Whispers of a Broken Halo

by Glines, Abbi

  She glanced up at him. “I’m just helping. He is struggling with this. It’s in his eyes.”

  Saul smirked, then shifted his gaze to me for only a second. “Yeah, he looks torn the fuck up.” He pressed another kiss to her temple.

  Henley sighed. “Fine. I’ll let it go. But”—she pointed the wooden spoon in her hand at me—“don’t judge what you don’t know. Just in ten minutes’ time, you found out she had a nephew living with her. I have a feeling there is more to her story.”

  “You don’t know the girl,” Saul said, amused. “How do you have a feeling?”

  She shrugged. “Because Rio cares enough about her that it’s upset him. She must have something about her that makes her special.”

  Drake snorted with laughter, and I didn’t even look his way. I knew that laugh, and I knew whatever was about to come out of his mouth was going to piss me off. I went to the fridge to get a beer instead.

  “Yeah, her tits are pretty damn special,” Drake said.

  I slammed the fridge with more force than necessary and glared at him.

  “Easy, boys,” Saul said from behind me.

  “Don’t be a jerk,” Henley told Drake.

  “I don’t care about her. I did once, but that world fucked her up. Seeing her so damn screwed up is hard. It reminds me what could have happened to me.” I stopped. I wasn’t going to talk about my mom. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be back for food later,” I said to Henley before heading out of the kitchen.

  “What?” I heard Drake ask. “I didn’t know that was going to make him pissy.”

  I didn’t wait to hear what else was said before making my way to the stairs. Henley was right about my not knowing Bryn’s life. We had spoken at work briefly, and then I had only asked her if she was enjoying her job. Giving her a job had felt good, but I hadn’t been interested in catching up. She was part of a time in my life I didn’t want to think about.

  Closing the door to my bedroom, I went directly to the bathroom and turned on the water to the shower. Thinking about Bryn wasn’t doing me any good. That was a part of my past, and bringing her into my life now had been a mistake six months ago. I wasn’t going to do it again. She was no longer the girl in the trailer next door who needed saving. She was a grown-ass adult, and we lived two different lives.

  There had never been closure for me with her, and that was all this had been. I had found my mom dead, my grandparents showed up, and I was gone without even a good-bye to Bryn. I had worried about her for months until life moved on and her memory slowly faded.

  I knew the life she’d had as a child and the kind of effect that could have on you. My grandparents had saved me. They had turned me around. I was different because of the life they had given me here. If my mom hadn’t died and I’d continued living in that life, there was a good chance I would be in jail by now.

  Bryn hadn’t been saved, and it was too late to save her. She was the result of a very broken, fucked up childhood. I couldn’t continue to let myself remember the girl she had been because I wasn’t that boy anymore. We were grown. The days of turning things around for her were over. She was a product of the life she had been given.

  Knowing this and accepting it were two different things.

  The hot water continued to fall, and while it washed over me, I stood there, staring at the marble tiles. Bryn’s coming here could have been fate, but then I wasn’t sure I believed in things like fate. There was a good chance she’d looked me up and come here because of me. She could have thought she could get money from me. It was almost too long of a stretch to be a coincidence. But at first, I hadn’t wanted to think that about her. I wasn’t so sure now.

  I didn’t know her. This Bryn was different. The best thing I could do was put this and her behind me.

  Forget it. Forget her. Move the fuck on. Leave the past where it belongs.

  I’d be better off, forgetting her.

  Chapter Eight

  Bryn

  Walking down the main street in town, I held Cullen’s hand firmly in mine. Tory had taken the car to job-hunt today while I was home, and I had picked Cullen up from school. I glanced down at the ice cream that was dripping down his hand. He couldn’t eat it fast enough to beat the heat from the sun. The smile on his face said he didn’t mind at all.

  Things like ice cream delighted him. It had once been a treat he never got to have. Now, I could buy him an ice cream every day if he wanted it. I didn’t, of course, because it wasn’t healthy for him, but I loved days like today when I could stop and let him pick whatever he wanted from the ice cream stand.

