Chapter 49
GEMMA
Now
Sera stayed until it was time for her to meet Scarlett at the bus stop and walk her home.
Checking her phone, she frowns. “I have a few minutes before I have to leave.” She doesn’t say so, but I’m guessing after what happened at June’s, Scarlett isn’t allowed to do much of anything without someone with her.
Now that Cade and Gunner are moved into Jensen’s old apartment above the Mill, Scarlett is without her protector.
It makes me wonder if it’s not just creeker kids that she has to worry about.
We’ve been sitting on my bed for hours now, picking our way through the takeout she brought with her, Rocky Horror Picture Show playing on mute on the TV mounted to the wall across from it.
Neither one of us is paying much attention to Tim Curry, strutting around in his fishnets and bustier.
We’ve been talking. Catching up. Somehow it’s easier when it’s just the two of us.
Sloane and River are amazing but they’re transplants.
Sloane’s stepfather shipped her off to boarding school as soon as she was old enough and River landed here after her junkie boyfriend ditched her.
Neither one of them knows what it was like to grow up here.
“I can meet her at the bus stop on the days that you can’t,” I offer while I close the lid on the order of chicken pot pie she brought me from June’s.
“It’s right down the street. I can walk her home or she can even hang out here with me and Janet if you have errands to run or whatever.
” When I say her name, Janet, who’s stretched out on the bed next to me, flicks her tail against my pillow and lifts her head, hanging off the foot of it, with an answering meow.
“See, she’s cool with it.” Tucking the to-go container back in its bag, I look up to find Sera staring at me.
“You heard Em—clean slate,” I remind her with a shrug before she can ask.
“But even if we were still sticking bloody maxipads to each other’s high school lockers, I’d still make the offer. ”
Wincing at the reminder of one of her more gruesome pranks, Sera shakes her head. “It was food coloring,” she confesses around an uncomfortable laugh. “I stole it from the HomeEc room. I’m an asshole but I’m not completely unhinged.”
“It’s okay,” I tell her with a shrug. “I dumped six cans of tuna juice into the air vents of the convertible your stepdad bought you for your birthday, so we’re square.”
Sera’s face goes lax for a moment before her eyes pop wide.
“That was you?” she hisses at me, a moment before a wide grin starts to spread, lighting up her pretty face.
“I’m impressed. I always thought it was Bran—he hated us almost as much as we hated him.
He and Cade were constantly fighting. He never gave us a moment’s peace. ”
“I remember.” Giving her a head shake, I laugh.
Bran is Branson Judd, the starting running back for the Albany Admirals.
He also happened to be the Montgomerys’ stepbrother for the handful of years Penny was married to his father.
“How could I not—they brawled at your mother’s wedding and destroyed the cake. ”
“Cade was wearing six tiers of French meringue buttercream and raspberry mousse filling.” Sera laughs along with me but there’s something missing in the sound of it.
Something that tells me she doesn’t find the memory as amusing as she’s letting on.
Before I can ask her where I mis-stepped, she tilts her head toward my open bedroom door and changes the subject completely. “So… how’s it going?”
“With Riggs?” The lilt in my tone when I say his name sounds shrill, almost panicked. Hearing it makes me want to bite my own tongue. “Fine, I guess.” Giving her a shrug, I start to fidget with the bagged leftovers between us. “He’s still an asshole, in case you were wondering.”
Yeah, an asshole you want to get naked with.
“Some things never change,” Sera says with a knowing smile that instantly heats the back of my neck.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask even though I’d have to be blind and deaf to miss her meaning.
“It means the two of you never fooled anyone.” Sera smirks. “Riggs spent a year guarding your virtue like a rabid dog and you spent that same year ignoring him harder than you were ignoring me. Everyone within a five mile radius of you two knew what was really going on.”
“Nothing was going on. Beck asked him to look out for me after he left,” I say, cutting her off with the same thin, tired excuse Riggs threw at me time and time again.
“We disagreed on the how of it, so I told him to just stay away from me. He was just doing what he thought Beck would’ve done if he’d been here.
