Page 57 of Broken Pieces

Chapter Twenty-Four

Brooks

Raelynn’s birthday is today. And despite her protests, Summer, Harper, and Ivy are throwing her a party at Sawyer’s. I know she is worried about Logan. She gets worried anytime she goes into White Creek. But she needs to let loose and have fun. If Easton approves of her having a party, she better take full advantage.

I woke her up this morning by devouring her pussy. She has spent every night with me since we first hooked up and I cannot get enough. This was by far the best morning sex we’ve had though. She was wild and untamed as I sucked her clit into my mouth and fucked her with my fingers. Not to mention the way she let me bend her over the bed and fuck her raw. It didn’t take long for her to decide that she liked me better without a condom.

I am worried, however, about her present. She told me a few days ago about a French pastry book her momma had gotten for her thirteen years ago. She said it had gotten forgotten somewhere in the house or maybe even lost between her moves. I was determined to find it. I talked to Harper and she was kind enough to let me look for it. Of course, I made sure Easton was working before stepping into his house.

“I thought you didn’t like Raelynn,” Harper states as I look through boxes in the basement. Her dog sniffing through everything I touch.

“We have a mutual hate for each other.”

“Then why you lookin’ for a cookbook?”

I stand up from the box I was hunched over and turn to look at her. “Despite the fact that we don’t get along,” far from the truth, “I have some sort of understanding of her shit and she mentioned this book the other day. I know she would want it.”

She pops her hip out and crosses her arms. ‘So there ain’t nothin’ goin’ on between you too?”

“No. I barely see her. Except for the times I eat the shit she’s baking.”

“Well if Easton finds out that there is something going on between you two, he is going to beat your ass.”

“Well good thing there ain’t anything goin’ on.” I turn back around and start looking in another box.

Harper doesn’t say anything for a while that I think she’s left. But then I hear her say, “This box is marked college. It could be Rae’s. Or Tacoma’s. But I think Tacoma has everything from college.”

I glance over my shoulder at Harper and notice the box written in Rae’s handwriting. I go to open it when the baby monitor Harper was carrying starts crying. “I need to go check on Theo. You okay down here?”

“Yeah. I’m good.”

She walks away and I am glad she is out of my hair. She has no reason to suspect anything, but it’s a lot easier to hide my relationship with Rae when there isn’t someone around asking questions.

I dig through a few more boxes until I finally stumble upon a French dessert cookbook. It’s stained and well read. I open it and sure enough on the inside cover is a note from her mom. The thought hits me that maybe this is too much. Giving her something that holds such sentimental value over her heart. We’ve been fucking for a week. I don’t have feelings. The only feelings I have are for that sweet pussy of hers I can’t get enough of.

I push the thoughts aside before I let them eat me away. I start to put everything I took out of the boxes back inside when I accidentally knock an unopened one over. The box says “Raelynn High School” on it. I turn it upright and bend over to pick up the contents that fell out.

There are tons of pictures scattered on the floor. I pick one up of Rae holding a blue ribbon at the county fair. Hmm, another reason to call her Blue. She can’t be older than fifteen. She looks innocent with her wide eyes pinched upward, a huge grin on her face. I recall Brett telling me something about her winning the pie baking contest multiple years in a row.

I wonder if I would have wanted her then. When we were both young before the mistakes we made in our lives took over. I never would have gone to the fair though. I was too busy drinking and partying back then to go to a family function. But maybe seeing that beautiful smile would have changed the path I took. Changed the path we both took.

I take the picture and slide it into the cookbook. A reminder to Rae about her talent and maybe even the happier times in her life.

The next stack of pictures I pick up, Rae looks older by a few years. She must be seventeen. Her body filled out more from the other picture, but this time there is a ghost in her eyes. I didn’t know her then, but I knew Tacoma. Tacoma always said Rae was sad. She never recovered fully from her parent’s death.

As I flip through the pictures of her with her friends, I stumble across one of her with a boy I do know, Tyler Green, he was a star football player, destined to be pro everyone would whisper. I used to go to the football games every Friday night with my buddies even long after we were out of high school. Especially to watch Green play. He was an amazing player. I had no idea he knew Rae. And then it clicks in my head. The Tyler she blames her death for. She dated Tyler Green? They were on opposite ends of the social ladder.

The next picture is of the two of them, his arms wrapped around her from behind, the two of them grinning wide smiles. The smiles of two people desperately in love with each other.

I think back to the stories I heard about Tyler, trying to remember the details of his life, but I come up blank. My alcohol and drug-stained memories unable to recall anything other than he killed himself the week before he was supposed to head for college, full ride to Alabama.

Now I am very curious about this relationship she had with him. I don’t know why it bothers me. But for some reason, I want to be the man that can put that glorious smile back on her face.

I throw everything back in the box as I hear Harper come back down the stairs.

“You find what you were looking for?” she asks.

I nod. “Yeah just did.”