OMW
Be quiet
I put the smartphone away and look at Sophie again. She’s fast asleep, which I can’t blame her for. If my assumptions are right and her life has really only taken place in that tiny house—which I assume is the case since the world seems so damn foreign to her—what she experienced tonight must have taken quite a toll on her.
Sighing, I get out of my truck and close the door as quietly as possible. When I open the passenger door, Sophie’s body sags toward me. I put an arm around her, unbuckle her, and lift her out of the truck. She weighs next to nothing, and her head sinks against my shoulder as I shut the door. In her right hand, she’s still holding the dollar bills I gave her what feels like ages ago. I suppress another sigh before entering the warehouse and carrying her upstairs to the finished part of the upper floor. Once there, I lay her down on my bed, since Jules’s isn’t made anymore. Sophie instantly snuggles into the pillow without waking up. After pulling the bills from her grip and pocketingthem, I head for the open kitchen to pour myself a glass of Jack Daniel’s and toss it back in one go.
Fuck. That’s what I needed two hours ago.
After lighting a cigarette and taking a deep drag, I pour myself another Jack. My gaze is fixed thoughtlessly on the girl lying in my bed until I hear footsteps on the stairs and avert it.
Jules looks at me worried as she climbs the last steps before scanning me from head to toe, just like she’s done countless times before. "What happened?"
I lay my finger against my lips while I nod in Sophie’s direction.
"Who’s this?"
"Let’s go downstairs," I murmur and follow her to the first floor. The yellowish light of a streetlamp shines through the dull glass of the old, paned floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s not bright, but enough to make out Jules’s furrowed brows and her questioning look.
"I hope you have a damn good explanation for the fact that there’s a sleeping girl in your bed and you look like you’ve been chased by the devil." At her words, she raises an eyebrow and tilts her head. If she’d put her fists on her hips, she could pass for the mother I never had even though she’s younger than me.
I run my hand through my hair and take a deep breath. "It’s not good, but it’s the truth," I reply. "She… came to me, I guess."
Jules tilts her head even further, making her purple ponytail fall to the side. "Came to you? Like a cat?"
Yes, shecame to me. But like a cat?
"No, goddamn. More like… you." I shake my head before I explain what happened after I left the vet clinic.
Jules’s expression shifts from confusion to disbelief and finally to concern. When I finish speaking, she takes an audible breath before looking at me skeptically. "So what are you goingto do now? I mean… are you just going to keep her here? This thing with her mother doesn’t sound good at all."
Yeah. That’s the million-dollar question. What am I going to do with her?
"I don’t know," I confess. "For now, I’ll let her sleep. Tomorrow, I’ll try to get more out of her. Then I’ll figure it out."
Jules looks at me silently for a while, then nods before chewing on her lower lip for a moment. "Cole, I know this is really shitty of me because you don’t want to talk about it, but this isnother. You know that, right?" Her voice is almost cautious, but it still feels like a dagger in my heart.
I avert my gaze.
Since the moment Sophie got into my pickup at that fucking traffic light, the thought has been pounding in the back of my head. I’ve been semi-successful in ignoring it, but I can’t keep doing that anymore. Sophie looks so much like her. The long blond hair, the soft features with those full lips, the amber eyes… She looks just like Milena. Milena, who had been everything to me. Who had made me the happiest person on this godforsaken planet. And who I killed three years ago.
"I know."
"Okay," Jules says softly, taking a step toward me. Then she wraps her arms around my waist and rests her head against my chest. "I’m just worried about you. I don’t want you to have another?—"
"It’s okay." I hug her tightly. "I’m fine."
We both know that I’mabsolutelynotfine, but Jules nods anyway. She’s well aware of how pointless it is to try to pull me out of this fucking hole I fell into when I lost the girl I loved. She witnessed firsthand what it did to me. What it made out of me. Even in the early days, when I pushed everything and everyone away, she stood by my side and didn’t give up on me. A mean, self-destructive part of me wants to believe she did that so we’dbe even. But deep down, I know she really cares about me. And even though I never said it out loud, I’m more than grateful to her for always staying by my side, no matter how obnoxious I was.
After I let go of her, she looks at me with a faint smile. "Go to sleep. And please try not to drink too much." Her gentle yet firm tone makes me smile.
"I’ll be back tomorrow morning. You don’t have to figure this out alone, okay?"
I nod before changing the subject. "What’s it like at your place?"
"Miss me already?" The grin she puts on is teasing, but I love her way too much to be mad at her.
Chuckling, I drape an arm around her shoulder. "Me? Missing you? Your mess was almost unbearable. I’m glad to finally be rid of you," I tease her back as we walk toward the old steel door. "I’m still finding your underwear in the most impossible places."
