Prologue

PROLOGUE

RYLAND

One Month Earlier

“Goddamn, mother trucking son of a bitch,” I mumble beneath my breath when I see none other than Sutton Rawlins walking down the street.

“Son of a bischhh,” Case mimics me. Great, this is just fucking great. The preschool is going to have a field day with my boy if he so much as whispers the phrase I just used. The only problem I have with nipping it in the butt is, my boy repeated those four words without so much as a hiccup. Well, besides dragging out the end of the last one.

“Case, that’s not a nice word.” Holding back my smile and laughter while looking in the rearview mirror at my boy is damned impossible. I use a stern voice, and when his little lip wobbles, I know I made my point even though it’s tearing up my gut. “You’re not in trouble. Daddy shouldn’t have said it either.” I nod, and he returns the appreciation. That’s it. There’s no more discussion. Holding a grudge isn’t in my nature unless it’s Case’s mom. Then I’ll hold on to the anger I have for her until the day I die. How she could abandon my sweet boy, I’ll never ask her, and I’ll never know either. Thank fuck.

“Kay, Daddy.” Case turns back to the window and the reason for my harsh words to begin with. Sutton Rawlins is walking down the street, huddled into herself and the sorry excuse of jacket she wears when the weather is bitterly cold. Except she’s no longer Sutton Rawlins. She’s Sutton Sullivan, and her husband is a worthless piece of shit. I’ve witnessed firsthand how her brightness has dulled. No longer is she the happy-go-lucky, smiling-while-walking-around girl. I mean damn, I’m not either, but her light is completely sniffed out. And Shane Sullivan is the one to blame. The local hometown football hero isn’t what everyone expected him to be. How Sutton hung her lasso to him, I’ll never understand. Then again, I haven’t been through the hell she has either. My family rallies around when shit goes sideways. Sutton hasn’t had that, ever. Her mom did the best she could as a single mom working two jobs, her husband in the wind, a lot like Case’s biological mother. I refuse to call her his mom. Sure, she did the right thing. The way she did it though… Fuck, it could have been so much worse. Sutton’s mom did the best she could with what she had, and no one in town ever abandoned them, like when Mom noticed they needed new shoes. Or when the holidays were around the corner or summer came creeping up, Mom would load up the family, we’d have dinner at the diner, and she’d leave an extra tip. Then she’d go a step further: when no one was at the Rawlins house, Mom would leave care packages for the two of them.

That’s who Mom is, and when Sutton’s mom, Ms. Taylor, passed away, she stayed with Sutton until she was secure in knowing her friend’s daughter would slowly be okay. What no one expected, not even me, was her marrying Shane. He was a hometown hero of sorts, and everyone thought he’d go pro, but an injury ended his career early, and when he returned home from college, he set his sights on Sutton. My world was imploding with learning about Case’s speech delay at the time, which I took harder than necessary and closed myself off yet again.

“What do you say we give Sutton a ride home?” I ask my boy, pulling over ahead of where she’s walking.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” he chants. We’re on our way home from preschool, and while the last thing I want to do is potentially see Shane, Sutton could use a break from life. The woman works more than anyone else I know. The only reason I’m aware of this fact is because my family is nothing but a bunch of Nosey Nellies, our mother being number one. Working down the list are my brothers and sisters-in-law. Dad is the only one who keeps things to himself, unless it’s about one of us kids, and yes, we’re still considered kids by our parents, even with us brothers varying in ages from early thirties to forties. Needless to say, I know more about Sutton than I’ve asked for, and my mother makes it her mission to remind me just how pretty she is. I know exactly how beautiful Sutton is. I thought about it before, and I still think about her now. But she’s wrapped up with the scum beneath my boot, meaning I’m at a damn standstill until something changes.

“You good?” I ask Case as I put the truck in Park .

“Uh-huh, I have a ssss…nack.” My boy picks up his granola bar in one hand, shaking it around. Undoubtedly, I’ll have a mess of crumbs and wrappers to pick up once we’re back home. It’d be a lost cause to deal with right now.

