Whispers of a Broken Halo by Abbi Glines

He was already almost to me. “I’m walking you to your car.”

Instead of arguing, I just let him follow me. I headed for the dressing room to grab my bag and put on flip-flops. He stood outside the room and didn’t follow me inside. I was thankful for that. I needed some space.

When I finished, he walked behind me until I reached my car and climbed inside.

“Good night, Saint,” I said, looking up at him.

“Night, Angel,” he replied, then closed my door and stepped back.

I pulled out of the parking lot and glanced in my rearview mirror. He was standing at the door, watching me leave with his arms crossed over his chest. I wondered how I was going to work around him now, knowing how he felt. Being topless in front of him was going to be difficult.

“Why can’t it be Rio who feels this way about me?” I asked myself aloud as I drove to Marley’s.

If it had been Rio confessing all that, would I have let him kiss me … there? Or would I have had sex with him?





Chapter Twenty-Seven

Rio

I had been doing everything I could to not think about Bryn. I hadn’t laid eyes on her in fifteen days. Shouldn’t that be enough time to get the fuck over it? Instead, she was all I could think about anymore. She was the main show in my fantasies. I’d woken up after dreaming about her yet again with need of a shower to give myself some relief.

I had tried going out with Drake and picking up someone to get my mind off Bryn. I couldn’t even find someone who interested me. Drake was so damn confused when I left a smoking-hot redhead at the bar with the excuse of a headache. I had been disgusted with myself.

What was wrong with me? Was it the unknown?

Bryn had a damaged past, a shit-ton of baggage, but I had to accept that I didn’t care. Not anymore. I’d seen too much. I knew she was still the same deep down. All the shit I had been so sure had changed her hadn’t.

I had been so damn relieved when I pulled into the parking lot at her apartment that I hadn’t even noticed her car wasn’t there. Giving in and coming to see her felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulders. I wanted to see her. Fuck all the reasons it might be a bad idea.

I looked down at my phone again. I’d been sitting on the stairs, waiting on her, for over thirty minutes now. It was eight in the morning. Where the hell could she be? What if there was an emergency with Cullen? Why the fuck hadn’t I saved her number in my phone?

Just before I started to call Henley to get Bryn’s number from her, I heard Cullen’s voice. When I looked up from my phone, Cullen was standing at the bottom of the stairs, smiling up at me.

“It’s Rio!” he called out over his shoulder, and then Bryn appeared.

She looked like she had just woken up, and I realized Cullen was still in pajamas.

“Hey,” she said, placing a hand on Cullen’s shoulder.

“I, uh—is everything okay?” I asked, wondering why they would have woken up and left the house so quickly.

“Yes,” she replied. “I was going to ask you the same question.”

I hadn’t thought through what I was going to say or do once I got here. I’d just had to see her. “You look like you just got out of bed,” I pointed out.

She glanced down at the T-shirt and shorts she was wearing, then laughed. “Oh yeah. Well, we did.”

“Aunt Bryn is going to cook breakfast. Did you come to eat with us?” Cullen asked.

There was still no explanation for why they were in pajamas.

I looked from Cullen back to Bryn. “If I’m invited, I would love to,” I said, watching her face closely for her reaction to my staying.

“Of course,” she said quickly, then frowned.

Cullen started up the stairs to meet me and took my hand to pull me toward their door.

“We stay the night at Marley’s, but we leave early and don’t eat there,” Cullen said. “I’m always real hungry when we get home.”

Who was Marley?

“I bet,” I replied while watching Bryn unlock the door.

She opened it up and stepped back to let Cullen run inside.

“Go use the bathroom and wash your hands,” she called out to him, then looked back at me. “What is wrong? Did someone get out of jail? Are we in danger?” she asked in a low whisper.

I shook my head. “No. Has someone been bothering you? Who is Marley?”

She sighed in relief, and her shoulders relaxed. “No one has bothered us. I just saw you and thought there had to be a serious reason to bring you here and agree to stay for breakfast.”

She still hadn’t answered my question.

“Who is Marley?” I repeated.

She closed the door, locked it, and turned back to me. “My boss. She has a baby, and Cullen stays at her house with the sitter. He goes to bed there, and I come there after work. We sleep there and then come home in the mornings.”

So, she was back at work.

“I see,” I replied. “How long have you been back to work?”

“Two weeks,” she said, walking toward the kitchen. “Do you want some coffee?”

“Yeah, that would be great.”

“What brings you here if not to tell me bad news?” she asked.

She was back to working topless in front of dozens of men every night. I had come here to be around her. See if we might … hell, I wasn’t even sure. But was her job going to drive me crazy? If we spent time together, wouldn’t I have to deal with that too? I didn’t know, but I did know I couldn’t get her out of my head.