“Damn it, Stella. Your grandparents are here. They’ll throw a hissy fit if they see you’re drunk.” Curtis’s parents are lovely, but a bit straitlaced.
“Gram and Gramps are gone.” Stella yawns and flops down on my bed. “I came up to see if you were okay. West and Bowie had a massive argument in front of everyone.” For God’s sake. I told Curtis to take care of it. Honestly, he can’t be trusted to do a damn thing. “And then Shepherd hit Bowie,” Stella continues, “when Gayle revealed Bowie has a bit of a thing for older women and, apparently, he fucked Shep’s mom last year.”
I wonder if that is what this is for Vander. A desire to sample an older woman before he gets it out of his system and returns to dating girls his own age. Shaking those disturbing thoughts aside, I refocus on my inebriated daughter. “Welp, it wouldn’t be a party without some drama, I suppose,” I say, taking Stella’s hand and pulling her up. I need to get her out of here so I can get Vander out of my bedroom before someone sees. Hiding him in my bathroom has me all kinds of nervous.
Stella cocks her head to the side, studying me curiously. “Are you feeling okay? You look flushed, and you have a rash all over your chest.” She laughs as she toys with my hair. “Were you rolling around in the garden or something? Your hair is all messed up.”
“I’m not the one you should be worrying about, missy. You’re swaying on your feet.”
“I’m fi—” Her eyes startle wide as she clamps a hand over her mouth.
I can only watch in horror as she races toward the bathroom door and yanks it open. Panic slams into me, nausea swims up my throat, and my knees almost go out from underneath me. The sounds of vomiting reach my ears, and I force my shaky limbs to move. When I step into the bathroom, my daughter is bent over the toilet bowl, puking her guts up, but there is no sign of Vander. A light wind lifts strands of my hair, and I glance at the window, noticing it is open.
Oh my God. He must be outside, hiding in the tree that butts up against this side of the house. I hope he’s okay because there is nothing I can do until Stella stops getting sick. Needing to do something to distract my jangled nerves, I wet a damp cloth and attend to my daughter, wiping her brow and pushing hair out of her eyes while she expels the contents of her stomach.
After, I help her to her room, telling her to get changed and that I’ll be back with some water. Then I dash back into my bedroom, closing and locking the door before racing to the bathroom. I’m just in time to see Vander climbing back through the window. “Are you crazy? I hiss. “You could have fallen and seriously injured yourself!” I help him to maneuver his body inside. He barely fits through the window, and it’s a miracle he managed to get outside before Stella caught him.
“I had no choice. There was nowhere else to hide, and I couldn’t risk Stella finding me.” He jumps down and straightens up. “That was a close call,” he adds, grinning and visibly shivering.
I rub my hands up and down his arms and over his body to help warm him up. “Too close.” First West, and now Stella. I’m not cut out for this, at all, and I feel so guilty for hiding something as big as this from my kids.
“Don’t read into it,” he says as if he has a hotline to my thoughts.
“It’s hard not to.”
“I love you, and you love me. That is all that counts.”
If only it were that simple, and I don’t remember telling him I loved him. “We can’t talk about this now. You need to leave so I can return to Stella.”
“Just promise me you’ll come see me tomorrow night. I don’t care how late it is. I can’t go another day without seeing you.”
“I can’t promise anything, Vander, but I will do my best.”
26
VANDER
When I return from a run the following afternoon, West is waiting for me. He’s sitting on his butt on the dirty ground outside the gate to the carriage house with his legs bent and his face buried in his knees.
“Hey, man.” I open the gates and clamp a hand on his shoulder. “Come on in.”
Without uttering a word, he scrambles to his feet and follows me inside. I know why he’s here, and I need a couple of minutes to compose myself so I can be the friend he needs right now. “I’m gonna grab a quick shower. I have beer or there’s tequila in the cupboard. Help yourself.”
He nods, making a beeline for the refrigerator. His shoulders are tense, his back stiff, and he’s not carrying himself with the usual confidence. I feel for him, I really do, but I’m also pleased she went through with it. I barely slept all night worrying Kendall would change her mind or Curtis would try to talk her out of it. Guilt jumps up and bites me as I think these thoughts, and I feel like the absolute shittiest friend on the planet.
Leaving West to his beer, I head into the shower to get my head on straight. Compartmentalizing my feelings is something I have become good at, and I need to do that now. I can’t be thinking of Kendall or selfishly thinking of myself when my buddy needs me.
West is on his second beer when I emerge from my bedroom ten minutes later. Grabbing a cold one from the refrigerator, I join him on the couch. “What’s up?”
A muscle clenches in his jaw, and he tightens his grip on his bottle before answering me. “My parents are getting divorced.”
I squeeze his shoulder. “I’m sorry for what you’re going through.”
“My dad is an asshole. I hate him.” He drains half his beer, and a thunderous look washes over his face. “Everything he said was lies stacked upon lies.” He turns to face me with red-rimmed eyes. “He’s having another affair, and he wasn’t even going to tell us.” He knocks back more beer. “Mom had to basically force him to admit it although she did agree they have been drifting apart for the past few years and splitting up was inevitable.” Grabbing one of my new cushions, he throws it at the wall. “It’s such bullshit, and now everything is changing.”
“What can I do?”
“Distract me.” He runs shaky fingers through his hair. “Hazel is at her grandparents’ house all afternoon, and she’s got some volleyball team night out to go to later. I don’t want to return home until that asshole is all moved out.”
