Chapter 55
CHAPTER 55
NORTH CAROLINA
B ryson lay in his room for what felt like hours. Eventually, Seth found him. He smelled clean, and his hair was wet.
Sitting on Bryson’s bed after a shared moment of silence, Seth said, “You doing okay?”
“Never better.”
“You’re mad.” Seth laid down next to him.
You’re mad.
It was the same thing he’d said to Adria. They were trying to help her. He was trying to help her.
“I’m not mad at you,” Bryson said, because it was all he could come up with.
“At Adria?”
“Yes…no,” he ran his fingers through Seth’s hair, “just mad.”
Seth nuzzled against his hand and leveled him with his bright blue eyes. “She was testing you.”
Bryson laughed. “She was pushing me away.”
Bryson had done it enough times to know what it looked like.
“And you left.”
“What was I supposed to do? ”
“Stay.” Seth said it so simply.
Bryson shook his head.
“If only you both put in the same amount of effort in getting together, as you do driving each other away, you both would see it.”
“She was trying to hurt me.”
Seth’s hand reached out and touched him, his fingers tracing their way up his chest.
“She was trying to see how easy it would be for you to leave.” His palm flattened in the space above his heart. Bryson could feel the beating underneath Seth’s palm. “But you don’t give up that easy, especially with people you care about.”
Bryson opened his mouth to argue, but shut it. Looking at Seth, he placed his own palm over his, sandwiching his hand.
Nothing about their relationship was typical. It was all kinds of fucked up, just like Bryson’s life. But somehow the three of them had made it work.
Kaydon came in then.
“Hey, boss,” he said, crawling into bed next to them. “I tried to push the Mexico issue, but I don’t think she bought it.”
Bryson said, “She does what she wants. We aren’t going to change that.”
The woman was infuriatingly stubborn.
“Seems we know someone else like that, huh, Seth?” Kaydon said sarcastically.
Bryson looked at them. “I’m not like that?”
The two of them laughed.
Fuck, was he that bad?
“Wherever we go, she promises it’ll be together,” Seth said.
And Bryson believed her.
“You know what else?” Kaydon said.
“Hmm. ”
“No matter where we go, the next twenty-four hours are the last that you have to talk to her,” Kaydon said.
Bryson shifted. “So what?”
“So, you might regret it if you leave some things unsaid,” Kaydon continued.
“Like what?” Bryson asked.
“How you feel,” Seth answered.
“I don’t know how I feel,” Bryson shouted into the room, the day’s events boiling over.
“Then tell her that,” Kaydon said.
The two were so sure. At first the shift seemed sudden, but now that Bryson thought about it, it wasn’t sudden at all.
Adria had been winning them over from the moment they arrived. Bryson wanted to get on the same ride as them. He just didn’t know how. Adria was unlike anyone he had ever met, and truthfully, it scared the shit out of him.
With him and Kaydon, it had been so easy. A look and a few words. That was all it took for the two of them to become inseparable.
Seth was their missing piece; once found, he fell into place overnight. But with Adria, it was the opposite of simple. Fire and ice were a nice party theme, but in a relationship, it sucked.
Bryson woke up in a cold sweat. The clock read 3:45 am
Untangling himself from his brothers, he reluctantly made his way to the bathroom. The harsh fluorescent light illuminated the tired lines etched on his face. It was clear he hadn’t slept well .
Dark circles, like shadows, marred his worn-out features, accentuating the exhaustion that he felt.
Today was the day.
The weight of the impending auction settling heavy on his shoulders.
His father might be here today. Family and friends. Shame and embarrassment filled him, and he gripped the counter for support. The intensity of the realization sending sharp waves of pain and panic into him, like a twisting knife. The porcelain countertop offered him an unyielding surface, effectively grounding him in the moment.
Adria’s presence lingered in his thoughts, her tousled black hair cascading around her. Bryson could almost smell the faint scent of her lavender shampoo.
The image of her unruly beauty, the way she looked when she let her hair down played on repeat in his mind.
Adria was his moon, casting an enigmatic and raw light that he could never fully comprehend. Her piercing green eyes, so pale they mirrored gray, stormy skies. She captivated him, mystified him, and rather than wanting to figure her out Bryson hoped she would remain a mystery.
As he contemplated the possibility of their imminent separation, the knife in his gut twisted once more, a painful reminder that today might be the last day he would ever see her.
Kaydon and Seth were right, there was something holding him back.
Bryson brushed his teeth and put on some sweats.
He would be damned if the last thing Adria remembered about him was him running away.