Page 84 of The Lost and the Found

He said something unexpected then. “She reminds me of my sister.”

“Your sister? What do you mean?”

“Both in her mannerisms and the way she looks. But, hell, my sister hadn’t been so cynical when we were younger. Hadn’t been so cold. She’d been… cheerful. Then she married a rich, abusive asshole that drove her to die by suicide.”

I looked past his shoulder, out to the hallway. I knew Gage’s sister had died by suicide, but it had happened years ago. I didn’t realize he was still this affected by it.

Gage shrugged. “I guess it just brought back a whole bunch of feelings I’d much rather not feel.”

I shook my head a little. “I’m sorry that’s the case, but you can’t treat Hayden poorly because of that. I’m not okay with it.”

“Yeah, I hear ya. I know. It won’t be like that again. But have you ever thought about why Hayden is the way she is?”

“What do you mean?”

“My sister became detached from everything and everyone because of what she went through in her marriage. And she was so good at hiding it, too—we didn’t even realize there was a problem until it was too late. I just want you to think about what happened in Hayden’s life that was so bad that made her detach herself from the world? And I want you to know that being in a relationship with someone like that is hard.”

I clenched my fists by my side, my temper rising, and I wanted nothing more than to beat the surliness out of him. I held myself back, reminding myself that I wasn’t that man anymore. I was in control of my emotions and my actions.

I knew he was looking out for me, but I didn’t like his brand of concern. I knew what I was doing. Instead, I let out a sigh. “You don’t understand, okay? Yes, Hayden has been through some shit, but she’s worth it. And I’m willing to fight for her and this relationship. Hayden isn’t your sister, and I’m not that fucking bastard who hurt her.”

“I know… Anyway, I came by to drop this off. Make sure you memorize the briefs by Monday, yeah?”

I grabbed the documents from his hand and looked through them briefly. They weren’t anything I needed to look at right away.

He turned around when I called him back.

“Are we good?”

He smiled a little at that, and I knew how rare that was for him. “Yeah, man. We’re good. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

I nodded and watched him walk away.

The funny thing was, Hayden was probably more similar to Gage than she was to me, personality-wise. I was sure they would get along well if they were just able to bring down the walls they so viciously put up around people they didn’t know well.

Gage was something else, but he was a problem I didn’t need to deal with tonight.

Right now, I needed to find a way to get Hayden to talk to me again.

I had just found her. I wouldn’t lose her again. That was a promise I would take to my damn grave.

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