Page 137 of Give Me Love

I have bulletproof glass.

I look out the window as I take another sip from my cup, wondering where on this planet is the woman who decided she didn’t want to be a mother anymore. Not only did she leave me with her shit husband, she left me with no family. I never knew my real father. I’m not sure what happened to him, but given her track record, I’m sure he wasn’t worth a shit either.

I take in a breath and slightly shake my head as I look back in front of me.

I would have been better off left with no one to watch over me.

“Wanna tell me what you’re thinking so hard on over there?” Bryce asks. His voice is husky from getting up before the sun, his face is rugged from a few days without shaving, and his hair is getting thicker on top of his head, but he has a hat on.

“The fact that you’ll never meet my family.”

I see him look toward the windshield and feel the wheels in his mind turning. “And why is that?” he asks.

“Because I don’t have any.”

“Your stepdad isn’t family?” he asks cautiously.

“No.” I don’t elaborate any more than that.

He directs us off an exit and downshifts as we come to a red light. “Well, you have me now. I’m your fucking family,” he says. I look over at him, but he keeps his eyes ahead. The light turns green, and we say nothing else about it.

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I finish my coffee as we drive down a long road with a fence to our left. Bryce’s words from earlier are still in my head, bouncing back and forth as I think about what they mean.

I’m your family.

Those three little words.

I trynotto think too much into them because they give me something I haven’t had in a very long time ––hope.

And hope has the power to destroy you. I learned that a few years ago. Expect less and you’ll be disappointed less. I remember days going by with me staring out the window…waiting for her to come back. Praying that she just got lost or something equally as silly. I was just a little girl. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact she wasn’t coming back.

“You can stare out that window as long as you want, girl, but you aren’t going to see that bitch. She left you, and if it wasn’t for a check and the use I might can get out of you when you’re older, I’d leave you, too.”

I shake off that memory and look up to our left, seeing an enormous gated entrance.

“This is it.” Bryce slows the car and turns in. He pushes a button on his sun visor, and the gates swing open. Above them in simple writing reads,

Grant Ranch

We go through, and I look in my side mirror to see the gates closing as we drive on. Nothing is beside us but more fence and land.

Lots and lots of land.

We go down a hill, and I see the first glimpse of light in the sky. We wind with the road until coming back up, and there it is. A little peck of orange sun coming up from behind the mountain. A vast sweep of a dead grassy field stretches out for miles, and I smile when I see horses grazing.

“Seems they’ve already been let out for the morning,” Bryce says. He pulls the car over. “Come on. Let’s watch the sun.”

I give him a small smile before we both exit the car. He takes my hand and leads us to the fence. I step up, and he positions his front against my back as he wraps his arms around me. I feel his chin rest on my shoulder.

“I’ve watched many sunrises living out here,” he says softly. “But this one is my favorite.”

“Why is that?” I murmur, staring ahead as the sky turns from dark to sunlit. Yellow gleams sweep across the sky, mixing with baby blue.

“Because you’re with me.”

I smile at the warmness he makes me feel.

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