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She wanted to do something for him. She wanted to do something to help fix him.
She just wished she knew how.
“We might want to start heading back,” he said. “The road is bound to get a little bit slippery tonight. It’s supposed to get down to freezing over in Pyrite Falls.”
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s head back, then.”
They gathered up their trash and threw it in the nearby can, some lingering seagulls looking disappointed that there weren’t any leftovers for them.
Then they walked all the way down the street to where they had parked.
The carolers were singing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” and she started humming, and carried it on until they were in the truck, headed back down the road.
“I don’t know that song,” he said.
“Really?”
“No. I know a couple of Christmas songs. But not really...”
“Oh. I know a lot. From school, mostly. And Christmas specials. And the Allreds used to take us to church.”
“Yeah. I never went to church. My mom had a rosary, and some stuff with saints? She was kind of into that. But... No. We never went to church. My dad would’ve caught on fire before he ever made it in the door.”
“My dad’s in prison,” she said. “At least, that’s what my caseworker told me one time. Vehicular manslaughter. He was driving under the influence and he hit a pedestrian. It was just one of the many things that he did that hurt people. At least, that’s my understanding. It happened really soon after I was born. I think my parents only lived together for a couple of months of my life. Things went downhill for my mom after that. She quit being able to take care of me. She was really young. Seventeen, maybe? Somewhere around there. That was what the caseworker told me. She tried. For a while.”
She looked out the window.
“And when she didn’t try?”
“She forgot to feed me. Or... Stay home with me? I guess used to just leave me. It was when she started staying away for a couple of days at a time that the neighbors noticed. I got removed from her care for the first time when I was four months old. And I went back and forth for years.”
“I’m sorry.”
“There’s a lot of different ways to hurt people,” she said. “They don’t all require fists. Or fire.”
He didn’t say anything. The only sound was the tires on the road.
He knew she was right. Because he had secrets... secrets that would hurt his brothers. More than fire ever could. Elizabeth had shared so much of herself. And it all revealed her to be even more of what he already believed her to be.
Brave and humble and perfect.
His secrets weren’t like that.
She wouldn’t peel back his layers to find a better man. She’d just find a mess.
She went back to humming Christmas songs.
And that was mostly it for the rest of the drive.
Brody decided to go back to his place that night. Because he didn’t figure spending the night with her tonight was a great idea. But he was regretting that.
He was wishing... He was wishing that he’d stayed with her, but it was ten thirty, and he knew it was damn well too late to be headed over, because it would look like a booty call. And it would’ve been.
She had been confused when he’d told her he’d have dinner at his place.
He felt like a dick.
No ifs, ands, or butts about it.
