CHAPTER 1
Bailey
“Collee,as in Brent Collee? The hockey player?” the cashier asks, looking up from my ID.
I give a close lipped smile and fight the urge to roll my eyes. “Yup.”
“That’s so cool,” she gushes, and I nod in response, just wanting to get my things and go.
Thankfully, she finishes ringing me up, and I’m able to take the two bags of groceries and leave. It’s so interesting to me that back in Ohio, the name Collee was equated to trash. Everyone in that small town knew who we were, and about our parents. Yet none of them stepped in to do anything about the shitty situation we were in.
We only had each other.
My three older brothers, my younger sister, and me.
Now, the name Collee has another meaning, thanks to myoldest brother, Brent, being a professional hockey player. I’ve considered changing my last name, not wanting to associate with my past or be linked with someone considered famous.
All I want is to do is live my life under the radar, with no one bothering me.
That’s the reason I moved around so much, traveling to find the right spot. I finally settled on this small town bordered by the mountains, and ocean, Amity, Washington.
I was lucky enough to get a job here as a barista in a small drive up coffee stand, Roasted Bean. I’m no stranger to doing odd jobs here and there as I moved around and when I was growing up, I always had to figure it out.
Our parents were useless, and though my siblings and I all did what we could for each other, my three oldest brothers all left eventually. Which just left Brynn and me. Until we were able to get out ourselves and never look back.
Now, I own that same coffee stand I worked at when I first moved here because the owner was retiring and liked me enough to work out a deal for me to buy it. I never thought about what my life would look like. Some people grow up having dreams, picturing exactly what they’ll do, the person they’ll marry, the kids they’ll have.
Not me.
I couldn’t see past the day I was currently living because I didn’t know what the next day would look like. Sometimes I still struggle with that, but I’m trying to be better about it.
For the first time ever I have friends. Real ones that aren’tjust using me because they think it will get them closer to my brother. It won’t; I hardly talk to him. No, my friends, Sutton and Lily, don’t even know about Brent and neither has mentioned hockey so it’s been a nice reprieve.
Sutton’s my neighbor, but she’s about to get married to her fiancé, Jameson, and they’re moving in together. I offered to help, but Jameson refused, saying I didn’t need to. I insisted right back that I wanted to, and was sent to get some dinner and drinks, for the small house warming they’re having tonight.
Lily’s in town on summer break before she goes back to college for her senior year and is sure to be there. I wasn’t too sure about her when we first met; I’m quiet, she’s…not. But the more I’ve been around her and Sutton the more I feel myself opening up.
But only to them.
They still don’t know the extent of my family history or everything I’ve been through. That’s something I keep locked up tight. All they know is I hardly talk to anyone in my family, and that I have some siblings. That’s it.
I pull up to Jameson’s property, driving past the main house and following the directions Sutton gave me to get to the house further back on the property. They’re working on adding to the place because apparently it’s fairly small, but they couldn’t wait to move in together.
They’re disgustingly in love, and that’s something I’ve never experienced and doubt I ever will. Which is fine by me. I don’t think I could handle having someone around in my space all the time. No thank you, I like my independence.
Cutting the engine, I manage to balance the pizza and drinks I’m bringing, while also closing my car door before making my way up to the front of the house. See,independent.
Using my foot to knock on the door, I almost lose a pizza box, but I move to catch it, smiling at my success. But as soon as the door opens, that smile drops and is replaced with a grimace.
“What’re you doing here?” I ask the huge man standing in the doorway of a house that is clearlynothis.
“I’m here because Jameson is my friend and asked me to help Sutton move her things. What areyoudoing here?” Wes, my neighbor, and the bane of my existence asks right back. He also doesn’t make a single move to help take anything from my arms.
I push past him into the house to set everything down before I end up dropping it all and head to the porch with pizza and beer.
“I bring sustenance,” I say, slipping the pizzas onto the table. “But you don’t get any,” I sneer up at Wes behind me.
There aren’t many people in my life that are taller than me, men included. I’m six-feet, and everyone in my family was supposedly “blessed” with height. My brothers are all at least six-foot-four while my little sister Brynn is the shortest at only five-foot-nine. While she’s gotten shit for it from our brothers for her whole life, I’m a little jealous. I stand out in a crowd with my height when I would much rather blend in.