“Alright, sit tight. I won’t be but a minute.” I reach behind the front seat, knuckles out and waiting for Case to bump them, then I’m out the door, closing it behind me to keep the truck warm. I barely have enough time to walk around the hood of my truck, pull my jacket together to help cut the brutal wind that’s settling in with the changing seasons when I see Sutton.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I whisper under my breath. Her head is down, hair hanging down from her usually messy bun she has on top of her head, jeans ripped at the knees that look like they’ve been washed a million times over. They’re practically threadbare, and her jacket isn’t much better, thin and definitely not heavy enough to ward off the chill.

“Sutton.” Her head lifts up. She might be standing in front of me, but she’s too damn far away all the same.

“Ryland.” The rasp of her voice leaving her lips has me ready to do more than give her a ride home. She makes me question every sensible thought I’ve got rolling through my head right now, the biggest one being that Sutton is shacked up with Shane Sullivan.

Sutton

“Come on, I’ll give you a ride,” Ryland Johnson states. He doesn’t ask. There’s no hi , not a hello , and definitely not a how are you in sight. My mouth drops open, morphing into what I’m sure is a what the hell is happening here? Everyone knows Ry only has time for one person, and that’s his son, Case. He’s also the highlight of my day when Mrs. Johnson comes in on the rare occasions for her grandson to eat a hot fudge sundae with a side of fries. I swear he wears more than what makes it in his mouth. Seeing him childlike, happy, and content with a family that loves him, it makes me yearn for more out of this life.

“I’m good. I can walk.” A gust of wind chooses that moment to slice through my clothes, gnawing away at my body. It’s not easy refraining from allowing your body to shiver. I’m due for a new jacket and a new pair of shoes for this winter. The only problem is that money is tight, and come January, it’ll be even tighter. I’m almost done with the schooling I need to better myself. I just have to see myself over the finish line, and while it’s taking me twice as long, I’m doing it for me.

“I wasn’t asking.” None of the Johnson brothers or their mother will back down. This is a battle I won’t win. Still, I can hold out and make myself not seem like such a pushover.

“Ryland, this isn’t a great idea.” It really isn’t. My home life is complete and total shit, but there isn’t much you can do when you work for the diner during the day and have a nighttime job as a medical transcriptionist at home to pay the bills.

“You gonna take my jacket?”

“You know I can’t.” We’re at a standoff. If I concede, he wins and I lose, but I also lose another battle, one that’s at home. Where there’s someone who will play twenty-one questions when he has no reason or right to.

“Can’t or won’t, Sutton?” Ryland doesn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he wraps his arm around my shoulder and pulls me into his side, so I’m surrounded by everything him . Leather, spicy nutmeg, and undertones of cinnamon. I’m warm. For the first time since stepping outside the diner, I’m not freezing.

“Ryland,” I say his name again, this time with a warning.

“A ride won’t hurt you. Case wants to say hello anyways.” I’m ushered to the passenger side of his truck. Ryland only lets me go to open the door and keeps a hand on my lower back as I climb on up. I’m instantly met with the blast of heat, and my hands move in front of the vent.

“Sutty!” a little voice from the backseat squeals and is followed up with a “Howwww…dy!” I turn around to greet him while Ryland closes my door and rounds the truck toward his side.

“Hey, Case, my man. What do you have there?” I spin around, wanting to see him with my own eyes. It’s been about a week since he’s been in the diner, and he’s such a joy to be around.

“Ssss,” he says with a stutter. I wait patiently. Ryland does, too, as he watches our interaction. “Nack!” One thing about Case, he has one octave, and an inside voice isn’t one of them.

“Looks good.” Case looks from me back to his snack. He seems to be contemplating if he’ll share it with me.

“Ready?” Ryland interrupts the moment, and I breathe a sigh of relief. The bar in his hand looks smushed to crumbles.

“Yeah.” I turn back around, lock my seatbelt into place, and we head down the street. My usual twenty-minute walk is going to be cut in half, which means I have ten minutes to prepare for the inevitable.

“Thanks for the ride,” I tell the quiet cab of the truck. Ryland makes a humming noise and nods.

“You welcome!” Case states, making me smile with his enthusiasm. In a different world, a ride like this could be my everyday occurrence, if I hadn’t screwed myself over with Shane. Now, I’m starting over, later in life, and the only way I’ll ever get ahead is if I keep my head down with my eye on the prize. Girls like me, we weren’t meant to have men like Ryland Johnson or a son like Case Johnson, and doesn’t that just suck.