Chapter Thirty-five
Ahand against my face stirs me awake, it’s gentle, a light caress and I blink my eyes open to find the room barely lit by the dawn. River hovers over me, his face soft but there’s a hardness to his eyes that wasn’t there before and there’s a fresh cut on his lip.
“What are you doing here, princess?” He asks. “Thought you had that dinner last night.”
It takes my brain a few seconds to wake up and then I bolt up, his hand falling away from my face.
“I did,” I say, “I need to talk to you!”
He sighs tiredly, “Later.”
“River, it’s important,” I chase after him as he makes his way to the bathroom.
“Princess, I need to shower, I need to sleep,” He pulls his shirt off and throws it toward the hamper, “I don’t particularly want to hear about you entertaining other men.”
My head snaps back, “It wasn’t like that.”
He doesn’t reply and shuts himself in the bathroom. I swallow down the anxiety and move back toward his bed to wait for him. I have to tell him about this, before he goes to sleep. He needs to know I’m on his side.
He returns from the shower five minutes later, dark hair wet and water still clinging to his tan skin, rolling over the muscles of his abdomen before they soak into the fabric of the towel at his hips.
“They’re planning to demolish over half of this side of town,” I rush out, “They have it all set up and have struck deals with the landlords of most of the buildings in the area, River. We have to do something.”
He stares at me for a long time, eyes flicking around my face as if he’s processing what I just said, “They’ve been trying to do that for years, Marly.”
“They have developers on their side, they’ve already worked to get the approval. They’re condemning it all as a cover to get what they want!”
He walks toward me and leans down, kissing me softly, “Don’t worry about us, princess.”
“How are you so calm?” I ask him.
“Because this is what they do, they always have.” He shrugs and steps away from me, “This isn’t the first time, I suppose it won’t be the last.”
“I don’t want people to lose their homes, River,” I pick at the skin on the side of my thumb, “I don’t know how to stop it.”
“It’s sweet that you care, Marly,” He says with his back to me, “But this is the life we live and always have lived. What do you expect the people to do? Fight it? With what money?”
I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out. He’s not wrong but I don’t think he understands the full severity of it. This will be going through; it won’t get brushed away like all the other times. He pulls a pair of ripped denim jeans on and then turns to me.
“Come on,” He says, slipping into a clean shirt, “I want to take you somewhere.”
“I thought you were tired,” I accept his hand as he pulls me up off the bed.
“I am, princess, but it can wait. Get changed and meet me at the jeep.” He kisses my cheek and then exits the room, the door swinging closed behind him. I change quickly and brush my teeth and hair before I find him leaning on the hood of the jeep, legs crossed at the ankles and arms across his chest. He gives me a soft smile before he opens the passenger door and helps me inside, rounding the car to climb in behind the wheel. We don’t speak as he drives us across town and pulls us up to a small house with a cute white picket fence and flower beds under the windows.
Before I can ask where we are, the door opens and Sadie steps out, a baby in her arms.
“That’s Logan Junior,” River tells me before he gets out of the jeep, “He’s my nephew.”
My eyes close. I haven’t even asked about the fires and if that’s how his brother died, and he got the scars, but I don’t know how to pose the question either. Do I wait for him to tell me? Will he ever?
He opens my door for me and takes my hand to guide me from the car, linking his fingers with mine as he opens the gate and walks us up the path. He only let’s go of my hand to take thebaby, cradling the infant who mustn’t be older than five or six months.
“Marly,” Sadie smiles at me, her eyes following River and her son before they disappear into the house.
“Hey, sorry,” I cringe, “I didn’t know we were coming here; I hope it’s okay for me to be here.”
“Absolutely!” She grins, “I’m surrounded by boys all day, it’s nice to have an actual female in my space for once.”
