14. Brandy

14

Brandy

I didn’t bother with the radio this time around. Instead, I sat with my temple pressed up against the window as some pop country song played in the background. The sun was setting, casting a pink haze over the mountain range that bordered the bustling city. We sat at a stand-still on the highway, having gone barely a mile in the last five minutes. I blamed Reed for us being in rush hour traffic by forcing us to do that little detour to the rage room.

I wasn’t sure what came over me, but the second I had the go-ahead to absolutely obliterate whatever I could touch in that room, my body took over. I felt a little psycho afterward, which in turn made me feel ashamed for behaving like that. I shouldn’t have resorted to letting myself break things. Letting my feelings rush out like that could be addicting, which was evidenced by my father. His rage room was in the form of my mother, his mallet traded for a hand.

That was why my emotions needed to stay bundled inside me. What if I became the monster he was? One hit of anything, and you could become addicted. It was that easy—that destructive.

The cluster of cars started to lighten up a bit in front of us, so Reed pressed on the gas, but as soon as we picked up speed, the front right side of the truck started wobbling.

I straightened, leaning forward like I could see what might be causing it out the window.

Reed let out a curse and turned on his blinker.

“What?” I asked.

He took the exit, getting us off the highway. “We’ve got a flat. Can you look up the closest tire shop? It might be able to make it there.”

I stared at him, mentally shooting daggers into him because like the traffic, this was his fault, too. All because that stupid fucking rage room we just had to go to. “You don’t have a spare?”

“No.”

I could feel my jaw starting to tense up. “Why the fuck not?”

“They’re aftermarket rims and tires,” he replied, pulling to a stop at the light.

“Why the fuck wouldn’t you get a spare in that size?”

He ran a hand down his face, letting out a sigh. “I was going to eventually. The tire shop, Brandy.”

I pressed my lips together, then grabbed my phone from the cup holder beside me. I searched for the nearest shop and found one less than a half-mile away. “Turn right at the next light.”

He did, following my directions until we pulled into the parking lot and both got out. Reed came around to the passenger side, took one glance at the flat, and turned for the doors. I glanced at the hours on the window before heading inside past him, seeing that they closed in one hour. Surely they wouldn’t turn us away, and we’d be back on the road in no time.

I was that much closer to being free of him once more.

The man behind the desk looked up as we approached. “How can I help you folks?”

“Got a flat we were hoping you could help us with,” Reed said as I crossed my arms.

“What size tire?” Gary, according to his name stitched into his button-up, asked.

“Thirty-three by twelves, on seventeens.”

Gary typed loudly on the keyboard, presumably checking their inventory. As he took his sweet time on the computer, I walked over to a tire mounted on a glossy black rim and read the all-weather informational card like it was the most interesting piece of literature on the planet. The tiny lobby smelled like oil and sweat, and the concrete ground was littered with random stains and old pieces of gum, indicating this used to be a portion of the garage, but they’d walled it in to be a separate room.

“Doesn’t look like we’ve got that size in,” Gary said.

My head spun his way, nearly giving me whiplash and a neck kink, and I stomped back over. “Maybe your inventory is wrong.”

Reed cleared his throat. “I think what she’s trying to politely ask is if you could double check in the back.”

Gary glanced my way, but I didn’t back down as I stared at him impatiently.

“I can do that,” Gary said, his words so damn slow and relaxed. My foot tapped the ground with the need for him to hurry the fuck up.

He stood from his metal stool and disappeared through a door into the garage. At my side, Reed’s gaze moved down to my shoe as it tapped a quick beat.

“Nervous, Brandy?”

My eyes shot to him, narrowing. “No.”

He just stared, not believing it for a second. I was more so antsy to find out if they had the damn tire or not, because if they didn’t, we’d have to find another shop, and from the quick glance at my phone in the truck, they all said closed aside from this one. Which meant, if this place didn’t have it, we’d have to wait until the others opened, and there was no way in hell I’d spend my night hanging out with Reed fucking Bronson.

The door opened, and Gary rounded the desk, plopping his ass back on the stool. “No luck.”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to break down and cry or start walking my ass back to Bell Buckle immediately.

“Are there any other shops that might have that size we could go to?” Reed asked as my tapping became more insistent.

“There’s one off Woodruff. They’ve usually got the odd sizes, but they don’t open ’til eight in the morning.”

I nearly slammed my head down on the counter, but I thought better of giving myself a head injury before I had to make a two-hundred-and-something mile trek on foot to get back home.

Reed tapped the counter. “Sounds good. Thanks, Gary.”

Gary dipped his chin. “Not a problem. Good luck to ya both.”

Reed headed for the doors, and I hurried to match his pace.

I stopped at the threshold. “Are we breaking into the other place?” I muttered as he held the door for me.

His eyes turned to slits as he set a hand on my shoulder blade to direct me out the door. “No.”

