Gemini by Echo Grayce

Author:Echo Grayce [Grayce, Echo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beautiful Misfits Press
Published: 2022-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

Maddox watched Brynn as she picked up lure after lure, looked them over, and put them back. It wasn’t until she picked up the little minnow, heavily weighted in the front, that she smiled and started the process of tying it on.

Impressive.

A woman who could fish, look like a million bucks, look like the girl next door, with a sassy mouth and a knack for riling him up after such a short time was okay in his book.

He was doomed.

Maddox watched Skyler cast his line. “So, you’ve been fishing before?” Maddox asked.

Skyler nodded as he reeled in his line just a bit. “Yeah, my uncle took me a few times when we went on this big family vacation.”

“Where was your dad?” Maddox asked, casting his own line. He didn’t want to stare the boy down and make him think he was being interrogated.

Skyler frowned as he stared out at the lake. “Where he always is. Sitting down with a beer,” Skyler answered, a faraway look in his eye.

Maddox had brought some sodas. He handed one to Skyler and offered one to Brynn, who sat quietly after casting her own line.

She took the can with a nod, but stayed silent. Like she knew just what to say and when, but also knew when to keep her mouth shut.

“He didn’t fish with you at all on that trip?” Maddox asked.

“No.” The word took on a hard edge.

Maddox took a sip of his Coke and nudged Skyler’s arm, hoping the boy would relax. He had started to tense up, his skinny forearms flexing their barely-there pre-pubescent muscles. “He must have done other things with you, right?”

“No.”

Maddox reeled in his line and cast it out again. Settling his line, he took a deep breath of mountain air. That was one thing about the safe house being in the mountains: there was always something to relax you. For him, it was the clean air, cold lake, and the rustle of the trees as the breeze moved through. “Maybe your dad doesn’t like physical activities.”

“I don’t know, he likes to hit my mom and us. That’s physical.” Skyler’s voice dropped to just a hair above a whisper. It was as if the heartache had pulled at the young boy’s resolve.

Brynn sucked in a breath and almost dropped her pole. She met Maddox’s eyes over Skyler’s head and bit her lip.

Maddox gave her a look. He had a feeling he was going to have to pop open a vein right here in front of her.

It was the last thing he wanted to do.

His past was what it was. It wasn’t his present. He’d promised himself it would never be his future.

“I was hit, too,” Maddox said. He could feel Brynn’s eyes on him. All over him. But he refused to look. This was about the boy.

Skyler’s head snapped up. “You?”

“Yup, me,” Maddox confirmed.

“But you’re so big.”

“Well, I wasn’t born this way, boy. As a matter of fact, I was a skinny runt until I was seventeen and went into the military.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.