And because I’m all hopped up on rage and adrenaline, I kick that motherfucker square in the nuts and drop him.
“Don’t youeverlay a hand on Conner again,” I seethe, shoving my finger in his face. “Or I will gut you.” I lean in. “And I will rip you up.” I grab his face and squish it with a death grip. “And I will put you in my wood chipper and plant daisies with your corpse juice.”
Mr. Montgomery still can’t catch his breath. He just clutches his junk and looks like a fish as I squeeze his cheeks.
“Crawl out of this goddamn town and go back to whatever rock you like to hide under, you pussy ass little bitch.”
His face reddens with anger.
“Conner owes younothing. If you’re here, I assume it’s because you messed your life up.Again. My husband is not going to save you anymore. He’s not going to make up for your failures or bail you outor put a roof over your head or food in your rotten gut ever again. You don’t deserve him. You never fucking did.”
For good measure, I whack him one more time with my flower stems. “Leave.”
“Boy,” he growls up at Conner. “Put a leash and muz—”
“Nope, you’re not finishing that sentence.” Conner puts him in a chokehold and drags him across the floor, to the door, and tosses him outside. Then he pulls out his cell phone. “This is your last chance. Leave or I’m calling the cops.”
“Ungrateful punk.” He wipes his mouth, looks around to find the neighbors watching from their windows, and then he wobbles down the road without saying another word.
“Holy shit.” Conner grabs my shoulders and gets in my face. “Are you okay?”
“Areyouokay?” His cheek is red from where his father punched him and I’m honestly so mad all over again that I want to chase that asshole down the road and hit him with Conner’s truck.
“Taylor.” He holds me tight, and he’s shaking all over.
“You’re okay,” I say into his chest.
Conner drops to the floor, taking me with him. We hold each other and catch our breath, letting our nervous systems calm down.
He strokes my head, holding me tighter. “I thought you said fighting was never the way. That violence wasn’t the answer.”
“Yeah well. Letting that man put his hands on you isn’t in me.”
“Oh my god.” Conner holds my face and kissesme over and over. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. But my bouquet isn’t.”
Petals and leaves and stems are scattered all over the floor. “I wanted to dry those and hang them.” Tears prick my eyes.
“I’ll pick you a new one.” Conner hasn’t stopped shaking. “I’ll pick you a bouquet everyday forever.”
He’s in panic mode. I know him well enough to understand he thinks this episode just messed everything up. It hasn’t. If anything, I think it healed something.
I’ve never stuck up for myself. Conner always did it for me. He’d beat anyone who hurt my feelings or disrespected me. But no one ever stuck up for him. Conner wouldn’t hit his father back. Not even today when he towered over that man and has a lot more muscle than him.
“I wish I’d known how bad it was back then, Conner. If I had, I could have done something sooner to help you.”
Not that I know what it would have been.
“I didn’t want you to see it,” he confesses. “Dean knew, but not even Nick and Bennet know the full extent. The last thing I ever wanted was for you to be around that asshole. He’s scary, and I needed to protect you from that.”
The two times I caught bruises on Conner were both in the summer, when we were swimming. Both times he said he fell—once off a dirt bike, the other off his skateboard. And both times I called him out on his lies.
He made me pinky swear to not say anything to anyone. The fear in his eyes was the only reason Iagreed. I thought to myself,What happened if I snitched and his dad got in trouble and then came home and took it out on Conner?I couldn’t risk it. It would break Con’s trust and put him in more danger. So, I stayed quiet, and I regret it.
I knew his father was bad news the day we first met at the park. The way Conner shook at the mere sound of his father’s voice. When that jerk and his wife took off and left Conner after graduation, I was so relieved. Having that creep return after all this time was not on my bingo card though.
“Do you think he’ll come back?”
