21. Chapter 21
Breaking rule two
Halle-freaking-lujah. It’s Monday afternoon, and I’ve managed to finish this damn book ahead of schedule. Reno has made himself scarce while I do a final read through before sending to the beta team.
I pop a cherry Starburst into my mouth and chew absently as I frown at my laptop screen. Why the hell did I use the word slacks here? I hate that word. Slacks. It gives me the ick, so I quickly change it to dress pants.
Reno lets himself into our cottage without a word, refills my Dr Pepper, and sets a plate of cheese and fruit beside me before kissing the top of my head and leaving. Seriously. The man is a dreamboat.
I nibble on a piece of gouda and a juicy grape as I wrap up yet another chapter. Then my phone buzzes beside me. Checking the display, I see it’s my younger brother, Xander. That’s weird. He usually doesn’t call much.
Swiping the screen, I drawl out, “Alien abduction line. If you’ve been probed, please press one. If you’d like to be probed, please press two.”
“Yes, ma’am. What if I’ve been probed and want to do it again?”
“That depends. Will you be providing your own lube?”
“Of course. I’m a very self-respecting human.”
“Okey doke. Then push five.”
Xander snickers and cuts the act. “Sorry to bother you, sis. Is this a good time to call?”
“Of course, Xan. What’s up?”
“I, uh, you know I’m studying for my MCAT?” he asks .
“Yes, it’s in September, right?” My little bro is so smart. He plans to go to medical school when he graduates college in two years.
“Yeah, well my roommates are being loud.”
“Go to my house to study,” I say immediately, and I hear the relief in his sigh.
“You sure, Jules? I don’t want to—”
“Xander,” I say sternly, “you know you’re always welcome at my place. Just go. You can even stay there until I get home on Sunday. There should be clean sheets on my bed.”
“Okay,” he agrees. “Thank you so much, sis. You’re the best.”
“I’ll make sure to inform Bubba and Jordie,” I tease, referring to our other two siblings. “Oh, and let Pops know because he’s been checking on my house while I’ve been gone.”
“I’ll take care of everything and water your plants,” he says eagerly. “And I’ll run to the store so you’ll have bread, milk, and eggs when you get home.”
“That’s sweet of you. There should be some cash in the cookie jar.”
“All right. I’m going to pack a bag. Thanks again, J.”
“No problem, sweetie. I’ll see you on Sunday. Love you.”
“Love you too,” he replies before hanging up.
I adore that kid. Well, he’s twenty-two, but he’s still a kid in my eyes.
Xander is absolutely the sweetest, and for the millionth time, I pray he finds his balance.
He studies so hard, and I often have to gently remind him that he’s still young and should be having fun.
But while he’s preparing to take one of the most important exams of his life in a few months, this isn’t the time.
Putting thoughts of Xander out of my head, I take a drink of my soda and munch on the snacks Reno brought me while I finish reading through my completed manuscript. Two hours later, I smile as I send it to my team.
After rewarding myself with one more Starburst, I text Reno to let him know I’m done. He arrives ten minutes later with a bouquet of colorful flowers in his hand.
“Reno, what did you do?”
He shrugs a little shyly. “I’m just proud of you. I never realized how much goes into writing a book. I mean, I knew it was a lot of work, but watching you try to make every single word perfect…” He lifts and lowers his shoulder again. “You’re pretty fucking amazing.”
Tears sting my eyes at his sweet words. I rise from my chair and take the flowers before laying a long kiss on his lips. “Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me.”
After I put the flowers in the pretty vase he got me a couple weeks ago, we take a walk to the beach. It feels good to be outside in the fading sunshine.
“Do you want to eat in the formal dining room or the diner tonight?” Reno asks. We discovered the resort’s casual diner this past weekend.
“Diner. I could use one of those big burgers with the slice of grilled pineapple.”
Concern immediately weaves its way into his voice. “Are you hungry now?”
I chuckle. “Not a bit after all the fruit and cheese I ate. Thank you for that, by the way.”
He squeezes my hand before we remove our shoes and leave them in one of the cabinets reserved for that purpose at the edge of the beach. “You’re welcome.”
We walk until our toes are in the surf, and Reno loops an arm around my shoulders and tucks me close to his body while we take in the sultry air and the sounds of the sea.
“Why are you always so obsessed with me eating?” I ask teasingly, but his reply is anything but teasing. It's as serious as a heart attack.
“I can’t stand the thought of you going hungry.”
