It made me wonder just what had gone down with his father in that childhood home, how much damage he’d caused that family. I shivered involuntarily at the thought. If Nate was that affected, I wondered what his mom had been through. Compared to my mother, who was so strong and self-assured, Nate’s mom might be a mess.

I had already seen glimpses of Nate’s brother, Luke, and now as I put the whole of it together, I got why Nate had called him a prick. You hear about the cycle of abuse and his brother unfortunately might be evidence of that. He was cocky with an almost mean edge—one I originally saw as coming from a life of privilege.

Now I tuned into the other photos. The after shots. The ones I took of Nate up on the railroad bridge, after spending the night wrapped in his arms. To me, the evidence was plain in his eyes. He looked different—relaxed, content, free.

I wondered if he’d ever be able to see that in himself.

The problem was, Nate’s kinky urges had married with his constant wicked thoughts of himself, which made this way complicated. He was convinced his dark was overshadowing everything.

But I knew without a shred of doubt that there were insurmountable amounts of light in him to give.

Right then I’d decided on something. Something important I needed to do.

***

After the darkroom, I headed to Raw Ink for my shift. I was immediately greeted by Cory who was walking his client out the door.

“How was your weekend away, Jess?” he said, turning to me after he waved good-bye. “Were there any handcuffs or bungee jumping involved?”

I held in a gasp. He never shared details of his weekends with me, so I knew he was only messing around, but his comment had hit too close to home.

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be an ass.”

I looked over at Emmy who wiggled her eyebrows.

I laid down my bag. “You guys are impossible.”

Bennett emerged from the back room with a customer. She was older, wore a bandage concealing her wrist and a set of dreamy eyes that plenty of Bennett’s female customers wore for him. But he was oblivious to it or maybe just good at ignoring it. Avery didn’t know how lucky she had it.

Emmy rang the customer out while I pulled off my jacket.

Bennett leaned over the counter. “You good?”

“Yep.”

“Nate show you all the right places?”

Oh, he showed me all right, I wanted to say.

“Yeah, I got some cool shots,” I said, figuring I’d get tired of everyone’s questions by the end of my shift. The hazard of having co-workers that felt like family. “There were so many bridges.”

He nodded. “He said your car got a flat?”

Emmy’s eyes snapped up to mine.

“A leak. Got it plugged,” I said, surprised Bennett had that information. “It would’ve sucked had he not been with me.”

“Yeah, he said as much.”

“Did he give you a play-by-play?” I tried to not to make my voice sound strained.

“No. That was it,” Bennett said and I blew out a breath. “Why, is there something else I should know?”

Just then Avery walked in with her blue scrubs, and saved me from answering him. She was on rotation at the university hospital and whenever she and Bennett finished work at the same time, they walked home together.

Bennett slid his arms around her waist and gave her a quick but intimate kiss on the lips. Then he whispered something in her ear and she giggled.

Emmy sighed as she passed by me at the desk. “I want my very own Bennett,” she mumbled near my ear.

Avery waved to us as they headed out the door. But then she stopped and turned. “Hey, did you get the invite from Ella to Quinn’s birthday thing?”

There had been a couple of voice mails on my phone that I hadn’t exactly checked yet. I blamed it on my mopey mood. I shook my head. Ella was Avery’s friend and she dated Quinn, the catcher for the TSU baseball team. We all hung out sometimes and I went on that road trip with them last summer to the music festival.

“She’s rented some lanes at the bowling alley,” Avery said. “Beer and wings. Should be fun.”

“When?” I asked.

“The weekend after next,” she said. “Kai’s coming up for it.”

“I bet Rachel’s happy.”

Avery smiled. “Hopefully she can keep her hands off of Kai until after the party.”

“Wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t,” I said and Emmy agreed, with a knowing grin. Kai was like sex on a stick, with his long hair, beautiful face, and pierced parts.

“We’ll be there, right, Emmy?”

“Right,” she said.

As Avery and Bennett headed out the door, Emmy stood staring at me.

“What?”

“Out with it,” she said. “What happened this weekend with Nate?”

“He took me to see some covered and industrial bridges,” I said. “It was really cool and I got some great photos.”

When I moved behind her to look at the schedule, she latched onto my arm. “What about the flat tire?”

“Yeah that,” I said. “It was too late to find somewhere to get it fixed. Every place was closed. So . . . we had to stay overnight.”

“You’re kidding,” she said, her eyes wide. “Where the heck did you sleep?”

I couldn’t help wondering what in the hell Nate had told Bennett about our sleeping arrangements. Somehow I doubted he’d told him about staying in the same room or having sex with me. Bennett didn’t act strange in front of me and besides, what I knew from Nate, he wasn’t one to kiss and tell.