AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I frowned at her retreat. There weren’t any lights on in the house, not even on the porch.
I didn’t love that.
And the longer I sat watching in my relic of a car, the more… wistful I became.
A feeling I usually only experienced when cooking a new dish, wondering what might’ve been.
The curtain on this little interlude from reality was closing.
Feigning nonchalance, I returned Bree’s final parting wave to us through the window. There was a kind smile on her face that was a bit resigned, a lot understanding, and seemed to say, “It’s been fun, and now it’s over.”
I lowered my fingers on the wheel, gripping tightly as we waited for her to go inside and turn on a light—which she did— before backing out of the driveway and continuing toward the morning that would come much too soon.
14
BREE
Ididn’t feel great about deceiving my new friends about where I lived.
And after tonight, I felt that’s what they were. Friends.
And it was a testament to the natures of the Lott brothers that, over the course of a long, strange night, I’d never once felt like a burden.
It wasn’t the deception itself that brought on the guilt, but more the fact that I felt like I had something that warranted hiding. When Vinh pulled into the driveway, I had briefly imagined seeing the trailer through their eyes, and just from picturing it, I’d felt the panicked need to overexplain the circumstances of its existence.
And it didn’t help that, on just the surface level, its existence wasn’t a pretty one.
There were no outside lights.
The only lock was in the flimsy doorknob. It didn’t work.
There was a hole large enough in a corner of the kitchen floor that I could see straight through to the ground below.
The window A/C unit was moderately functional, almost keeping the inside from being too humid, but it was abrasively loud and had a distinct smell.
This trailer, plainly speaking, sucked.
And I still preferred it to living in the Big House with Grandmother.
The one that I luckily still had a key to on my keyring.
And apparently had no power.
I peeked out the window to see Vinh still idling in the driveway, probably waiting for a sign from me that I was secured inside, which tracked with what I’d seen of his personality.
It squeezed my heart in an unfamiliar way.
My ruse was revived when I spotted a battery-powered lamp sitting on the entryway table and flicked it on. As soon as light filled the room, Vinh’s car rumbled out of the driveway, confirming my suspicions about the reason for his idling.
Evidence validated what my heart had known since the first time he said my name.
He cared.
And over the course of one night, I’d managed to develop feelings for a man who may not even be here tomorrow.
Lucky, lucky me.
15