  The Help Wanted sign on the store up ahead caught my eye, and I turned to walk closer to the window. I could see books lining the walls and tables sitting inside along with sofas and comfy chairs. There was a bakery and coffee. Lifting my gaze, I read Signed Sips displayed on the building.

  This was walking distance from our apartment. I wondered if Tory had checked here. It was maybe a quarter of a mile away from where we lived, and she could get here quickly. I couldn’t imagine a bakery and coffee shop stayed open late. She would have early hours.

  “Let’s go in here,” I told Cullen, then remembered he was dripping with melted ice cream.

  I stepped in front of him and bent down to wipe him up with the napkins. Once he was no longer a walking mess, I took his hand again, and we headed inside the shop.

  “Cupcakes!” Cullen said gleefully as we walked toward the counter.

  There were several artfully decorated cupcakes displayed. I noticed many of the items in the case were marked dairy-free, gluten-free, and even nut-free. That was rare. Every one of the cupcakes had an allergy-free sign in front of it. How something that looked so delicious with all that icing and bits of candy could be free of all those things, I had no idea.

  “Welcome to Signed Sips. Can I help you?” a female voice asked.

  I looked up to see an attractive brunette wearing a black apron on the other side of the counter. She had a friendly smile that put me at ease.

  “Hello. Uh, yes. Could we have the pink unicorn cupcake and the …” I paused and looked down at Cullen. “Which one?” I asked him.

  “The chocolate bar one!” he replied gleefully.

  I glanced up at the menu hanging on the wall to see what drinks they had available. “And a caramel cappuccino, please.”

  “Regular milk?” she asked me.

  I had never had any other kind of milk. I nodded my head.

  She walked over to the coffee machine behind her and began working on my order. I glanced down at Cullen to see his ice cream was once again beginning to drip. I quickly scanned the place for napkins, then walked him over to the counter to clean him up before he got ice cream on the floor.

  “Do I get to eat a cupcake too?” he asked me.

  “Yes, but not until after dinner,” I replied.

  When he was no longer a mess, we walked back to the counter just as the girl was putting my coffee down along with a bag.

  She glanced down at Cullen and smiled. “That looks good,” she said.

  He turned and buried his face in my thigh.

  “Sorry, he’s shy,” I explained.

  “No worries. Can I get you anything else?” she asked.

  I paused for a moment, not sure if my asking for a job application for Tory would look bad or not. The girl was very friendly though, and I doubted my sister had stopped here.

  “Well, I noticed your Help Wanted sign,” I began. “Could I have an application? For my sister? She’s out on the hunt for a job today, and this is very close to our apartment.”

  The girl’s eyes brightened, and her smile widened. “I don’t have any applications but we have two positions open. We need someone out here, doing what I am doing right now, and then we need someone in the back, helping with the early morning baking.”

  Tory was not a baker. That was out, but this front-of-the-store job she could do. “Great. I’ll let her know.”
r />   I could tell the girl wanted to ask me something more, but she didn’t. I figured she would wait and hold the questions for Tory.

  Instead, she nodded her head and smiled. “I’m Henley Warren. I’m one of the owners. Have her ask for me when she comes back.”

  “Thank you so much,” I replied.

  Cullen slipped a sticky hand into mine. I looked down at him to see he had finished his ice cream, although a good deal of it was on his face.

  Turning my attention back to Henley, I added, “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Bryn Wallace. My sister’s name is Tory.”

  The smile on her face grew wider. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Bryn.”

  “I want to go home and color,” Cullen said beside me.

  I smiled down at him. “This is Cullen,” I told her.

  “Well, hello, Cullen. I like that name,” she said. “I read a book series once, and the guy in it had that as his last name.”

  He watched her closely but said nothing. His hand still in mine.

