Chapter 35 Rex #3
“Dad’s not the best kind of guy. He gambles a lot and comes home drunk. Sometimes, he’d come back with lipstick on his clothes.” Wynter gnawed on the inside of her cheek. “He’d stink of perfume too. The final straw was last month for me.”
The oddly adult comment had me twisting to look at her, my own problems shoved aside in the face of hers. “What happened?”
“A couple things.” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
“But the first was that he came home high.” Her gaze darted over to mine then flittered away.
“Some of the band, after a game, they smoke a few joints.” My expression must have darkened because she blurted out, “I don’t.
Just the smell makes me feel woozy, so I don’t want to inhale too much. ”
Christ, she had no idea how much she sounded like Rachel.
“So you know how people act when they’re high?”
Nodding, she muttered, “I don’t like it.”
“What else happened to make you leave?”
Wynter cleared her throat and tugged her hand free of mine. “It doesn’t matter.”
It did.
But I didn’t want to push my luck.
Not unlike her mother, she needed gentling.
But God, I missed the feel of her hand in mine.
Needing to man up, I told her, “I’m sorry you had to experience that. Home should be a safe space.”
“Mom protected me, but I was…” Her smile tightened. “Never mind. You were saying? About your dad?”
The glimpse into her life gave me more questions I needed answering, but I just said, “I found out that when he cheated on her, he had a kid.”
Her brows lifted. “That’s… bad.”
“It is.”
“Do you know the kid? Have you ever met them?”
“She lives by me.”
“Oh.”
“I hate her,” I said grimly. “She’s a horrible woman.”
She clapped a hand to her mouth when she released an amused snort. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh.”
My lips twitched. “I’m glad I made you laugh.”
“It was inappropriate. I really am sorry.”
“There’s no need to be. It’s a ridiculous situation, but it knocked me sideways. I always thought my dad wasn’t like that.”
“It’s never nice to learn that our heroes are humans too.”
I stared at her, bewildered by how mature she sounded. “Yeah, you’re right.” Liking that a barrier seemed to have fallen between us, I confessed, “I did something bad at the hotel.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“I threw something at the TV. It shattered.”
A sharp gasp escaped her. “Oh, no! Do you think you’ll get into trouble?”
Amused and warmed by the innocence of her reply, especially after how grown-up she’d been sounding, I said, “It’ll cost me a small fortune. Serves me right for losing control like that.”
“It wasn’t a nice call.”
“No. It wasn’t,” I said grimly. “It couldn’t have been much worse.”
“You… The call, it was with my mom, wasn’t it? She’s your lawyer?”
“It was.”
“How is she?” Wynter asked shyly.
It wasn’t the first time she’d asked after Rach.
“I don’t know. Probably scared,” I admitted on a sigh.
“Why?”
“I hung the phone up on her and she keeps calling, but I’m not answering.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to say the wrong thing. I don’t want to upset her.”
She queried, “Is that practical?”
“Probably not.”
“Do you feel that way when you’re talking to me?”
“Sometimes. I don’t want to say anything that’ll upset the balance. I like this. I want to get to know more of you.”
“I do too, but if this isn’t all of you, then how can I know the real you?” It didn’t sound like she was upset with me. Something she rammed home when she patted my knee again. “We’re past the point of first impressions, aren’t we? I mean, you've stopped shaving, so I took that to be a good sign.”
I almost smiled. “When did you get to be so wise?”
“I don’t know. Mom says I’ve got an old soul.”
“She’s right.”
Wynter hummed. “Do you want to call Rachel now? Maybe say sorry for scaring her?”
“With you here?” I saw the nerves she was trying to hide. “I can call her later if you’re not ready for that.”
“Does she want to talk to me?”
“She does. I don’t think she’s expecting it though.”
“Do you talk about me?”
“We do. Every day.”
“Do you think…” She bit her lip. “Do you think she wants to meet me?”
“I know she does, but she’s scared about that too. She’s worried you’ll hate her.”
Wynter’s gaze turned pensive. “I looked up her name.”
I arched a brow. “You did?”
She nodded. “She represents a lot of bad people, doesn’t she?”
Well, hell, how did I answer that one?
What did that say about me that I was a client of her mom’s too?
“Yeah, she does.”
“I read the court transcript for one case. She defended a man who was clearly guilty.”
“Everyone’s entitled to a defense.”
“I know. I’m not judging her.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
“I’m just wondering how she can defend murderers but is scared of you and me.”
“You have a point.”
She flashed a grin at me. “I know I do.”
“I think that’s because not much scares your mom but feelings do.”
“We make her feel?”
“We do. So she’s nervous because that’s something she can’t control.”
“I wish…”
“What do you wish?” I asked when her words waned.
“I wish that I could have known her before, you know, everything.”
Her wistfulness killed me, and I knew I sounded choked when I said, “She was awesome. A little quirky, but awesome. I loved being with her.”
“Why?”
“She loves books. She’s always reading in her spare time. I don’t think that’s changed, even though we don’t talk about that anymore.” I smiled to myself but it disappeared as I explained, “My uncle gave me this coin, and he told me it was priceless—”
“Was it?”
“No.” Fuck, the urge to strangle Grizzly was real. “But I believed him. I was showing one of my friends and he dropped it. It fell between the floorboards and into the crawl space beneath the house. I didn’t want to lose it so I went down there and tried to find it. Rachel was there.”
Wynter frowned. “In the crawl space?”
I nodded, laughing at her bewilderment. “Trust me, I was freaked out too. It was like finding a pretty Gollum under the house. She’d strung up these string lights that were battery powered and read by flashlight. It was crazy.
“When I went in, she was super still, like she could hide from me, and I… I was just worried for her.”
“I can imagine. It’s a weird thing to do, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. She’s always been unusual, though.”
Wynter surprised me by chuckling. “I’m sure she’d love to hear how you’re describing her.”
I grinned. “Yeah, let’s not tell her?”
“I won’t say a word.” She nudged me. “Keep going.”
“I think she was bullied a lot by some of the kids her age, so that’s why she used to hide down there.
I started talking to her as I tried to find the coin, and she was quiet at first, then I asked her what book she was reading, and she wouldn’t shut up.
” Chuckling to myself, I continued, “I found the coin but the next day, I went back.”
“And the day after too?”
I nodded. “For a few years.”
“So long?”
“It took me that long to convince her she didn’t have to hide out anymore.”
“Wow. She’s stubborn.”
“I know someone just like her,” I teased, amused when her cheeks burned bright red.
“Am I?” She peeped up at me. “Just like her?”
“You are in a lot of ways. It’s awesome.”
“Really?”
“Really. You were saying how you wished you’d met her before everything went…wrong. Talking to you is kind of like that. You’re very similar in how you do things. It’s fascinating to see.”
She swallowed. “Are you going to call her?”
“Do you mind if I text her first? So she can prepare herself? I know she wants to talk to you but I also know she’s nervous.”
A bubble of laughter escaped her. “She’s nervous to talk with me? When she got the Long Beach Butcher off from that murder charge?”
“He doesn’t mean anything to her. You do.”
Her shoulders hunched, which made me think she’d say no, but she muttered, “You can text her.”
Before she could change her mind, I reached for my phone and quickly tapped out:
Rex: Got someone here who’d like to talk with you.
Rachel: Wynter?
Rex: Yeah. Can I call?
Rachel: I’ll call. Just coming out of a meeting. I’ll be in my car in two minutes.
Rex: Okay.
Wynter was peering at my screen. “You were right about her needing to prepare herself.”
My lips twisted. “I usually am where she’s concerned.”