starts having
puppies, I’ll yell for someone.”
Vanessa threw me a look, a
silent
smart ass
hanging in the air between us. Pulling open the clinic door,
she nodded at the parking lot beyond. “If you’ll just follow
me.”
Eli sighed, his hands sliding into his
pockets, before trudging after her. With a snicker, Jonathan
followed, throwing me a wink over his shoulder.
Roof guy. Life was playing an ironic joke on
me. People, especially random men from rooftops who’d been sailing
a dream ship through a sea of blood the night before, weren’t
supposed to reappear in your life.
Shoving an earbud into one of my ears, I
stared at the black fingernail polish on my nails and thought about
the rising sun on the rooftop the day my father died.
Eli Lockston, a guy who liked boats and
boxing but didn’t do hearts. He belonged in my nightmares.
Eli
I was thinking about food, specifically
something greasy from the diner we’d passed down the road, when I
walked into Refuge Animal Hospital and saw Tansy.
Appetite. Immediately. Forgotten.
Now, walking out behind the
imperious Vanessa Whitehall—I was good with names, terrible with
faces—I fumbled for the pack of cigarettes I knew
weren’t
in my
pocket.
My fingers curled into my palm. “So, this
Tansy girl … she going to be here for a while?”
I wasn’t playing it cool. I didn’t do playing
it cool. I did blunt as hell.
Vanessa glanced at me, her expression
shuttered. “She and her sister are living with their grandmother,”
she pointed at a modest red brick house with brown shutters, “right
there actually.”
Jonathan laughed softly.
“Roof girl.” He shook his head. “When we were leaving Atlanta, you
told me you’d met her at the hospital, but on the
roof
?”
Vanessa watched me, a little too closely for
someone who didn’t know me. “Was she planning to off herself?”
Despite the fact that I’d thought the same
thing when I met Tansy, I glared at the blonde. “What makes you
think that?”
She shrugged. “I mean
…
look
at
her.”
My brother and I stared at her.
“At what?” Jonathan asked.
“You know,” she muttered, “the piercings, the
hair, the thick eyeliner, the black fingernail polish …”
I snorted, reaching for the damned phantom
cigarettes again. “What? You don’t see that in the country? When
did dye jobs and piercings constitute suicide?”
“Colored hair is kind of a trend now,”
Jonathan added. “My dad’s girlfriend has the ends of hers dyed
teal.”
Vanessa’s face flushed. “I didn’t mean that …
I mean, I get it I guess. She just seems … odd.”
My jaw tensed. For some reason, I felt
compelled to defend Tansy. Even though, once again, I agreed. She
was different. Not because of her appearance but because her eyes
kept trying to tell me something I was missing.
We’d reached the rescue, and a cheerful,
stocky man walked out, putting an end to our conversation.
“Hey, Nessa!” he called, waving wildly.
“Hi, Danny!” she responded. “I’ve got someone
here who’s going to be working with you.”
The guy sauntered over, his rubber boots
rustling over the grass. His hair was short, the cut jagged, making
his already full face even fuller.
“Did you get a haircut, Danny?” Vanessa
asked.
The man frowned. “I didn’t like it. It was
getting too long. I tried to cut it myself, but Mama said that was
wrong.”
“Oh,” Vanessa sputtered.
I glanced at Jonathan. Our eyes met.
Understanding dawned. The man’s demeanor, the tone of his voice …
it was apparent he was different. Not in a bad way, but in an
innocent, childlike way.
“I like it,” I said, my gaze sliding to
Danny’s downcast face. “It’s much cooler in this heat I bet.”
The man smiled, too widely. Shading his eyes,
he gazed up at me. “Are you a giant?”
I smiled, answering with, “I’m not that
lucky. Being a giant would be much cooler than what I am. No giant,
just tall.”
“I think you’re a giant,” he insisted.
“Then I guess I am,” I relented.
Satisfied, he nodded. “This is a hard job,”
he said seriously. “You’ve got to do everything just right. We
don’t want any of the dogs to get hurt.”
Danny’s words sounded like a speech he’d
mulled over repeatedly as a reminder not to mess up.
My answering nod was stoic. I might be a
certified asshole with most people, but Danny was the kind of
innocent soul you didn’t hurt. Right up there with children and
really old people.
“I’m betting you’re going to be a great
teacher,” I told him.
“The best!” he agreed.
Vanessa glanced at me. “Well, I guess that’s
it, then. You’ll be out here most of the time, two days a week.
Danny can show you pretty much everything.”
“Got it,” I said, brushing her off. The way
she watched me reminded me of my ex or the way my mother looked at
men. Interested but not ‘long term’ interested. The ‘take a dive
into the bad boy and then burn him’ interested.
Jonathan shifted from foot to foot. “Guess
I’ll go for a drive or something.”
“If you say you’re going for a burger, I’ll
deck you,” I grumbled.
Jonathan grinned. “Hungry, huh?”
Vanessa walked backward toward the clinic,
giving us a final once over before spinning away.
“What’s a deck?” Danny asked.
Jonathan threw me a look and edged away,
removing his car keys from his pocket before sauntering to his
Porsche.
“It’s nothing,” I mumbled. “Want to show me
what I’m supposed to do?”
Danny smiled. “There’s an extra pair of boots
in the building. You’ll need it when you walk in the yard.”
I grimaced. Danny I could handle. The animals
… that was a different story.
“Do you like dogs and cats?” he asked.
“Who doesn’t?”
