“No secrets? Or is it being cautious and not presuming anything?”
Brock was lucky. We were entering the open stretch of road that would take us to the distant office, which meant we only had a couple minutes left to chat.
“I swear, Brock,” I said. “You’re such a sweet guy. But the second I try to pry a little, try to learn a little about you, you clam up. You open your ears, but never your heart.”
Brock became silent for a long, long time, long enough that I decided to not say anything else. Only when I pulled into the parking lot of the office did Brock answer.
“You don’t want to know what’s in my heart,” he said. “It carries too much from before.”
He stepped out of the car before I could answer.
“The hell are you doing here?” Elizabeth, already standing at the front entrance, said.
I sighed.
It would be a long day.
At least I wouldn’t have to worry about us getting robbed, right?
“I’m here to protect you two from any trouble in town,” Brock said, his hands in his pockets. “Given what happened last week, I think it’s smart.”
“We got through the rest of the week fine,” Elizabeth said. “We don’t need to smell like biker men when we get home.”
Brock shrugged. I stepped between them, but Brock didn’t look like he needed my help in the slightest.
“So don’t come near me,” Brock said.
“You just rode in her car!”
“Elizabeth, a word, please,” I said with as much stoicism as I could muster.
We stepped inside the newly furnished building, although it felt surreal to be in an office meant for perhaps eight to ten people and have us be the only ones set up. More engineers, supervisors, and blue-collar staff would come in the weeks ahead, but for a good while, it would only be the Rogers sisters… and Brock at the entrance.
“Before you say anything, I’m not even sure he wants to be here and be a part of this,” I said. “He said that he will give me one week. And if he can’t protect me or if he can’t defend—”
“You got attacked at a gas station, sis, not here,” Elizabeth said. “You would trust a guy like him? One of Steele’s friends?”
That was a fair thing to say about some of his friends like Garrett and Connor. It was not fair to say about Brock.
“Are you going to yell at me angrily? Or are you going to take a step back, take a breath, and think about the fact that it’s Brock and not Steele out there? Are you seriously that bothered?”
Elizabeth opened her mouth, groaned, and did as I asked.
“They’re nice eye candy, him and Steele. But even if he’s not Steele, he’s like a gateway drug to Steele. And I don’t want you getting hurt by him again. You said it yourself, he was awful to you—”
I shook my head. I had to come clean.
“I said he was terrible to me to make it seem like he was the bad guy. And he did bad things. But he didn’t hurt me. He didn’t abuse me. He… he just wouldn’t grow up or be vulnerable. Being around him will be weird if it comes to that, but I’d feel safer around them than away from them.”
Elizabeth looked out the front entrance at Brock, who was leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette, looking at the New Mexico desert brighten ray by ray. In another time, I thought he could have passed for a cowboy, looking for his purpose. Now, though, he was a man built with a set of skills that weren’t valued like they once were.
“Why would you lie to me about that?” Elizabeth said.
“Because how would you feel if you dated someone four years older than you with the maturity of someone four years younger than you for as long as I did?” I said. “OK? We have to be so damn perfect in this family, every step has to go exactly according to plan. You know how it is. If you make mistakes, do your best to make it seem like not a big deal, because Rogers never make big mistakes.”
I knew Elizabeth got what I meant. She, more than anyone, exemplified the Rogers image of perfection.
“And you think Brock is different?”
