Chapter 2
Chapter Two
GYPSY
As I turned the van into my driveway, a wave of exhaustion crashed over me.
A stomach virus had been working its way through Fresh Foods for the past week, so I’d been working double shifts every single day.
Sure, my paychecks needed the extra padding, but after dealing with my pimply-face, barely-out-of-high-school manager, taking care of the kids, and dancing at the club until close twice this week already, I’d barely managed three hours of sleep each night, and the exhaustion was finally starting to catch up with me.
Ignoring the whine of the brake pads that were in desperate need of replacing, I put the crappy minivan I drove into park, killed the engine, and rummaged through my purse in search of my cell as I headed for the front door.
Odette answered on the second ring. “Hey, honey. You on your way home?”
Odette had been a part of my life for as long as I could remember.
Having lived in the trailer just a few doors down from ours, it hadn’t taken her long to see my parents for the worthless wastes of oxygen they were and she’d immediately set about taking me under her wing.
We provided a solace for each other. When it became obvious she wasn’t going to be able to have kids, her husband had packed up and left her.
His loss as far as I was concerned, because Odette was the best woman I’d ever had the privilege of knowing.
I filled a void for her that was left behind from the knowledge that she couldn’t have children of her own, and she provided me with all the safety, security, and love my own parents never bothered to give me.
She was the closest thing to a mother I’d ever had, and I didn’t even want to think about what my life could have become if I hadn’t had her.
But the thing that mattered to me the most was that she treated my brothers and sisters with the exact same love and affection that had gotten me through a miserable childhood. The Bradbury clan was better for having her in our lives.
“Hey. I actually just pulled up. I hate asking you this, but would you mind keeping Raleigh for a little while longer? I’m in desperate need of a shower.” I left out the fact that I also needed to nap for the next century, because what would be the point in that?
“Of course, girl. You know I never mind watchin’ this little stinker, so take all the time you need. Me and Lee’ll be here when you’re done.”
I let out a sigh of relief and smiled into the phone. “Thanks, Detty. You’re the best.”
“Child, don’t I know it.”
I hung up on a laugh and climbed from the car, heading for the mailbox at the end of the drive.
I rifled through the large stack of bills as I walked up the rickety stairs, pulled open the creaky old storm door, and unlocked the front door.
Stepping into my blessedly silent house, I tossed the mail onto the counter, sending it sliding across the linoleum.
The bills would just have to wait. It wasn’t like they were going anywhere.
I stripped out of my uniform in record time and climbed into the shower, letting the hot water beat against the sore muscles in my shoulders.
I was in the middle of rinsing the conditioner out of my hair when the spray suddenly turned to ice.
I let out a shriek and scrambled toward the back of the shower, slipping on the bottom of the slick tub and banging my elbow against the wall.
“Argh!” The freezing water felt like tiny knives stabbing into my skin as I fumbled with the knobs.
I twisted the hot dial all the way to the left, but nothing happened.
“No, no, no, no!” I cried as I twisted left and right and left again to no avail.
The water heater had been on its last leg for a while now, and it appeared that the damn thing had finally crapped out.
Just what I needed.
Resting my forehead on the frigid tile, I squeezed my eyes closed and banged my fist against the wall as the icy droplets continued to beat spitefully against my skin. “Son of a bitch!”
The sharp words echoed all around me as I gave in to my anger.
I hit the wall a few more times and threw out a litany of curse words for good measure, lamenting my epically shitty luck before pulling myself together, shutting off the water, and climbing from the shower.
No matter what I did, I just couldn’t seem to catch a break.
My hands trembled and my teeth chattered as I wrapped a towel around my body and yanked the bathroom door open with so much force it slammed into the wall.
“Jeez, crazy. What’s with all the shouting?”
I stopped short at Rhodes’s voice, cutting my eyes at him from where he stood at the kitchen counter, stuffing a snack cake into his mouth. “Water heater finally kicked the bucket. Silver lining though—I’d been dragging ass, but now I’m wide awake thanks to the unexpected ice bath.”
Dropping his head back, he stared up at the ceiling and hissed, “Shit. I knew that was just a matter of time.”
