Max’s lips twitched as he reached for another chip.
“When Payton was pregnant with Harleigh,” he said. “She used to hate being touched on her lower back. When I used to walk next to her, that’s where my hand automatically went. One day, we were walking in the middle of the mall, and all of a sudden she just stopped and burst out crying. It took her fifteen minutes to stop, and all the time we were standing there, people were looking at me like I’d just called our relationship quits or something.”
My lips twitched.
“So you’re saying your daughter gets her dramatics from her mother?” I asked curiously. “Because this morning as I was leaving, I started my bike, which happened to be parked really close to the hammock. It woke her up, and she stomped into the house like I’d just started it in her bedroom and not next to the hammock that’s on my property that she refuses to stop using.”
Max chuckled.
“That would be my Harleigh Belle,” he said, shaking his head as a laugh kicked up the corners of his lips. “She was my pride and joy…still is, really. Her brother is great. Love that boy to death…but Harleigh is my baby girl. That’s why it kills me she’s already learned some lessons the hard way.”
I frowned. “What?”
“You didn’t know why she sleeps out there?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. I just figured she was weird.”
Hoax snorted in laughter.
Max shook his head.
“Harleigh was in college when her roommate’s boyfriend decided to break into her room and nearly rape her while she was sleeping,” he explained. “Ever since, she has had a fear of sleeping alone. Honestly, I’m convinced that’s why she works nights. That way she can sleep during the day.”
Irrational anger started to course through me, all for a woman that wasn’t mine.
“What happened?” I asked, leaning away from the table of food and pinning the man with my eyes.
“Nothing really. Her best friend, Dre, walked in on him in the act. Dre had been home due to a stomach bug. Their roommate’s boyfriend hadn’t realized that he was there. Dre pulled him off of her and beat the absolute shit out of him,” Max said. “But ever since, Harleigh’s been traumatized. Scared of her own shadow.”
I could imagine.
Harleigh was a small girl.
It wouldn’t take much to overpower her.
Not much at all.
“Dre’s there,” I found myself saying.
Max shrugged. “Having Dre there helps, but she’s not willing to admit that she has a problem, so she pretty much just sleeps outside. Though that was something she’s done forever, so it doesn’t look as suspicious to everybody else. I know my baby girl, though.”
I felt my stomach clench.
Again.
I hated that.
I hated it even more that I could do nothing for her.
Nothing but allow her to sleep in the goddamn hammock.
“What happened to the roommate’s boyfriend?” I found myself asking.
“Jail,” he answered. “He was one of the ones you informed on for us.”
I wish I’d known that while I was there. I would’ve fucked him up extra just for the pure joy of it.
Hoax muttered something similar, and we shared a knowing smile. “If I’d have only known…”
***
It was an hour later that I was walking into my Abuela’s bakery and being surprised for the second time that day.
It wasn’t because of the fact that my grandmother glared at me over her cookie display case, but because of the fact that none other than my pain in the ass neighbor was sitting in one of the booths in the far corner of the room.
“What are you doing here?” came from my grandmother.
I turned to her, ignoring my neighbor and how much I wanted to pull her into my arms, and turned to my grandmother.
“I’d like a couple of those,” I pointed at the cookies.
My grandmother huffed and pulled four out of the case, putting them onto a plate and handing it to me so hard that one of the cookies almost fell to the floor.
I caught it with my expert skills, then took a big enough bite that half the cookie was devoured.
“It’s good,” I muttered around a full mouth. “Though the bottom’s a little burnt.”
My grandmother huffed indignantly. “You lie.”
My lips twitched.
“You have any milk?” I asked.
My grandmother didn’t sell milk at the bakery. Something in which I’d been urging her to do for a while now.
I mean, who the hell would be able to eat something sweet and not want milk to chase it down with afterward?
However, she’d tried to sell milk before and it mostly ended up going bad, and she lost money on it.
Now she no longer sold the milk, but always kept some in the back for when I’d come.
Or used to.
The way she smiled slowly, she apparently still did.
“Thank you,” I grinned.
My grandmother couldn’t contain her smile.