I fucking missed them. I missed them so much.
“It’s none of my business, but I’ve never been good at minding my own business, you know what I mean?” the woman said. “You look sad.”
I dipped my spoon into my bowl and made myself glance up.
Selene nodded.
What was I going to do? Tell her that her Alex hurt my feelings? That I didn’t want to stay here anymore? No. Instead, I settled for telling her part of it. “I’m just overwhelmed with all the changes in my life. I’m sad over it.” And here I’d just told her I didn’t want her help. That made a lot of sense.
I was pretty sure she didn’t believe me anyway. “Do you want me to show you around the property? So you can settle in? I can show you where the compost bin is,” she offered. “There is a field out back with the solar panels that power the house, and he has plans for a greenhouse by the garage.”
I wouldn’t be here long enough for that to be necessary, so I shook my head. “That’s all right. Thank you. But could I borrow a laptop? I want to send you the money you let me borrow, but I’m not sure if I can even check my account without my cell phone, and I just thought about whether I need to call the police about the incident at my house.” Saying those words out loud hurt my heart.
Would I be in trouble? Would there be a warrant out for my arrest? Could my landlord sue me? Was I a missing person or did someone actually have to report you missing for that to happen?
A grunt made me tense.
Alex was there, by the door, looking sleepy in another set of fitted sweatpants and a T-shirt.
I tipped my chin up higher and decided to be the bigger person. For now. “Morning.”
He grunted again.
All righty then. That’s where we were. That hadn’t been his usual grunt.
I faced her again and kept my expression nice and flat. “I’m going to shower. Could I borrow your phone or laptop or something later, please? I’m sorry to be so needy.”
“You’re not.” She slid the tablet toward me. “I can use my laptop.”
“Are you sure it’s okay? I can wait.”
The other woman nodded, her gaze going from me to The Defender and back. “Positive.”
Smiling at her as gratefully as possible, I took it. I washed my bowl, eyeing Alex out of the corner of my eye as he dug through the refrigerator and pulled out what looked like leftovers. I thought Selene had said he would be asleep for a while since he’d been out doing who the hell knew what all night. Too bad for me.
I pointed upstairs. “All right, I’ll be….”
She nodded.
I took my time walking out of there, making sure not to make eye contact with one of the biggest letdowns of my life. I had to start trying to figure things out. I didn’t have another choice.
What was fucking new?
* * *
“Gracie,” a deep voice called out from behind me.
I’d propped my back up against the side of the bed farthest from the door, facing the big window that showed a building behind the house that was twice as big as my trailer had been. I was fairly certain it was a garage from the size of the doors. Peeking my head up and over the mattress, I managed to keep my features straight as I found Alex there, looking just as irritated as ever.
Great.
The few hours that had passed since I’d seen him in the kitchen hadn’t eased my tension or patience with him and his bullshit. We all had something going on, but that didn’t mean he had a right to get such a shitty attitude and accuse me of stuff.
“Hi.”
“What are you doing?” he asked, not actually sounding like he cared.
Was me sitting quietly on the floor in the room going to bother him too? I opened my mouth to ask him if he wanted me to go sleep outside, but he kept talking.
