Page 60 of Outcast
Damn it.Why was it so hard to just tell him what I wanted?
Maybe Grandpa was right. Maybe I’d spent so much time trying to make up for Adam’s loss, trying to make my parents happy, that I’d forgotten how to be me.
With one glaring exception, anyway.
Gray.
That was all for me.
The only thing I could remember that had nothing to do with Adam or my parents or even Allison.
And I needed another taste of that freedom.
I got into my car and headed for the edge of town. For Gray’s house. And the farther from my parents’ neighborhood I got, the smaller that pit in my stomach shrank.
Until instead of rocks in my gut, butterflies flapped around, eager and excited.
And all for me.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Gray
“Things are betterwith your brothers, though?” Cash asked.
He’d video-called me to check in, and I’d unloaded all my worries about the debt and my awkward position after hooking up with our banker.
“It’s day to day, but yeah, I’ve told them why I left, and they’ve mostly forgiven me,” I said. “They won’t ever forget, though, you know? I don’t know if Axel will ever really rely on me again.”
“Give it time,” Cash said. “You have to show him you’re reliable.”
Maybe. But even if I convinced Axel I’d changed, he’d never forgive us if we had to sell the junkyard out from under him.
I hated that he’d assumed we would, and yet, we didn’t have many options, did we?
Declan dipped into view on Cash’s end. I’d gotten to know both of them when I helped renovate a B&B and build a greenhouse in Swallow Cove, Missouri, one of many places I’d lived in the past decade.
“Hi, Gray. I hope things are going well back home.”
I didn’t have it in me to explain again, so I just nodded. “Cash can tell you all about it.”
Cash grinned. “Oh, yeah, Gray’s beenbusy.He’s already got himself a man up there.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
Ding-dong.
“Someone’s at the door!” Bailey called, stating the obvious.
“So answer the door!” Holden called from the back of the house.
The door opened. A murmur of voices reached me.
“Gray, it’s your banker dude!” Bailey called up the stairs.
“Sorry, guys, I have to go,” I told Cash and Declan. “Someone’s at the door for me.”
“I wonder who it could be,” Cash said, wiggling his brows. “Maybe that nonexistent man?”
