On the drive to Mrs. Rassom’s sister’s house, he couldn’t help trying to solve the puzzle that was Smith Ramsey.
“Quit staring at me,” Smith barked, his gaze glued to the road. “What?”
“You’re…human.” Evan mock-gasped. “I just…” He reached over and punched Smith lightly on the arm. Solid muscle.
“Hey. What the fuck, man?”
“Nope. Human flesh, not robot metal.”
Smith frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Your ability to charm that lovely woman. You smiled. Willingly. And you were polite. I was just checking to verify that you’re not, in fact, the robotic asshole you normally are.”
Smith reddened. “She was nice. And sad. Gimme a break.”
“Yeah.” Evan nodded. “You’re a Griffith, all right.”
The van swerved before Smith righted it. “What did you say?”
Tired of being jerked around by people dancing around their feelings—his mother, his cousins, Kenzie—Evan confronted this one truth he was sick of hiding. “Look. Your name is Smith Ramsey. We all know that. Just as we know you and Cash could almost be twins. You have a hate-on for him that’s beyond normal. And sometimes when you look at Cash and Reid, there’s this longing besides the hate and anger.”
“You’re full of shit.” But Smith didn’t sound so much angry as nervous.
“Why are you hiding it? You obviously came to Vets on the Go! with an agenda. And the guys…” Evan paused. He’d started this, but should he pursue it? Granted, he was Cash and Reid’s cousin, but he could claim no blood tie to Smith. And hell, to be honest, he couldn’t claim a blood tie to Cash. Not now that he knew Cash’s father, Evan’s father’s brother, wasn’t a Griffith, but the same guy Angela Griffith had gotten pregnant with when she’d had Smith.
“And the guys what?” Smith pulled off the road into an empty lot and turned to glare at Evan. “Don’t stop now. Say what you gotta say.”
Evan wouldn’t lie. Being the recipient of Smith’s ire, in a small, enclosed space, was discomfiting, to say the least. He cleared his throat. “Fine. Look, the guys are planning to talk to you about this.”I amsooverstepping.“But you have to understand. Cash and Reid, their mom, she wasn’t all there.”
“She seemed there to me.” Smith snorted. “So there she abandoned me without a thought. Just dumped me with my aunt, a bitter old woman who fucking hated me. Oh, and I grew up thinking she was my mom because that’s what I was told. I only found out a few months ago that she was actually my aunt—Angela Griffith’s sister.”
“Damn.” Evan rubbed his chin, now understanding Smith’s animosity.
“Yeah. That bitch who gave birth to me kept her sweet little boys, the ones she really loved, but threw me away. My whole life I heard how my ‘cousins’ were so much better than me. So special, but I was trash and would never be anything like them. That their dad had made a bad choice and married the wrong sister. Fuck, man. I got out of that house as soon as I could. Imagine my surprise when I came home and she told me to never come back because I wasn’t even her son anyway.”
Evan heard the buried hurt and knew the abuse Smith had suffered would make a reconciliation with his brothers even harder. “I’m so sorry, Smith.”
“I don’t want your pity. I want to know why you think this will have a happy ending.”
“I don’t.” That took Smith aback. Evan continued, “I only know they were stunned to find out they had a brother. Their mother never told them. Hell, she never told them anything. Aunt Angela wasn’t all there.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean she treated her sons as if they didn’t exist for most of their lives. Uncle Charles used to treat Cash like shit. He beat him, yelled at him, criticized him for everything, even existing. But Reid could do no wrong. And through it all, Aunt Angela holed up in her house watching soap operas, reading books, and binging on TV. The woman lived in a fantasy world while her husband and sons were stuck with each other. And it was hell. Cash left home at sixteen, I think. So I’m sorry about your life because it sounds shitty. But they didn’t have it much better.”
Smith frowned, and damn but he looked exactly like Cash. It was eerie.
“Why are you here, Smith?” Evan tried again.
“I—I thought I could see why she was so into keeping them and not me. These Marine Corps hometown heroes.” The bite that normally accompanied any mention of the Griffiths wasn’t there. “So she sucked at being a mom, huh?”
“You have no idea. She really messed them up. And so did their dad.” Evan was about to overstep again. “They found a secret journal, going through the house after she died.”
Smith’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s when Cash learned he wasn’t Charles’s son. I guess she gave you away because her husband had found out she’d cheated and that Cash wasn’t his kid. They made up and had Reid a few years later. But when she got back together with Cash’s—and your—real dad and got pregnant with you, she knew she couldn’t keep you.”
“This is so fucking bizarre.” Smith barked an angry laugh. “Are you serious? How could the guy not know she was pregnant?”