I look up at the tight clench of his mouth as he stares out at the water. Something is bothering him, some distant memory, and a horrifying thought pops into my head. Stepping in front of him, I massage the muscles of his jaw until they relax a bit .
Then I leap directly over the line we’d sketched out for rule two—limit talking about our personal lives—and ask, “Did you not have enough food growing up?”
Reno closes his eyes so tightly, tiny wrinkles appear at the corners. “I never went hungry, but my mom did.”
Oh. My. Heart.
“I’m sorry. You don’t have to talk about it, but I’m here if you want to.”
His green eyes open and stare down into mine for a long moment before he cups the back of my head and brings my cheek to his chest. Message received. It’s too hard for him to look at me right now.
“My father was a piece of shit,” he begins.
“He used to hit my mother. Me too sometimes, but when he came home drunk, Ma would usually shove me out the door and tell me to go play with the neighbor kid. When she would call and tell me to come home, it was usually obvious he’d been hurting her.
He didn’t leave bruises where they were visible, but there were other signs.
She moved more slowly, sometimes with a limp. ”
“God, I’m so sorry, Reno,” I said, feeling the pinch of tears on the insides of my eyelids.
“When I was ten, I’d finally had enough.
I was already pretty big for a kid that age, a little over five feet, but I was still a lot smaller than my father.
” Reno’s hand drifts absently up and down my back, and I wrap my arms around his middle.
“Anyway, when my mom sent me to the neighbors’ house, I didn’t go.
I waited on the front porch, and when I heard what was going on inside, I went back into the house. ”
He’s silent for a long while, and I give him a squeeze, trying to lend my strength to him.
“He didn’t hear me come in,” Reno says quietly. “They were in the kitchen, and the fucker was… he was standing over her. She was on the floor holding her stomach.”
I feel the enormity of the moment as if I were standing there myself, seeing a scared ten-year-old boy watching his mother be abused.
“So I picked up a metal pot from the counter and hit him in the back of the head,” Reno says, and I weirdly want to give him a high-fucking-five. “Knocked him out cold.”
“Good,” I say fiercely even as my tears leak onto his dark-green palm tree shirt. “What did your mom do?”
“She crawled over to me and hugged me, like I was the one who needed comforting,” Reno says bitterly. “Then I laid down the law.”
I smile against his shirt. “Of course you did.”
“I told her I was tired of this shit and I wasn’t going to put up with it anymore. She either called the cops and left him, or I was running away from home.”
Jesus, what a brave little boy. One who’s grown into an amazing man. “What did your mom do?”
Reno chuckles. “She told me not to say shit .” He kisses the top of my head.
“Then she apologized for staying so long and making me have to live like that. I could literally feel her backbone growing back. Maybe it was because no one had stood up for her for so long, and now that someone had, she drew on that.”
“I’m proud of her. And you,” I say, my voice muffled with emotion.
“She did call the police, and they came and arrested him. Of course, he was released the next day, but we were gone. Went to a shelter a few towns away. They gave us a room and helped her get a job in a diner.”
The memory of Reno donating Leia’s clothes to a women’s shelter floods my system, and I bite back a sob. His childhood obviously still affects him, but he used that pain to do something good. I’d wager to bet he donates money to women’s shelters too.
“And he stayed away?” I asked, praying it was so.
Reno nods. “Ma didn’t have a cell phone back then so he couldn’t track her or anything.
There was also a lawyer at the shelter who helped her get a divorce.
” He kisses my head again. “After a month, we moved into a tiny apartment. It was run down, but we scrubbed it to within an inch of its life, so at least it was clean.”
The surf eases up to wet our feet and then recedes. This goes on for a few cycles before Reno speaks again.
“Ma would bring me meals from the diner every night. Enough for dinner and then lunch the next day. When I tried to share with her, she said that food was for me and that she ate at work.”
“But she didn’t?”
I feel the long inhale and exhale of breath from Reno’s lungs. “It became obvious after a few months, even to a kid. She was so damn skinny and her clothes hung off her like she was wearing a tent.”
Swiveling my head until my face was pressed against his chest, I hold him tighter. “She was starving herself so her little boy wouldn’t be hungry,” I surmise, and he nods.
“Yeah. To backtrack a little, Ma was an only child, and both her parents were dead. I never knew my father’s family because they’d had some kind of falling out before I was born.” Reno’s hand toys with my ponytail. “So when she was asleep one night, I found her little address book.”
“What was in it?”