I met her eyes. “There was nothing you could have done to help me. But thank you for caring enough to try.”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“There won’t be any need to change my final,” I told her. “I will draw my interpretation of love.”
Her smile grew. “I can’t wait to see it.”
Roe was waiting for me outside Ms. Clark’s room. Seeing him after having a short but still uncomfortable conversation lifted my spirits almost instantly. I went right up to him and pushed up on my tiptoes to kiss him.
His arms wrapped around my waist. “I love how much you’ve been smiling lately,” he said in between kisses.
“Have I?”
He nodded and he took my hand. “Real and beautiful smiles.”
I rested my head on his shoulder as we headed through the school toward the parking lot. Without the worry of Brandon, we walked the nearly empty halls at ease.
“The fair is coming to town this Sunday,” he said. “We should go.”
“Would it be a date?”
He smiled as he stepped ahead of me to get the exit door. “It can be, or we can invite Mac and Lemon, too.”
“I’d like that,” I said as I walked outside first.
“I think it will be fun having you try all the crazy fair food,” he said.
“Is that your thing?” I teased as I walked backward so I could face him. “Feeding me?”
“Are you asking me if that turns me on?” He reached for me, making me giggle and dash out of range. He caught me around the waist in just a few big strides. His lips peppered kisses up my neck to my ear. “Every inch of you turns me on,” he whispered before pulling back. “I like feeding you because I like taking care of you.”
I leaned up and kissed him.
To my dismay, he kept the kiss short. “If you don’t stop kissing me and being adorable, we’ll never get out of here.”
He released me and I turned for the parking lot. As I looked out toward my car, what caught my eye stopped me in my tracks. Less than twenty feet from us, standing next to her parked car along the curb, was Mother.
She was in billowy white pants and a sapphire-blue silk blouse. Her blonde hair was ironed straight like mine. She had her arms folded over her chest and her angry gray eyes fixed on me.
“Lottie?” Roe said next to me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him follow my line of sight.
Mother stepped toward us. “Get in the car, Charlotte. It’s time to come home.”
Roe cursed under his breath and pulled something from his pocket. I was too scared to look away from Mother to see what it was.
“Charlotte,” Mother said with a tone that made my body want to obey.
I fought it. I fought it with all my might.
When I didn’t do as she said, the look she gave me promised she would hit me with the nearest thing she could get her hands on until I was bleeding.
“Lottie,” Roe said again, anger seeping into his voice.
Hearing that anger, which I knew was for me, was like a knife cutting the leash of fear Mother had used on me for so long. A new fear took its place. A fear that she might do something to him if he involved himself. I needed to protect him. I would protect him.
“Please stay out of this,” I told him firmly as I walked toward Mother. I was scared, but I would not cower like I had with Clay. I stopped a few feet from her, just out of reach.
“We will be having a long discussion when we get home,” she said in a low voice.
