Page 14 of Goose's Wren

Chapter 4

Goose

The beer’s cold, themusic’s decent, and the club’s in good spirits tonight.

Bella’s here with Blade, leaning into him in the way women do when they’re secure as hell in the man next to them.

Mina is curled into Timber’s side, laughing at something Bear just said.Hayden’s tossing fries at Torque across the table, and Kimmie and Jesse are already halfway to tipsy.

Me?I’m in the corner, nursing my bottle and barely hearing the jokes flying back and forth.Wren’s bruise is still burned into the back of my skull.

She looked at me like she dared me to care.And I do.Way more than I want to.

“You’re quiet tonight,” Bella says, catching my attention.She’s got a glass of wine in hand and that perceptive glint in her eye.“Not like you.”

The Prez snorts.“He’s brooding.Again.I told him to do something about it.”

“About what?”Bella asks, glancing between us.Then her face softens a little.“Is this about Wren?”

I don’t answer right away.Just lift my bottle in a shrug that says maybe.

Bella smiles gently.“She was always sweet.Quiet, but sharp.Always scribbling in one of her notebooks, even when Sparrow was busy holding court.”

That gets my attention.

I turn to her.“What notebooks?”

“Oh, Wren always had one,” Bella says, eyes lighting a little with the memory.“She was always writing.Poems, thoughts, little stories.I remember one time Sparrow left one of Wren’s notebooks on the counter at the coffee shop.”

My brows knit.“She left it?”

Bella nods.“I opened it, thinking it was hers at first, and read this...beautiful page.It was a love poem.Simple, raw, and full of feeling.I remember thinking, ‘Damn, this girl feels things.’Thought it was Sparrow’s at the time.That’s who I gave it back to because she’s the one that left it.But now...I think it was Wren’s.No way Sparrow ever had that kind of depth.”

My stomach tightens.I stare down at the table, that familiar twist working its way through my gut.All that time I thought she was the one pouring her heart out to me.

What if it was Wren all along?

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