What things?
I heard the sink turn on as he called out, “I talked to your brother today.”
Sean?
My brother was the one beacon of light I had. Things had been even more depressing around here since he’d left for college.
I sat up and peeked in the bathroom. “Is he coming home?”
Sean called or texted me every day, but I hadn’t seen him since Christmas and that seemed like forever ago.
“He has classes, Honey Bug.” My father appeared back in the room with a glass in his hand. “He can’t drop everything to come home.”
Right.
I hung my head and chewed at the frown tugging on my lips. Of course Sean couldn’t come home. He was busy living his life. I should be happy for him. He’d gotten away from here.
My father sighed and swept the hair off my forehead. “I know you miss your brother, but you’ll see him soon enough. And you still have me.”
Which version of him was he referring to?
“Here,” he held out the glass, “drink this. It’ll make you feel better.”
I smiled at the warmth glittering in his eyes and swallowed back the cool water. This man, the one looking at me right now,hewas my father.
“That’s a good girl.” He set the empty glass on my bedside table and sat down on the bed. “Maybe when I get back we could take a trip to that ice cream shop you like?”
That made me smile. We used to have weekly trips to the little stand outside of town, but we hadn’t been there in ages.
“Okay.”
I stretched my arms over my head and yawned. My limbs suddenly felt really heavy.
“You lay down and get some rest.”
Sleep sounded like a fantastic idea. I blinked my heavy lids up at my father and smiled before nestling back into my soft pillow. The stress of the day must’ve finally caught up with me because I was really tired.
When I felt my father’s lips press against my forehead, I was already drifting off.
“Sweet dreams, my little Trojan horse.”
I duckedback into the shadows as the front door swung open and Harper’s old man strode out. The bushes I’d chosen to hide in weren’t the best – someone else might have snuck in through the magnolias where there was more cover and height – but where was the fun in that?
Besides, the last place anyone would expect to find a man my size was in these shrubs. Especially someone like Ned Callaghan.
That motherfucker walked around town in his stuffy three-piece suit with his shoulders rolled back. The only thing better than fucking with some uptight prick was when they didn’t know it was you fucking with them.
I lost count of how many times I listened to Lou rant about some issue, all while smiling behind his back because I was the cause of said issue. If Silas had a stick shoved up his ass, then Lou had the whole damn tree.
Asshole practically strip-searched me every time I left the house. Acting like he was all worried that I was back on the sauce. I was – took my first drink three days out of rehab. It wasn’t like I drank everyday or anything, but I know what Lou and my brother would say.
They’d sit me down and give me some lecture about all that wasted effort. ‘You spent all that time getting clean, Mase. Why would you wreck that?’
Personally, I thought rehab was a fucking joke. Every time we were forced to sit around and listen to some asshole talk about his bullshit problems, I wanted to slit my damn throat. Unfortunately for the doctors at Cedarbrea Addiction Clinic, I grew up with two world class manipulators.
Three months was all it took for me to play those pricks, and they weren’t the only ones. My supposed father and brother had no clue about my extracurricular activities.
Looks like I was better than Lou’s little golden boy at something after all. I did kick the drugs though, so I suppose it wasn’t a complete waste.
