Inside the ring box was a ring I’d been promised when my grandmother died a few years ago. A ring my grandmother wanted me to have when a man like my grandfather came along and asked me a particular question. The sparkling, quaint diamond sparkled brightly, and my heart threatened to burst out of my chest. I loved that ring, but I never had the type of relationship where I ever thought I was going to be proposed to. The traditional, delicate setting and gem chips decorating the band reminded me of my mom’s ring that she passed to Jackie. She gave it to Jackie because it was our great-grandmothers, and as the oldest, she was going to get the opportunity to keep it before I ever would.
I’d never mentioned it once to Tom. So, how’d he even know this ring was for me? I bet someone in my family told him at some time, maybe when he got into a conversation with my father during a football game.
“Will you marry me, Nicole?” Tom’s voice echoed through the silent hall, and gasps of horror quickly followed. Goosebumps blanketed my arms and across my chest, and disgust crowded my heart and lungs. My stomach flipped, staring into his eyes as they slowly began to realize that maybe, this wasn’t going to go the way he hoped. I tensed, clenching my hands into tight fists by my sides as tears clogged my throat.
Shame blurred my vision, and I reached a trembling hand to take the box. Triumph and hope blazed in Tom’s eyes. I closed the box, the clap damning and ominous. The huge room was so quiet, it seemed like no one breathed, and I held the ring box in both my hot, trembling hands.
The punch Sam delivered to Tom’s face knocked him off his knee, and he sprawled across the dance floor with a horrendous thud. My eyes stung, my heart stung everything stings. He clutched his face, eyes flashing with hurt and disbelief as he stared, open-mouthed up at me. Sam shivered with rage next to me that not only his reception was awkward, now, but because Tom had explicitly been told not to do this.
“I never want to see you again, you fucking piece of shit.” My voice burned my throat, and I stomped my heel on the floor to seemingly reactive time. My dad and brother were instantly on Tom, hauling him to his feet with barely contained anger. I trembled with embarrassment and rage that threatened to rip my chest apart. Sam’s face was a mask of rage as he shoved Tom to the ground again, and my dad and brother picked him up to drag him out of the room.
The ring box seared my palm, and I tore my eyes off the place Tom had just been to blink back massive salty tears. Mortified wasn’t even a strong enough word, and I shuffled in a daze toward the bar.
“Nicole!” Ignoring Jackie’s worried call, I leaned over the bar to grab an open but mostly full bottle of white wine. Eyes skewered my body, and I wandered in a daze toward the back of the room, where an employee entrance glowed like the entrance to Heaven. “Nicole! Wait!”
Chapter Six
Bruiser
“You wanna tell me what’s up, Rook?” Glancing over at my cousin, I frowned under tightly knit brows when he shook his head mutely. “Why not?”
“Because it ain’t none of your fuckin’ business.” His voice was raw, slurred heavily, and I could tell the ride down the mountain hadn’t been kind to Rook. Swiping his hands up his face and into his hair, my cousin dropped like a wet sack onto the dirt to groan torturedly. My chest tightened in sympathy, and I cleared my throat roughly as I walked around my bike.
Rook hid behind his forearms, shuffling around in a circle to face away from me. Crouching down, I gingerly clapped a hand on his shoulder to jostle him lightly.
“Unfortunately, it’s time to grow up, kid. When you realize you can’t handle this on your own, come find me,” I left Rook by himself to stretch his legs and contemplate what was going on. He was now an illegal alien, in a foreign country, with nothing but the clothes on his back and his demons at his heels. And as much as it sucks, we’re not close at all.
“How’s he doin’?” I glanced over at Parker, settled in his saddle, his black eye beaming at me, and shrugged lightly. “Really sucks, whatever it is.”
Parker spoke lowly, no doubt having learned his lesson, and I reached to rub the back of my head roughly in thought. We’d gotten a motel room last night after it was apparent Rook hit Parker a little too hard. I really wished we hadn’t, but Parker wasn’t known for his thick skull, just his big ass mouth.
“He just needs some time. How’s your face? You good?” He’d spent all night icing it down, and Parker nodded as he flipped back his long, wavy hair. Sniffling harshly, his cut jangled lightly, and I pointed at the little purple and pink beads dangling from his lapel. “What’s that? I’ve never noticed it before.”
“Ah, it’s nothin’, really. This little girl where I volunteer gave it to me, so my cut-off wasn’t so ‘gloomy’.” Surprise rose my brows, and Parker fingered the little accessory with a warm smile. He glanced up, feeling my stare, to shrug himself and bluster a sigh. “My grammy was into volunteering, and she always brought me along.”
“You lived with her or somethin’?” Parker and I were roommates, and friends, to an extent, but I