“Hey,” I scolded. “Watch your mouth.”
He snorted, bugging his eyes out. “Seriously? You just rattled off every cuss word I know, and some I’d never heard of before today, and you’re getting on me for saying ‘shit’?”
“Damn straight,” I answered with a mischievous smirk.
“You might be bigger than me now, but I’m the adult here.
I can say what I want. And back off the snack cakes.
They’re for everyone,” I added when he went in for a second.
He stuffed the plastic-wrapped goodie back into the box with a roll of his eyes, mumbling under his breath about being a growing boy and starving to death.
At seventeen, my little brother wasn’t so little anymore.
He already topped me, now sitting an inch over six feet, and there weren’t any signs that he’d stop growing in the near future.
Like me, he’d gotten his height from our dad.
But while I was tall for a woman, standing at five foot seven, Rhodes was just tall in general.
And that hadn’t been all he’d gotten from our father.
The little boy who used to come running to me with tears in his eyes when he scraped his knee or had a bad dream was quickly turning into a man.
Our dad might have been a sorry excuse for a father, but there’d been no denying he was attractive.
Rhodes had the same dark hair streaked with auburn when the sun hit it.
His brown eyes were a couple shades darker than my own and flecked liberally with gold.
He had the same build as our dad as well, and for a kid who didn’t play any sports, he had filled out like a football player.
He even possessed the same crooked, cocky smirk that had made Danny Bradbury such a hit with the ladies—in spite of the fact that he was married to our mom.
Not that she cared. She was too drunk most of the time to notice his carousing.
Rhodes knew he was a good-looking kid, and as he’d gotten older and come into his own, he started using his looks to his advantage.
It hadn’t come as a surprise that the girls at his school were calling the house constantly.
Eventually I’d started noticing behavior in him that didn’t sit well with me, so, much to his dismay and embarrassment, I sat him down one day and discussed—in length—the importance of not only safe sex, but also having respect for the girls he was with.
He was young, and I wasn’t stupid. I knew he was going to do what he wanted.
But it was my job to do everything in my power to raise him to be a good man and have faith that he’d take my lessons to heart.
Then I did the hardest thing I’d ever had to do and stepped back to let him make his own choices.
“What are you staring at?”
I blinked, coming back to the present where I was currently standing in the hallway with freezing water still clinging to my hair. “Huh? Oh, uh, nothing.”
He shook his head and smiled wryly, muttering, “Okay, weirdo,” affectionately as I scooted into my room and began to dress in a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a coral-colored camisole.
“Hey,” he called, his voice coming at me through the flimsy wood door, “who’re Nick Singleton and Trina Ward?”
At my brother’s question, I felt a chill that had nothing to do with that uncomfortable shower skate over my skin. Throwing my bedroom door wide open, I saw him standing at the counter, staring down at something in his hands. “What?”
His focus shifted to me, and he held up what he’d been reading. The thick piece of cardstock was embossed around the edges, and the shiny gold of the swirly script glinted beneath the dull kitchen lights.
“You got an invitation to their wedding but I’ve never heard you mention them.
” It was a wonder I’d been able to hear a word he said over the sound of my own blood rushing through my ears.
But I had. And I suddenly felt like I’d been punched in the stomach so hard that it caused my lungs to deflate.
“Gypsy?”
Rhodes’s voice drew me out of the unhappy fog of my past. “They’re nobody,” I answered in a monotone voice. My feet began to move of their own accord, and I found myself ripping the invitation from his hand and throwing it unceremoniously into the trash can.
“Uh, okay….” Rhodes arched an eyebrow in bewilderment. “That reaction doesn’t really say those people are nobody, sis. Am I missing something here?”
“Not at all,” I lied, pinning a fake smile to my face. “And it’s nothing you need to worry about.” With that, I turned and started for the door, slipping my feet into the flip-flops I kept there.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to get Lee from Detty’s. I’ll be back in a bit.” I booked it out of the house before he could ask any more questions, my heart beating against my ribs like I’d just chugged three Red Bulls back to back.