“Just leave them be, Aidan,” I said again as I did my best to keep my voice steady.No weakness.If I showed weakness, he’d use it against me. He always used it against me.
“I don’t think you understand me,” he began and set down his beer. The simple action made my adrenaline kick up. I recognized the lead-up in him and took a careful step back in case I needed to run. “I wasn’t asking. You live in my house. Don’t you forget that.”
“It’s Mom’s,” I muttered before I could stop myself. I instantly regretted it. The dark anger that flashed across his face was more terrifying than any words he’d ever say. My heart kicked up hard enough to make my vision blur at the edges and steal the breath from my lungs.I shouldn’t have said the words.
“What did you say?” he growled.
“Nothing,” I whispered weakly. It was smarter to lie.Safer.
“That’s what I thought,” he said. “Figure it out, Maverick. I expect you to pull your own weight around here. I’m not taking care of a fucking freeloader. You wanted to finish school, I said fine. You haven’t found a job that works with your schedule,which means I’m stuck taking care of your dumbass. You owe me.”
The words crawled under my skin despite all the armor I put up, and I just nodded, not knowing how to reply. He was right. I did owe him. He could’ve kicked me out years ago, but he didn’t. Instead, he let me stay and try. Which, honestly, I understood the irony of that request. I ditched school a lot, but my grades were good. I didn’t want to be a dropout. Some day I’d make something out of myself.Maybe.That was the fleeting dream, anyway.
“You’ll never be good enough for him, Maverick,” Aidan continued. “He’ll leave you just like Mom and Dad did. No one stays but me.”
That hit deeper than anything else he’d ever said to me because somewhere in the back of my mind, that terrified, quiet voice wondered if he was right. What if I wasn’t good enough to keep Harley?
Grabbing his beer, he stormed out of the house, the screen door slamming behind him. The sound rattled the walls, and I flinched. I stayed exactly where I was, rooted in my spot. I didn’t trust that he was really gone. My eyes burned hot with tears, a mixture of rage and sadness pressing against the back of my throat. I forced myself to breathe as I watched the clock.
Five-and-a-half minutes.
That was how long it’d take for him to walk to the front of the park where his friends were. Still, I waited for six minutes to pass just in case.Better safe than sorry.
As soon as those minutes were up, I left. My chest was tight as I slipped out the back as quietly as I could, so as not to bring attention to myself. I snuck through the backwoods, avoiding Mr. McCreedy’s dog, and wandering toward the lake to find somewhere to sleep for the night. I just wanted to be anywhere that Aidan wasn’t.
CHAPTER 11
harley
Iwas never the kid to sneak in or out of my house, not before Maverick. Admittedly, it wasn’t hard. Our house had several doors and no security cameras. Besides the fact that no one ever came up this way, Wilde Bay wasn’t that kind of town. I knew there were some thefts and fights and such, but they were always around the tourist areas.
I managed to make it inside and through to the living room when I heard it.
“Where have you been?”
I froze at the sound of my mother’s voice, stopping dead in my tracks. My heart lodged in my throat, and I did my best to swallow down my anxiety. Anxiety was weakness, and my mother didn’t appreciate weakness.
“Um…” I stumbled over an answer while I turned to face her. She rose from the chair I hadn’t noticed her in.
“We don’tumin this house.” Elizabeth Lowell was a stark woman, cold and unforgiving. She said the circles we ran in demanded it, but I wasn’t so sure. There had to be more to life than being that… emotionless.Maybe that was why I was so anxious all the time.“ I asked… where have you been?”
“I went out,” I said softly.
“I can see that,” she clipped. “I am asking where you have been, Harley.”
“I made a friend,” I told her as I carefully picked my words. Words mattered with her.
“Maverick Fox.” The way she said his name set me on edge. The disdain. The irritation.The knowing.It hit me just how much I didn’t want my mother to know about Maverick. I didn’t want to put him in her crosshairs. He was safer when he was my secret. “Do you think I don’t know what goes on in my own home? Do you think I’m a fool?”
“No.”
“My son,” she began, “the one I raised to understand his position in society—his position in this family—should understand howthatlooks. Sneaking around with someone like Maverick Fox. Would you mind enlightening me as to what could possibly be going through that head of yours?”
“I don’t…” I faltered. I didn’t know how to explain that I didn’t have to think when I was around Maverick. That I didn’t feel all the pressures she constantly put on me. He was peace andcomfort all wrapped into one. Whenever I was around him, we just were. I craved that kind of life.
“Do you understand the effect your behavior has on this family?” she asked angrily. “How do you think this makes us look? Makesmelook?”
“I didn’t think—”
