“Look, if your dad’s an asshole, you have to tell me because he works with my mom and they’re dating.”
I heard him breathe a heavy sigh before starting to talk. “It has nothing to do with my dad. I did it because hiding here is a habit I’ve had since I was a kid. And there are times when his parents are never here. Will’s always alone.” James inadvertently piqued my curiosity about something else. Why’d he have to hide here since he was little?
“My parents are separated too.” I shrugged, lacing my fingers between my knees like I wanted to stop the agitation I felt whenever I was around him from getting the best of me.
“But yours separated because they couldn’t get past a really hard time.”
James’s statement brought me right back to the past. “What about yours?”
“If my parents are separated it’s only because my mom didn’t think twice about cheating on him repeatedly.”
“Did that happen a long time ago?”
James clenched his jaw.
“I was in elementary school. My dad was always working. He was never home. So she slept with every Tom, Dick, and Harry, end of sob story.”
I jumped.
James clenched his jaw, and when my leg accidentally brushed up against his, he pulled it away like it burned. He stood up, went to the kitchen, and rolled a joint.
“Five minutes is too long to go without smoking,” I said sarcastically.
“I sweat out too many toxins during my workout.”
He maneuvered a rolling paper between his fingers, and I decided to pick up where we’d left off.
“But if your dad just got custody of Jasper less than a year ago, he didn’t raise you guys, did he?”
His deep eyes darted to my face.
“No,” he answered curtly.
At first I was interested in finding out what kind of guy Jordan was, but now that the Jordan’s a bad guy variable was eliminated, I wanted to know more about their family.
I’d guessed a long time ago that James was just putting on an act, but what was he hiding?
I saw him bite his lip nervously, and I couldn’t hold back.
“James, if you need to talk . . .”
Maybe I didn’t have the right to say that, maybe it wasn’t the right time, but now I’d said it.
He furrowed his brows and looked confused.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Steps from upstairs replaced the silence.
“June.”
Five seconds, and both of us shied away from that visual contact. I turned around and saw William looking at us. He’d changed and was staring at me.
