“I just don’t answer the door,” Vivian said.
“After I told himnothe first time, he asked if we had an alarm already and pushed to know which one,” Bram said.
“That’s unnerving. You didn’t tell him, right?” Vivian asked.
Bram shook his head. “I told him no one around here would be stupid enough to break into my house.”
The tension disappeared after that. I ate slower than the others, but even when they finished, they stayed at the table with me until I was done.
Chapter Eight
I hadone more day until I got my stitches out and I couldn’t wait. I had so many on my side and on my arm that had gone through the glass lamp. My bruises were starting to turn yellow. I couldn’t stand to look at myself naked. When I got in and out of the shower, I looked at either the floor or the ceiling to avoid accidentally seeing myself in the large mirror above the sink.
Mac had gotten me the comfiest loungewear sets with Bram’s money. I hadn’t worn anything else in almost a week. I was currently wearing a grayish purple, waffle-knit lounge set. The pants were long and loose in the leg. The top was long-sleeved and hung off one shoulder.
Before Vivian left for work today, she offered to help pull all my hair up in the bathroom.
“I need to thank you,” she said as she collected my hair into her hands.
“What for?” I asked.
“I’ve seen Reid more in the past week than I’ve seen him in the past year.” She smiled at me through the mirror. “I know he’s not here for me, even though he strangely won’t hang out with you whenever he’s here.” Her smile turned sad. “The other night we had a good conversation.”
Must be nice. He barely talked to me despite looking like he had something to say.
“It gives me hope that we can have many more conversations,” she added.
I knew I shouldn’t ask, but I couldn’t help it. “Did something happen between you two to make you go so long without seeing each other?”
She went quiet until she finished with my hair. “There. All done.”
I turned to face her and her eyes dropped to my neck for only a second before looking away.
“Mac told me that Reid told you about our past with their father,” she said.
“He did.”
Her eyes flicked to meet mine and stayed there. It was as if she refused to let her gaze drop lower, where my ugly yellowing neck was on full display. “Reid resents me for not getting us away from his father. He’s mad that he had to be the one to save us. And he has every right to be. I should have found a way to get us away from my ex-husband. I should have protected my children.” Her eyes watered. “The other night, he told me he’s been trying to look at our past from my perspective. Instead of just silently blaming me, he asked me questions that I think have been festering in him for a long time. I feel like it’s a good step. It gives me hope that one day we’ll be healed from the past. I think I need to thank you for that as well.”
“I gave up hoping a long time ago,” I blurted.
She stared at me with understanding in her eyes. “I did, too. For a time.”
“When did you start allowing yourself to hope again?”
“After my little boy risked his life to save us.” She reached up to adjust something she disliked about my ponytail. “Ihopeyou’re able to start hoping for things again.”
A little bit after lunchtime, Bram came in from the garage and poked his head into the room. “Would you be okay for an hour alone? I got to run by work really quick.”
I was sitting in bed catching up on schoolwork. I looked up from the laptop I had borrowed from him. “Kane’s Motors? You own it, right?”
He nodded. “I do.”
So when I had asked him at the café if his boss was a good man, he had been talking about himself. He had told me that he wasn’t perfect, but he tried very hard to be. Every day.
In my opinion, he was doing a good job.
“I’ll be fine. I’m just going to be working on school stuff,” I said.