I shrugged him off, spinning on him. “So we’re walking home, then?”

“No,” he replied again, stopping at the front of his truck on the sidewalk to pull out his phone.

I came up next to him, staring at the side of his face. “Flying?”

“No.” His fingers moved, and then he dropped the phone to his side after locking the screen.

I followed his line of sight, only finding a half-dead tree standing by itself in the middle of a grass-filled center divide. I moved my gaze back to him. “Then what the fuck is the plan?”

“Sleep, fix the tire tomorrow, and get back on the road.”

My mouth opened and shut like a goddamn fish out of water, because Reed Bronson was not suggesting we spend the night in even remotely the same vicinity.

“I ordered an Uber,” he added.

My jaw dropped, and I wouldn’t have even cared if a fly flew in. Let it cut off my airway and choke me to death. Anything was better than this.

Reed glanced my way, doing a double take before staring at me. “Just say it, Brandy. Say whatever smart fucking remark you want to make.”

“Did you order two?” I asked.

“Why the fuck would I order two Ubers?”

“For one to take me to one side of the city, and you to the other.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “It’s one night.”

I froze, remembering those three words all too clearly.

He must’ve realized it, too, because his usual hard demeanor shifted, and I almost hated the soft look that overcame him even more. “Brandy, I—”

“Let it go,” I interrupted, turning back to face the road.

“Brandy.”

“I said let it go,” I gritted out.

Because those three words were the same excuse I used seven years ago when he ruined everything.

***

By the time I called the fourth hotel, I knew they had to be pranking us. There was no way every single hotel in this massive city was fully booked.

Reed emerged from the lobby doors, pocketing his cell. “She said there’s some sporting event this weekend, as well as a concert tonight, so we’re not going to have much luck.”

The Uber had dropped us at the closest motel, but when they said they only had one queen available, I ran outside. Well, ran was an exaggeration. But I was half tempted to start hitchhiking before I’d tried a couple other places, to which they said they were all booked.

I clicked on the next place on my phone and hit the call button. Pressing it to my ear, I tapped my foot, crossing an arm under the one holding up my cell. It rang and rang, and after four minutes passed, I hung up. I gripped my phone hard, wishing like hell it would shatter, if only to distract me from the inevitable.

“The shop opens in eleven hours. I think you can get over yourself enough to handle being in the same room as me for that long,” Reed said, eyeing my white-knuckled grip on the device.

I spun on him, stomping closer so we were chest to chest. “I don’t even want to survive ten minutes with you, let alone eleven hours.”

“There’s no choice here, Brandy.”

I stepped back, holding my phone up as I pulled up my contacts. “Maybe Callan will come—”

“And leave his pregnant girlfriend alone with Avery all night?”

I shot a glare at him. “I want to go home.”

“So bad that you’d inconvenience my brother instead of being the bigger person and spending one damn night in a motel?”

My nostrils flared as I exhaled. “You’re leaving out the fact that it’s with you!”

He inched closer. “What are you scared of? Huh, Brandy? You think I’m going to take advantage of you? Have my fucking way with you?”

“No!” I shouted, having to hold my wince at the rise in my voice. I knew he’d never do that.

At this point, we were chest to chest again, and I was doing all I could to make myself taller.

“Then what is it?” He was keeping his cool, giving me all the opportunity to get space from him.

For some fucking reason, I didn’t.

“I don’t want to be around you, Reed! You’re an insufferable asshole who thinks you get to call the shots on fucking everything! Well, news flash, Satan. You don’t.”

The vein in his cheek pulsed, indicating he was clenching his jaw tight. “You think me coming to your rescue is somehow calling the shots?”

“I don’t need you to fucking rescue me! Not then, not now, not ever.”

“Stop pretending like things don’t affect you,” he bit out.

“They don’t.”

He raised a brow, leaning so close I could smell that faint hint of hay and cinnamon on him. “That’s a lie.”

I squeezed my arms in between our bodies to cross them over my chest. “It’s not.”

“If it’s true, then why do you still hate me?”

“Why do you care?”

His jaw ticked, and I could practically hear his teeth grinding together. “Because of all the things you may think, Brandy, I still have a fucking heart. Something you can’t say for yourself.”

My eyes turned to slits as the breeze blew a shorter piece of hair across my face. What he didn’t know was I lost my heart the day the world showed me kindness didn’t exist. Everything was false acts and pasted smiles until one day, their fake personas snapped, and the world as I knew it crumbled.

“Sleep on the curb if you so fucking please, but I’m going inside. Room twelve. The door will be unlocked until eleven.” He didn’t give me the chance to respond before striding past me. I didn’t bother turning to see which way he went. Rather, my eyes scanned the lot for a discarded mattress or bed of cardboard boxes.

Anything would be better than sleeping next to Reed.