“Lots of people don’t like animals,” Danny
replied, surprising me.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I offered him a
smile. “Honestly, I’m not sure. Never really had them growing
up.”
“You’ll like these,” he promised.
He walked into the building, and I followed
him, my thoughts drifting to Tansy. Roof girl. I guess, in the
grand scheme of things, it wasn’t completely weird that she was
here. This town wasn’t far from Atlanta, and we’d been traveling
the same direction leaving the city. I’d noticed words on the van
I’d spied her in, but I’d been too focused on the unspoken words in
her eyes to recall the logo on the vehicle.
The bad part was her being here at all.
“Oh no!” Throwing a glance over his shoulder,
Danny froze just inside the rescue, his gaze on the yard beyond.
His cheeks flushed.
My gaze followed his. A thin girl with curly
brown hair pulled back into a ponytail snuck out of the brick house
nestled between the clinic and the rescue.
“You can’t be doing that!” Danny cried,
agitated.
Pausing, the girl threw a glare at the
building, her lips parting. Braces covered her teeth, the sun
glinting off of them. “You don’t even know what I’m doing,
idiot.”
Shock drew me up, fury filling my veins.
Danny’s face fell. “You’re leaving! You can’t
be doing that. Does Ms. Hetty know you’re not in the house?”
She stepped forward. “Cool it, dude. She’s
not my mom.”
“But—”
“Just back off, dimwit.”
I scowled. “You get off on insulting
people?”
Her gaze swung in my direction, and her eyes
widened.
Straightening, she squared her shoulders.
“Whoever the hell you are, you don’t know nothing!”
Danny fidgeted. “She said a bad word.”
My gaze bore into the girl.
“You mean, you don’t know
anything
. For someone so quick to call
this man an idiot, you sure don’t seem to know much
yourself.”
Dropping her hands, she clenched them. “You
don’t fucking know!”
“She can’t be saying that,” Danny muttered,
wringing his hands. “She can’t.”
“Are you supposed to be leaving your house?”
I asked her, ignoring Danny.
“It’s not my house,” she spat. “Now stay out
of my business.”
“You can’t leave!” Danny insisted. “Ms. Hetty
…” His agitation grew, his hands clenching. With a frown, he lifted
his fists and beat himself in the head. “You just can’t.”
The blows got harder, his skin reddening
around them.
“Hey, now …” I soothed.
The girl panicked, her eyes flicking to the
animal clinic. “Jesus! What is he doing? Make him stop!”
Danny continued to beat his head.
Reaching out, I stopped just
short of touching him. “It’s okay.
We’re
okay. She isn’t going
anywhere.”
“The hell—” she began.
Danny started wailing.
The girl’s gaze filled with horror, flicking
once more to the animal clinic. Her hands rose in surrender. “Hey,”
she called. “I’m not leaving, okay? Just stop … whatever that is,
and I’ll stay.”
Danny didn’t stop. He got louder. The dogs in
the building howled in response.
“Stop him!” the girl demanded.
“You stop him,” I countered, feeling suddenly
like a helpless kid arguing with another kid. Anything not to get
in trouble.
The door to the animal clinic snapped open.
An elderly woman with a fit figure stomped into the gravel parking
lot, Tansy behind her. Figures crowded the door.
“Danny?” the older woman called, shading her
eyes. Stepping forward, she glanced at me. “What did you do?”
The accusatory tone of her voice made me
stiffen.
“I’m betting it wasn’t him,” Tansy
interceded, her gaze on the curly-haired girl. “What are you doing,
Deena?”
“Fuck off, Tansy!” she hissed.
Danny’s wails grew.
“You can’t be talking like that in front of
him,” the older woman admonished, her angry gaze swinging to the
younger girl.
I ran my hands over my face. “Can someone
please clue me into this,” my head tilted toward the girl,
“drama.”
Tansy sighed, her hands finding her waist,
her black-tipped nails disappearing into her black shirt. She was
so small, the pixie haircut turned her into a wild fairy. “This is
Deena,” she introduced. “My—”
“I’m leaving,” Deena announced, arms
crossed.
“Sister,” Tansy finished.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” the older woman said.
Moving to Danny, she draped her arm across his back. “It’s okay,
Danny. I’ve got it from here.”
Danny’s wails turned to whimpers and then to
sniffles. “I’ve got to start moving the dogs,” he mumbled.
“That’s a good boy.” She squeezed his
shoulders. “You do that now. I’ll send Mr. Lockston after you in
just a moment.”
His head down, Danny ambled away.
The woman’s eyes met mine. “I’m Hetty
Anderson. I understand you’re here to work off some community
service hours?”
I nodded.
She inclined her head. “Good. An extra hand
is always needed. Danny is easy to work with. He’s just really
sensitive.” Her gaze swung to Deena. “I thought I made myself clear
about Danny the other day.”
Deena glared. “I ain’t done nothing
wrong.”
“Haven’t,” Tansy and I corrected
together.
Our gazes crashed, and then stuck. She was
the first to look away.
“You
haven’t
done
anything
wrong,” Tansy
mumbled.
“What
were
you doing?” Hetty asked. “Trying
to run away?”
Angry red spots infused Deena’s face. “I
don’t have to stay.”
“Where would you go? Did you think about
that? There isn’t anywhere else,” Hetty pointed out.
I leaned against the door frame, my gaze
passing over the scene. Sadly, I felt comfortable standing amidst
chaos. Compared to the level of crazy in my family, this was
standard.