They’d coddled me—their only child—with unyielding affection and infinitegentleness.
And Aidan had taken that from me. Desire to understand why he’d shot Dad and then insisted on dining with me made me shake withanger.
A hand wrapped aroundmine.
“Oh,querida.”
I leaned into Evelyn, and she tightened her grip, tugging me around the empty house to a wall that was all sliding glassdoors.
“The kitchen was Mom’s favoriteroom.”
Evelyn turned her gaze up to the strip of sunshine pouring through the mottled gray skylight Dad and Nelson had put in one summer. August had assisted our fathers while I’d served them extra-sour lemonade to show them what I thought about not being allowed to help. I’d felt immense satisfaction when they’d all squinted from the bittertaste.
My parents didn’t want me climbing high, afraid I’d fall and break my neck. I hadn’t shifted yet, so although everyone watched me closely for a sign that I’d inherited the Boulder gene, I was still deemed a delicatehuman.
One night, though, after Mom had headed into town for a girls’ dinner, Dad had let me climb up on the roof with him. With our backs against the sun-warmed slate, we’d gazed up at the sheet of stars. He’d told me how he’d once wished upon a shooting star that Mom would marry him and bear him a healthybaby.
“Are you sad I’m a girl?” I’d askedhim.
He’d fixed me with his eyes that resembled the surface of Coot Lake at sunrise—a deep gray that veered to silver—and stroked my cheek. “No, sweetheart. I am terribly happy you were born agirl.”
I touched my cheek as his caress ghosted overit.
Evelyn stepped in front of me, the scent of menthol eddying thickly around her…around me. “Enough. We areleaving.”
“I’mokay.”
“You are not okay.” She swiped her thumbs against mycheeks.
Finally, I relented with a deep, rattling sigh. She was right. I was experiencing a sensorial overload and needed distance. As we walked away, my phone vibrated inside my bag. I checked who was calling—August. I didn’t pickup.
“Boy trouble?” Evelynasked.
“No. I just don’t feel like talking to anyone right now. Exceptyou.”
She snaked an arm around my waist and gave me a longsqueeze.
“Are you liking it here?” Iasked.
She bit her rouged upper lip before answering, “Sí. Jeb is a kindman.”
“But Lucyisn’t?”
“Your aunt is a little…bossy, which is not to say she is malicious. I just prefer your uncle.” Once we’d reached the junction with the main road, she said, “The boy who brought you home on Saturday…he ishandsome.”
Her words flicked my heart.Nope.I was not touching the Liam subject with a ten-foot pole, or a fifty-foot one for thatmatter.
“He was very worried when he dropped youoff…”
My cheeks burned with the memory of how he’d violated me. I would never dare tell Evelyn what he’d done. She’d be disgusted, but perhaps not only with him. Perhaps she’d be disgusted with me too. Because she’d ask what prompted him to do such athing.
It was a can of worms I had no desire toopen.
Notnow.
Notever.
Chapter Thirty