  “His mother watched the movies about that book when she was pregnant with him. She doesn’t read books,” I explained. “I doubt she knows there is a book series about it. But she did get his name from the Cullens you’re referring to.”

  Henley let out a small laugh. “That’s a great name.”

  “Can we go now?” Cullen asked me again.

  “Just send Tory here and have her ask for me,” Henley told me.

  I nodded. “Perfect. I appreciate it. Well, we’d better be going.”

  The door opened behind us, and I glanced back to see a group of teenagers dressed like they had walked over from the beach coming inside. I waved good-bye to Henley, and then Cullen and I headed out the door to go back home.

  If Tory didn’t mess this up, she could have a great job close to the apartment. I was torn between being excited and worried. She never held on to a job long, so the common denominator was obviously her. I liked Henley Warren, and I wanted Tory to make it work there.

  “Aunt Bryn?” Cullen asked me.

  “Yes?”

  “Do you have to work tonight?” he asked.

  “Nope,” I replied.

  His hand squeezed mine. “Good. I like it best when you put me to bed. Mama doesn’t tuck me in. She just tells me to go get in bed.”

  Chapter Nine

  Rio

  I waited until Bryn and the little boy were out of sight before stepping out of my Jeep and walking across the street to Signed Sips. I had been driving home from work when I saw them walk out of Henley’s shop and pulled into the closest parking spot. I wanted to know what they had been doing in there and if that kid was Tory’s. Not that I should give a fuck about any of this, but thanks to my sister, I was curious.

  The teens who had walked into the shop while Bryn was inside were walking out with drinks, cupcakes, and doughnuts, and one had a sandwich by the time I made it over there. I was glad she would be alone inside. Since I was going to be nosy about shit I shouldn’t be.

  Henley’s head snapped up when the bell chimed as I opened the door, and a smile spread across her face when she saw me. I could tell by the gleam in her eyes that she thought she had a secret. Silly girl. That was why I was here. She had no secret.

  I would say The Shores was too damn small for secrets, but her life and mine had been full of secrets hidden in this town. We’d found out who our father was—although both our mothers had kept the truth from us—and that our grandmother was still living. Here in this town. Henley worked for our father’s mother now. Well, technically, they were co-owners. She had given Henley half the store and intended to eventually give it all to her.

  “Hello, Rio,” Henley said in a singsong voice.

  I rolled my eyes. “I saw her leave here,” I said.

  “Figures. You never stop by anymore out of the blue,” she said. “You didn’t tell me she was gorgeous. Jeez, Rio! She is stunning. And so sweet. That little boy was precious, and she was great with him. I refuse to believe she bashed your Jeep in. Sorry, I can’t see it. That girl is not crazy. I know crazy. I was raised by crazy, and she had not one small teaspoon of crazy in her eyes. Plus, the way the kid clung to her and trusted her. Kids don’t cling to crazy like that. So, figure it out, but she did not do it.”

  This wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I had caught Bryn with the pole in front of my beaten-up Jeep, and she hadn’t denied it. What more did I need for proof? Henley reminding me how damn gorgeous she was didn’t help shit. I knew she was fucking gorgeous. She had been beautiful, even as a kid. I’d been determined to save her back then. But now, I didn’t trust her, and if she had come here, thinking she could get money from me, then she might target my family.

  It was a sour pill to swallow. I had gotten in so many fights at school, defending her honor and protecting her, that I’d been threatened with expulsion. Even after my grandparents moved me here, it had taken me a long time to stop thinking about Bryn. I would go to sleep at night, worrying about her. Now, I had to worry she might take advantage of someone I loved.

  “She was asking about a job for her sister,” Henley said then, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  “Don’t. Tory was bad news way back when. She isn’t better now,” I warned her.

  Henley rolled her eyes. “I think I remember you once asking me if I was that judgmental all the time. Sounds like I need to be asking you that question now.”

