Page 71 of Hard to Love
Greer couldn’t have made a sound if she’d tried. Nicolás wasn’t just a normal moody teenager. He was into something.
Something Alex knew a lot about. Gang life.
“I welcome your guidance,” he continued. “If it’s your will, please help me help Nicolás.”
Alex’s head slowly lifted, one of the gold rings in his ears flashing in the fading evening light. Greer took one careful step back. If she could just make it to the porch, shecould pretend she hadn’t heard every confidential word Alex had just shared with God.
Another step.
And another.Creak.
Alex whirled around and spotted her backing out of the chapel like a guilty altar boy who’d just ripped off the holy water to use in his water gun.
Looked like she should’ve said a little prayer of her own.
The lookthat flashed across Greer’s beautiful face was guilt, no other way to describe it. She bit her lip and tiptoed back another step.
“You’re not invisible,” he said.
She ducked her head, rested her forehead in her palm. “Alex, I’m…I’m so sorry.”
What was she sorry for—the fact that his old life was coming back to bite him on the ass again or that she’d just listened in on a very personal moment?
“Hey, it’s your land. Your church.”
“What are you planning to do?”
The sliver of hope that she hadn’t heard his prayer deflated, leaving him feeling empty inside. What did he plan to do? Tonight, not a damn thing. Hopefully he’d wake up to a sign or a miracle in the morning. Because right now, things weren’t looking too great. “I haven’t decided.”
“Who’s Ruben?”
“No one you ever need to know. Forget you ever heard that name.”
“How can I help you?”
He rose from the pew, his body feeling as though he’d been strapped to that cross and lashed with whips. “By pretending you never stepped foot inside here. Bypretending you know nothing about my family.”
She advanced on him, blocking the way out the door. “You expect me to just forget that I met your mom and brother? That he’s obviously in some kind of trouble?”
Just when he’d thought he might have a chance of building something new with Greer, something clean and untainted by the past, all that ugliness raised its head again. “That’s exactly what you need to do.”
“I thought we were friends.”
He nudged her out of the chapel and into the night air. Something about standing inside that holy space with her made him feel itchy. Made him able to picture her in a long white dress and veil.
Your true love. That’s what these boots are all about.
Could he and Greer be soul mates?
No. Even if he bought the whole thing, he would never put on the mated boots to Greer’s pair. He couldn’t get a handle on his own life right now. How could he possibly consider wrapping her up in it? “This is something I have to handle on my own.”
“Friends help one another.”
Well, that was new to him. The women in his past hadn’t been friends, and now Alex knew why. Friends shared shit, and if he went around doing that, he’d be a completely empty bag of skin since crap was all he had inside him. And just the thought of some woo-woo magic matchmaking him with Greer, forcing her into his life, chafed at him like a shirt straight out of the package. “I’m not one of your girlfriends. I don’t need to examine my feelings and chat over every possible solution. I just need some time to think it through, sort out the options.”
“Have you considered that doing nothing is your best option?”
He rounded on her, loomed over her as she stood her ground with her hands on her hips. “Would you do that if you saw that Cal had fucked up in a major way? That he was headed for the ass-kicking of his life? Would you let him make his own mistakes, his own decisions? Or would you figure out a way to save him from himself?”
