Rye turns a scary shade of white, and Brin swallows hard like she’s nervous. Her eyes dart around like she’s searching for something, but she doesn’t deny it immediately like everyone else has.
“Brin?” Rye says hoarsely, as though it took a year to forge that one word.
“It’s me,” Allie says suddenly, standing so quickly that the chair flips over behind her.
Wren falls out of his chair, and then leaps back to his feet, his eyes wide and excited. “Really?” he asks, his smile growing until it looks painful.
He’s excited?
“Um… Yeah,” Allie says, sounding like she’s not as enthused.
Wren is on her in the next breath, kissing her and pulling her so close that you couldn’t wedge a piece of paper between them. Rye stands and walks away, his entire body so tense that he can’t seem to relax.
“Is he upset?” I ask, confused as I look over at Brin.
She clears her throat, while shrugging. “You know his past. Kids are touchy subject for him until he really believes history can’t repeat itself with him. I need to go make sure he’s okay.”
She stands and sprints off in the direction Rye went.
Bella stands, still a little pale. I guess she’s shocked over Allie’s confession. Wren looks like he’s on cloud nine right now, but I’m ready to call it a night. I can’t fix this thing with Bella in front of everyone.
“You ready to go?” I ask her, hoping she’ll still take me home with her.
She nods instead of vocalizing the agreement, and I test the waters, putting an arm around her when she reaches me. She doesn’t throw me off her, so that’s a good sign.
“About what I said earlier… Bella, I didn’t mean to freak you out. I just—”
“It’s fine. I’m fine. I’m just tired, and I want to go home,” she says softly, so softly that I barely hear her.
My brow furrows when I see she’s not looking at me, and I follow her gaze to where Rye is holding Brin against him. Actually, Brin is holding him, since she’s on the hood of his Range Rover, and his head is against her chest. But he’s clinging to her like he can’t let go.
I guess that seriously freaked him out.
“Yeah, sure,” I finally say, which seems to break her out of her trance.
Her eyes cut away from Rye and Brin, but I notice she’s walking like she’s defeated, as though something terrible is going on that I’m not aware of.
“Bella? What’s wrong?” I ask, catching up to her as she opens the driver’s side door.
“Like I said, I just want to go home. I’ll drop you off at your house, and you can come get your car tomorrow.”
She’s like ice when I sit down in the car, which confuses and concerns me even more. This can’t be about what I said. Surely.
“Rye really loves Brin,” she says randomly as she starts the car and starts driving toward my house.
“Yeah,” I say, trying to catch up to whatever train of thought she’s on.
“Yet he really freaked out when he thought she was pregnant.”
“Well, it probably scared the shit out of him,” I say, holding back the truth of Rye’s past.
His mother had a lot of mental issues, and he suffered because of it as a child. He slept in a closet for days on end, and went hungry too many times to count. The psychological effect it had on him was far worse than any physical abuse I ever suffered.
Like Brin said, until he’s certain he won’t ever have the same issues, kids is a touchy subject for him, something Brin is fully aware of and can handle. In fact, she’s the only person who can handle him.
Bella doesn’t say anything else, and I regret not being able to elaborate. For whatever reason, that seems to have her upset.
Maybe Rye will give me permission to explain, and she’ll get it then. But I can’t just go spilling his past out no matter how much I trust Bella, because those aren’t my secrets to tell.