  Henley wasn’t listening to me, and she didn’t get it. Although she had been born to a single teenage mom, just like I had, she had lived a very different life. Her mother was an uptight, controlling bitch, but Henley had never come home to her mother high or lived without food because of her mother’s addiction. I had lived in bad places until my mother’s death. The last of those bad places was where I’d met Bryn. I knew the life she had been raised in and the effect it had on people who had gone through that.

  “It isn’t the same. You were judging people you didn’t know because they had a life you had never experienced. Granted, you were right about several of them. But I’m not judging Bryn and Tory. I know their life. I watched how they lived. Their aunt treated them like trash. Their mother was in prison. It messed them up. Hell, you’ve heard Bryn stutter. She’s so emotionally traumatized that she gets nervous and can’t speak a word without struggling.”

  Henley was frowning at me. She was so damn stubborn. I had to get through to her on this though. She couldn’t let Tory into this shop. I wasn’t just protecting her; I was also protecting what our father’s mother had built here in her lifetime.

  “Bryn doesn’t stutter,” Henley stated matter-of-factly.

  “Yes, she does. She’s done it since she was a kid.”

  “She didn’t do it one time while in here. I guess I don’t make her nervous. Perhaps that’s reserved for you.” Henley’s eyebrow shot up, and the door to the shop opened.

  In came many voices, and I knew this talk was over for now. A kid ran past me and pointed at the cupcakes on the display and began begging for one.

  Henley gave her complete attention to her customers, and I stood back to wait when a group of five more people came in behind the family who had interrupted us. She was about to hit the afternoon rush she often talked about, and I knew there was no reason to stay. Moving behind the line of people, I headed outside.

  I would explain all this to Saul. He could talk to her. She would listen to him.

  I was almost to my Jeep when my phone rang. I reached into the back pocket of my jeans to see my gramma’s name on the screen. I pressed Answer and put the phone to my ear as I unlocked my Jeep.

  “I will be there for dinner. I didn’t forget,” I assured her before she could even ask.

  I heard her sniffle then, and I paused as alarm registered in my head. My gramma wasn’t an emotional person. Unless she was praying. Other than that, she didn’t cry. Not easily.

  “Honey, it’s your pops. He’s had a heart attack. I’m at the hospital now, and the
y have him. I’m waiting. I don’t know much of anything just yet. Could you go tell Hazel and make sure Jesse shuts down the market tonight? Bring Hazel with you when you come.” Her words were clear and in her calm voice. Yet there was a fear she couldn’t cover up that caused a subtle tremble as she spoke.

  “I’ll be there soon. I’ve got everything else under control,” I assured her.

  “Thank you,” she replied, then the call ended.

  Fear engulfed me, and I realized I had never been this frightened of anything in my life. Not even when I had found my mother dead. A life without Pops seemed impossible. We all needed him. Gramma would be lost without him. Hazel needed her father; she had so many more milestones in life he had to be there for. And me, I needed Pops. The only man in my life to give me stability.

  Chapter Ten

  Bryn

  When Tory walked into the apartment, smiling, I knew she had found a job or a new man. I wasn’t sure which. With her, you never knew. She could have forgotten what she was supposed to be doing today and ended up at a bar somewhere.

  “Well?” I asked, thankful Cullen was interested in the Superman show he was watching.

  She beamed. “I got a job,” she replied.

  Relieved but hesitant to be hopeful, I replied, “Great! Where?”

  “Stonies.”

  My brief moment of excitement was now slowly fading.

  “But isn’t it only open at night?”

  Stonies was a club where local bands played. It wasn’t a daytime operation. I knew this even though I had never been there.

  She shrugged, as if that wasn’t an issue. “Yeah. Tips are great, and I’ll make nine dollars an hour. If I work two of the nights a week that you don’t work, then there is no problem.”

  I worked weekends almost every week. This was The Shores, and I doubted Stonies made much money during the weeknights unless summer was in full swing. We were close to summer being here, so maybe that would be okay for the next few months. In September, we would see if it was still good.