Page 70 of Floodgates

“What did I say?” I asked, taking a step away from him.

“How long have you guys been taking a break?”

I scoffed. “Let’s call it what it is, Cord. We’ve been done for—”

“Done?”

“Well, yeah. It’s been four months. Almost five.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Why would I kid about that?” He was so strange sometimes. I gave him a faint smile before I walked away. I turned at the door. “Don’t let Alex hit Breckin, will ya?”

“I promise,” he said, seeming distracted. He probably had a lot on his mind.

Walking back into the house, I didn’t say anything until I reached Breckin at the kitchen table. He was sitting with my dad having tea, and he looked up at me.

“You need to go home and pack; we’re getting on a plane tomorrow.”

He stood up and faced me. “I just want a chance to talk to you. How come Cord gets time and I don’t?”

The answer seemed obvious to me. Cord had never made promises and broken them. Cord had never made me wonder what was wrong with me or why I wasn’t enough to satisfy him. Cord had never cheated on me.

“There’s nothing for us to talk about. Just go home; I’ll see you tomorrow at the airport.”

“Tracy—”

“Make sure you get the flight information and stuff from Cord. You should actually go out and talk to him now.”

“I don’t want to talk to Cord; I want to talk to you!”

“Tomorrow,” I insisted, squeezing my dad’s shoulder when I turned away.

I was upstairs and safely ensconced in the bedroom minutes later. Sleep came fast after that. When I woke up a couple hours later, a little after seven, Matt and Eric were downstairs, and they had brought us all dinner from Molinari Deli. When I asked Alex if Cord was coming back, he said no.

“Why?” my brother asked. “Are you disappointed?”

“No, I was just wondering.”

But from the look in his face I guessed I hadn’t fooled him at all.

Chapter 9

AT THE airport on Tuesday morning I was thankful Evan was flying out too, so he could stay with me a little longer. It was also a nice distraction to watch people see him, do a double take, and then approach slowly. I enjoyed having my mind occupied.

“What’s it like, Evan?” I asked him when he took a seat beside me.

“What?”

“To look like you?”

“I dunno.” He shrugged, pushing his sunglasses down to the end of his nose to look at me. “Never known anything else.”

I smiled at him; I couldn’t help myself. My mother always used to stare at him in wonder and tell him how beautiful he was. She did that with all of us; mothers were like that.

“Better’n being ugly, huh?” He grinned wickedly.

“It is,” I agreed as Celia joined us in the boarding area and took a seat across from me.