“Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” he muttered, in a way that meantno.“But I’ve got to go.” He looked down at my hand on his arm. I slid it off him and he started forward.
“Well...okay, I’ll sleep here,” I said. “I can get Stacey to crash at my place with Kayley.”
Immediately, he whipped around. “What? No! I’m not having you here by yourself!”
“What about the house?”
He sighed. “It’ll be fine. It’s just one night.”
I frowned. This wasn’t like him. What the hell was so important that he’d put the grow house second? And that could stress him out so much? “Then why doyouhave to be here every night?”
He shook his head and I could hear the frustration in his voice. “Louise…”
“What if tonight’s the one night we get robbed?”
He suddenly grabbed my forearms and shoved me up against the wall, so hard the air was knocked from me. “Fuckin’ hell, Louise:no,okay?No.Just be told. What if someonedidbreak in? What would you do?”
I just gaped at him. My feet were off the floor. His anger would have been terrifying...if I hadn’t been able to see how worried he was about me.
He gently let me down and released me. “It’s too dangerous,” he said in a softer tone. “Okay?”
I swallowed and nodded. “Okay.”
“Go home. Promise me.”
I nodded.
“Louise!”
“I promise!”
He turned to go. Then stopped in the doorway as if about to say something.Tell me! Tell me what’s going on,I screamed in my mind.
“I’ll see you around,” he muttered. And left.
Fuck.My mind was spinning. Something was obviously up with him, but what? He’d closed me out again.
I turned in a slow circle, looking at the plants. The longer I stood there, the less I wanted to leave them there undefended. What if someonedidbreak in? If we lost them all now, there was no time to start a new crop—we needed the money for Kayley’s treatment in a month.
But I’d promised Sean.
I stood there debating for a full half hour before I finally called Stacey and asked if she could come over to my place and be there for Kayley.
“Sure,” she said. “Is it a date?”
“No!” As if I’d leave my sister to run off and sleep over at some guy’s place! “No, nothing like that. Just a...work emergency.”
“Atnight?You work in a garden store!”
I closed my eyes and gripped the phone so hard in my fist the casing creaked. “Stacey...I’m sorry. I can’t get into it right now. Will you just watch Kayley for me?”
“Yeah,” she said in a hurt tone. “Of course.”
I thanked her and ended the call.Dammit!I was keeping things from her just like Sean was keeping stuff from me. She deserved better.
I went out to grab takeout.It won’t be so bad,I thought. There was a mattress and some blankets and a bathroom. I spent half my life in the grow house anyway: what was one night? And the chances of anyone breaking in on that particular night were tiny. Right?
