“Are you sure you want to keep that appointment with Mia today?” He backed out of the parking spot and headedthe way they’d come, south and east, toward Heartache. The sky grew even darker in that direction. “I can take you straight back to the motel?—”
“No.” She sat up in her seat. “I’m anxious to meet her in person. Besides, she needs an advocate. Someone looking over her shoulder to make sure she’s safe.”
He felt the rebuke in her words as the rental’s navigation system rattled off directions he didn’t need. Clayton turned the volume down.
“I can speak to her as soon as I get this reunion with my father out of the way.” His gut tightened at the thought of facing the old man.
A memory of Pete screaming at him for forgetting to stop at the liquor store blasted across his brain in vivid detail. The spittle flying from his lips. The unreasonable fury and the stink of his breath. Clayton had been ten at the time.
Not exactly in the best position to purchase a bottle of Wild Turkey at the liquor store.
“I know.” She huffed a sigh. “I didn’t mean to imply you should rush into meeting her today. I’m just all the more concerned about her after our talk last night. She’s dating with a vengeance, and I worry she’s seeking a relationship—any relationship—to fill the void in her life. She’s had so little affection and so much upheaval.”
“If she’s not sticking with any one guy, maybe that’s a sign she won’t lower her standards just for the sake of having someone in her life.” To his way of thinking, that was a damn good thing.
He was anxious to meet Mia Benson for himself and see what his half sister was like.
“It would be easier to gauge if someone was keeping track of her.” Gabriella turned toward him with worriedeyes. “Holding her accountable. Meeting the boys before she went out.”
A low rumble of thunder sounded as the sky darkened even more.
“Agreed.” He had benefitted from rules and order in Lorelei Hasting's home, finally understanding how family operated. “I think you’re going to be impressed when you meet my foster mother at the reunion this weekend. She was always good about keeping track of our friends and making sure she knew who we were with.”
“I’m sure I met her long ago.” Gabriella frowned as big, fat raindrops splatted across the windshield. “I have a memory of dark curly hair and lots of energy. But I guess I could just be remembering her from the pizza shop.”
The Hasting family still ran the local pizza parlor. Clayton had put in a lot of hours making pies as a teen.
“Lorelei’s a dynamo. She has a lot to offer kids like Mia.” Which was why Clay still strongly believed his half sister would be better off in a more family-oriented environment like that where she would get the skills needed to survive on her own.
At sixteen, Mia would be on her own soon enough.
“But you lived the kind of life Mia has been through,” Gabriella retorted, shifting on the vinyl seat of the rental car to face him. “You have a lot to offer her, too.”
He could feel the pressure of her expectations—her disappointment in him—in the center of his chest.
“I don’t have that same need to save people that you do. I admire what you do through the website, Gabby. You survived traumatic experiences and use your understanding to help others. I think that’s great.” He was glad to know that old fighter spirit he’d seen in her as a teen was still alive and well, if channeled a bit differently. “But my track record for saving anyone besides myself?” He shook his head while he turned up the windshield wipers. “It sucks.”
“Why do you say that?” She switched on the defogger for him, a button in an odd spot in the middle of the rental car’s dashboard. “I mean, you found all your other siblings except for Mia, so I know you went to a lot of trouble to try and heal your family.”
“Long after it was too late to do much more than introduce them all to each other and let them see what a vastly screwed-up bunch we are.” His hands tightened on the wheel as he slowed the car down. Visibility was crap.
“You turned out well,” she persisted.
Of course, she didn’t have all the facts.
“I turned out okay.” He’d survived it all, sure. “But the brother who needed my protection most didn’t fare so well. Eddy, the one I was closest to—” The old grief could still bring him to his knees, surprising him with its fierce grip. Clay breathed deep. “He went to prison for stealing a car and drug possession.”
Stupid kid stuff. Clay had been so furious with him when he found out he’d been arrested.
“But he’s still young. I’m sure?—”
“He was knifed in an inmate uprising four years ago.” He needed to say it that way. Flatly. Factually. It helped keep his heart in his chest. “He’s dead.”
Chapter Eight
Revealing his youngerbrother’s death to Gabriella stirred up old resentments about his family, which was probably not a good way to spend his time right before seeing his father again. Old memories crowded his head, reminding Clayton of all the ways Pete Yancy had neglected his kids.
The guy must have really made a convincing argument to child protective services to talk them into custody of Mia.
