Page 68 of Little Bird
This isn’t the man who used to fill my world with sunshine. It’s not a man who’s even going to survive the next year.
What the fuck have I walked into?
I’m so caught up in my thoughts that I don’t see the guy standing right outside the door until it’s too late. I barrel into his chest and bounce off, feeling like I just walked into a brick wall, and when I look up, I see a man who looks so much like Gunner that I do a double take. Broad cheekbones. Wide blue eyes. Lush lips surrounded by scruff. Square jaw.
A body that looks like it’s been chiseled from stone.
The only difference is that this man is dark where Gunner is light. Gunner’s auburn hair is replaced by deep chocolate brown, and the mouth that’s meant for smiling on Gunner is turned down on this man. Surrounded by lines that say he’s seen something harder than Gunner has.
Something darker.
His eyes move up and down my body, leaving a chill behind, and then snap to Sammy.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were at the house.”
The girl grows very still beside me, and then she loops her arm through mine, her fingers stiff on my skin. “Taryn asked me to show her around and give her a ride home,” she says quickly. “We’re on our way to the market.”
His eyes narrow and he’s about to answer her when she suddenly tugs me away, eliminating his ability to answer.
“Let’s get out of here,” she mutters. “Where else do you need to go?”
“The market, like you said,” I say, surprised. “And then I need a ride home. How did you know that? And who is that man?”
“I figured you would, because Gabe deserted you,” she says quickly. “And that man is Barrett Hawke. My stepfather.”
Barrett Hawke. Gunner’s brother.
Who he’s never even told me about.
Gabe
I search for Taryn for at least an hour, cursing her for taking off like that, before I run into someone I don’t expect to see.
“She’s not here,” Barrett Hawke says, having just come around the corner between the bookstore and the market.
Never mind Taryn, or the fact that he seems to know where my stepsister is.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I ask, all suspicion. It’s been years since I last saw my uncle, and that wasn’t a nice meeting.
It ended with my father punching his brother and knocking him out. And if he hadn’t done it, I would have. Though I’m not sure I could have carried it off. I was a lot smaller at the time.
Barrett smirks like he knows something I don’t, and suddenly I want to hit him for myself.
“I do live here, grasshopper. In case you’ve forgotten. Grew up here and everything. Last time I checked, I had just as much right to be here as your father.”
My hands flex into fists, and I start to seriously consider whether I can put the man down. It’s not that he’s ever done anything to me, personally. It’s what he’s done to other people. The man has a habit of showing up at the most random times and making as much trouble as he can. Usually for the women in town. I have a cousin who calls him dad and a stepcousin whose mother married the man, and I’ve watched him desert them both too many times to count. A military man through and through, Barrett never could settle down.
Even when he had kids depending on him to do just that.
“And the last time I checked, the people who live here didn’t want you,” I reply.
He shrugs in that easy, charming way he’s always had and looks me up and down once. “You’ve gotten big. And that girl you’re chasing after took off with Sammy. In my truck, if I’m not mistaken.”
I have to fight the laugh that wants to bubble out of my throat.
Because that last line makes me think Sammy has stolen his truck. Again. Good for her.
“She took Taryn home?” I ask, wanting to have this conversation over.
