Page 37 of Rough

My chest ached with the desire for everything he said. I did want all of that, as if he’d made a checklist of things I envisioned my family being like. It sounded as if he knew what that was like.

“Is that how it was for you? Two parents you knew loved you? A tire swing?”

“Yeah, I had all that. Until I was twelve. I was lucky. I have Rob and Colton. You didn’t have any siblings to grow up with. To fight and bicker with. Annoy.”

I raised my hand, waved it in the air. “Actually, I have a half sister. Marina. She’s twenty-one. I only learned she existed two years ago. She did the DNA testing and found we were a match.”

“She’s not your mom’s.”

Shaking my head, I continued. “No, my dad. He was young, nineteen, when he had sex with my mom. He never knew about me. He married at twenty-eight and had Marina with his wife.”

“He didn’t tell you what happened?”

I pushed my glasses up my nose. “I don’t want to know. Would you want to know about how you were conceived?”

He looked horrified. “I see your point.”

“I’m not close with him. I’ve met him. I look like him. They live in southern California. I did my residency in Chicago. Our paths don’t cross.”

“But your sister?”

I couldn’t help but smile when thinking of Marina. “She’s great. Sweet. Definitely a little wilder than I am. We talk all the time. She’s in college for engineering. I’m… I’m glad I have her.”

He eyed me for a moment, then gave me a nod and put the truck in gear and back on our way.

We were quiet for a minute. “Boyd…” I bit my lip, knowing that I was asking a question that might upset him. “Um… what happened when you were twelve?”

He cleared his throat, clenched the steering wheel. “I guess it’s best you find out now. I’ve been clear from the start how much I want you. It’s pretty obvious I’m just a dumb jock, that you’re way outta my league. I was hoping maybe you could look past that, but this might change your mind about me.”

I frowned, felt apprehension and worry lodge in my belly.

“When I was twelve, I killed my parents.”

17

AUDREY

I staredat him as he turned onto a narrow road. I wondered if it was someone’s property or a service access for the National Forest. Either way, there was no one around for miles. His words had stunned me into silence and made me think all kinds of things. Murder? Had he run over them with a tractor?

“What do you mean you killed your parents?” I finally asked. With my window open, the breeze caught on my hair, and I tucked it back behind my ear.

He didn’t look my way, just stayed quiet and focused on the rutted road.

“Boyd,” I prompted, setting my hand on his thigh. The muscle clenched beneath my fingers, and I tried to move my hand away, but he grabbed it, pressed it back in place. He didn’t let go.

“I’m not talking about this in the truck. They’ve been gone for a long time. It won’t change in the next few minutes.”

That was true, so I gave him the room he seemed to really want and stayed silent. Within five minutes, he pulled over and parked. Where he stopped looked like where we’d been since we turned off the main road and the next half mile in front of us. We were close to the mountains, but still in the rolling grassland. Pines dotted the craggy rocks in the distance, but it was a golden grassy carpet that surrounded us.

“We’re here. Come on.”

He opened his door and hopped down. I watched as he came around the front in my direction. I got out, and he pushed my door shut behind me. With his big hand, he stroked my hair. “I’ll tell you now because I want to leave it here by the truck. I want our time at the spot to be special, not tainted with what I did.”

I licked my lips, suddenly nervous. If I’d read him wrong all along, I was out in the middle of nowhere. “Please don’t tell me you’re an ax murderer or serial killer or something.”

One pale brow winged up.

“My parents were killed in a car accident. A rock slide washed our truck off the road. They were killed instantly. I survived in the back seat.”