” It’s the truth. Or at least the version of truth Riggs and I have been holding onto for the better part of a decade.
For a moment, Sera just looks at me like she can’t decide if I really believe what I’m saying or if I’m as full of shit as she thinks I am. Finally, she gives me a nod. “Did you ever wonder why Ethan Pryce stopped spreading those rumors about you?”
“He was lying,” I say, automatically going on the defense. “I never?—”
“Of course he was lying,” Sera says with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Even before we all realized what a psychopath he really was, I knew he was full of shit—that’s not the point.”
“There’s a point?” I ask, giving her a head shake.
“There is.” She gives me a flat, don’t be a smartass smile. “The point is that one day, Ethan’s telling everyone what a slut you are and then, out of the blue—he stopped. Not a word. He never said your name again. Ever wonder why?”
“Not really.” I don’t have to wonder. I know that Riggs did something to make Ethan stop. I just don’t know what. “I just figured he got bored.”
“He didn’t get bored.” Sera gives me a smirk.
“Riggs did something to him. I saw it happen—well, sort of. We were at a river party—Cam and Cade were off fighting somewhere, as usual, and Ethan showed up, running his mouth about you. Riggs was standing there, listening. Pretending to mind his own business and not give a shit but as soon as Ethan staggered off into the trees to take a leak or whatever, Riggs followed him.”
“What happened?” I ask because even though it happened years ago, it still matters to me. “What did Riggs do?”
“That I don’t know.” She gives me another shrug.
“All I can tell you is that they were gone for a while and when Ethan came back, he’d pissed himself.
” The smirk on her face sharpens. “Riggs came out of the trees after him, grabbed a beer out of someone’s cooler and went back to the party like nothing happened—but that was the last time I ever heard Ethan say your name.
” Leaning into the space between us, Sera narrows her gaze just enough to tell me she already knows the answer to the question she’s about to ask.
“You gonna tell me Riggs did that for Beck too?”
Looking away, I shake my head. “No.”
Sitting back with a self-satisfied smile, Sera’s about to say something when the alarm on her phone goes off.
“Shit. Gotta go.” Scooting toward the edge of the bed, she stands.
“Do I need to kick Wheeler’s ass real quick before I leave?
” she asks me plainly. “Colt might be, but I’m not above throat punching a man in a wheelchair. ”
“Absolutely not,” I reassure her with a laugh because I know her.
She’d fly down the stairs swinging if I said anything else.
“I’m fine, really.” When she gives me that you’re full of shit look again, I sigh.
“Okay—I’m not fine, but I will be. I’m going to finish watching Brad and Janet succumb to the intoxicating allure of Dr. Frank-N-Furter and then I’m going to eat the rest of my cold potpie in the tub, as God intended, and possibly have a good cry. ”
She frowns at me for another moment likes she thinks I might need an intervention before she reaches down and swipes my phone off the bed.
Thumbs flying over the screen, she hits send.
“I just texted myself so you have my number,” she says, tossing my phone back on the bed. “If you need something?—”
“Thank you, Sera.” I say, cutting her off. “For today. I needed it.”
“Yeah, well… like I said—I don’t have many friends these days.” Frown melting, she looks away. “I?—”
“Gemma, honey,” Bruce shouts up the stairs. “I’m coming up.”
“That’s my cue.” Flashing me a quick smile, Sera heads for the door and I follow her into the hallway, just in time to find Bruce coming toward me down the hall.
Stopping while Sera continues on toward the front stairs, I watch Bruce’s gaze trail her with obvious interest. “Who was that?”
“A friend,” I say, watching him ogle Sera’s retreating backside. “Really?” I laugh, reading his blatant stare for what it is. “Wow… I thought you were gay?”
“I am,” he tells me with a shrug. “Sometimes.” When I keep staring at him, he laughs. “Gemma, honey—I’m a Marine.” He says it like it’s all the explanation I need. “Adapt and improvise is what we do—your friend got a man?”
“Sorry…” Remembering the look on Sera’s face while we were discussing her mother’s ill-fated wedding, I answer him honestly. “But I think she does.”