AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sure.”
I went to the refrigerator, and she turned on the water to rinse the dishes. The cake was easy to find. It was huge, took up an entire shelf, and it was obviously homemade. Collin’s mom wasn’t just sweet. She was a great cook.
“Dinner was delicious,” I said as I brought the cake to the counter beside where Collin had placed a stack of plates. I could hear him talking to his dad in a low voice in the dining room.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. It was just a roast that I slow-cooked in the Crock-Pot.” She gave me an assessing glance. “I’m sure your mom does much better.”
“No.” I shook my head, deciding it was best to go ahead and get this out in the open. This topic was probably what Collin was discussing with his dad in the other room. “My mother doesn’t cook. She’s not like you. Since my dad took off, she doesn’t do anything except get drunk and do drugs.”
Carol inhaled sharply. “That’s terrible.” She shut off the water and turned to face me. “Did she give you that mark on your cheek?”
“Yes.” Hanging my head in shame, I was surprised to feel warm arms wrap around me.
My throat closed with a surge of emotion. I wasn’t accustomed to affection from a grownup. It wasn’t just Collin who tempted me. I wanted to sag into his mom, let her comfort me, but I resisted, reminding myself that being here in his house was temporary.
“It’s sad, I know,” I murmured into Carol’s hair as she held me close. “Mom hit me, yet I’m the one who feels ashamed, like maybe if I were a better daughter, she wouldn’t have done it.”
“It’s not your fault, honey.” Carol squeezed me tighter. “Like I said in the other room, everyone is responsible for the choices they make.”
I swallowed hard. “Thank you for saying that. My life isn’t like this.” I pulled out of her embrace and gestured. “If you don’t want me to come around anymore, I’ll understand.”
“Stop right there.” She wagged her finger in my face. “Her being a terrible mother is on her. Your father leaving is on him too, not you.” Her expression softening, she swept my hair from the front to the back, over one shoulder and then the other. “And terrible is not the word I really want to use.”
When I nodded but couldn’t speak, she kept going.
“Collin thinks you’re special, and from what I can see, he’s right,” she said, and my chest grew warm. “You have my approval, and you’re always welcome here. But in the end, it’s not for me to decide who Collin gives his heart to. That’s up to him.”
“What about this one?” Rachel asked. Sitting cross-legged across from me on an exercise mat in the storage-slash-band-practice room at school, she pushed the second sketch she’d drawn for the band logo toward me.
I scooped it up, studying the guitar she’d drawn along with bold block lettering for ABCR. “I like it.”
Collin was behind me, his long denim-clad legs splayed out on either side of me. He put his chin on my shoulder and peered at the drawing.
I held Rachel’s sketch higher. “What do you think?”
“I like it too,” he said, squeezing me with the arm he had around my waist.
He’d been even more affectionate with me since dinner at his house the night before. I wasn’t sure if it was because his mother approved of me, or if it was because of what he had seen my mother do to me.
“But I’d add our names to it,” Collin said, “the address for Winston’s, and a contact phone number.”
“The number for the club?” I turned my head to look at him. He was so close, I could easily press my mouth to his, but I refrained.
This was a band meeting, not a date, and Barry was watching us closely. He was mad. He’d made his displeasure known about what my mother had done, but it seemed to me that it was more than that.
“No, babe, not the club. Your number. You’re the band manager.”
“They can’t call me.” I swiveled around, though sadly that caused his arm to fall away. “I don’t have a cell phone.”
“You do now,” Barry said, and I turned toward him, catching an enigmatic glance exchanged between him and Collin. “Here.”
Reaching into the front pocket of his jeans, my best friend withdrew a cell phone and walked across the small space to hand it to me.
I waved it away. “I can’t take this.”
“You’re taking it,” Barry said firmly, his strong jaw clenched. “I’m not having you in that apartment with no way to call me if you need help.”
“We want you to be able to call any of us,” Collin added.
