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I crawl to my knees and then stand up, offering a hand to help him get up as well. “We weren’t on the floor very long so I don’t think anyone cares.”
He shakes his head. “That’s not what I meant. I mean, your sister and Susan and your cousins and stuff. We’re acting like we’re dating again and no one has said anything. It’s just weird.”
He takes my hand and stands up, wobbling a few times before getting his balance. I shrug. “Susan and Cat already knew it was coming, trust me. No one else cares.”
He smiles at that and I take his hand.
I skate slowly around the edge of the rink so he can keep up with me. I love the way his hand feels in mine. “So, you said we’re acting like we’re dating…” I begin, sneaking a sideways glance at Kris as we skate around a group of kids.
Kris laughs. “Our lives are crazy enough right now without going into semantics about what we are.” Cat waves at me from the table reserved for my birthday so we make our way to the sidelines, still hand in hand.
I step up the little ledge that separates the skate floor from the rest of the room and look back at Kris. “I wasn’t going into semantics. I was just pointing out what you said. But it’s no big deal because it doesn’t matter what we are.” I stick my tongue out at him so he knows I’m playing and I’m not actually being a psycho new girlfriend who wants to talk about feelings all the time.
Now on carpeted floor, Kris grabs my other arm and pulls me around, grabbing me in a bear hug. He kisses the top of my head. “Baby, I’ll be whatever you want me to be.” I smile up at him, feeling like a fourteen-year-old with her first crush as my cheeks flush red from something other than the workout I got while skating.
Luckily, I am not a fourteen-year-old girl, so even though I know my sister and my best friend and my family members are watching, I don’t shy away and sheepishly go sit in front of my birthday cake. I grab Kris’s face in my hands and pull him down, bringing his lips to mine, kissing him like it’s the last thing I’ll ever do, like it’s totally not inappropriate in this place full of children, like I don’t care what anyone thinks. Because I don’t. Because Kris is mine and I love him.
But it might actually be the last thing I ever do.
“DELANEY RENEE JACOBS.”
My mother’s voice sends a frightening chill down my spine as goose bumps prickle every inch of my skin. I whirl around in a flash, my stomach tightening as if I’ve just been caught in cold-blooded murder. My parents stand at the entrance of the skating rink, presents in their hands. My dad’s face is expressionless. My mother’s is furious.
The bags in her hands drop to the floor. Her words are ice and her face is so hauntingly angry that I can’t look away.
“What did I just see you do with that that killer?”
Chapter 21
“Mrs. Jacobs…” I look up at Kris as he says the words, a fragment of a sentence he knows he can’t finish. There’s nothing he can say to my mother that will take the look of betrayal and disgust off her face. In her eyes, he killed her son and broke her daughter’s heart.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of these complications when I was falling back in love with him.
My sister’s hands cover her open mouth as she watches the situation with wide-eyed dismay. My father, ever the quiet one who doesn’t ever want to cause a scene, steps around my mother, picking up her dropped bags on his way to the picnic table. He places the presents next to the other ones and, with a heavy sigh, takes a seat on the bench.
My mother stands unwavering in front of the entrance, unaware or either just not caring that she’s in everyone’s way. The place on my back where Kris’s hand had been suddenly feels cold.
“I’m sorry,” Kris says, making eye contact with my mom and then glancing at the rest of the group.
“Don’t apologize—” I begin, but he squeezes my elbow in an oddly reassuring way and then slips off his roller skates and drops them on the front counter on his way out the door. The second the door closes behind him, my mother unleashes the wrath of hell on me.
“How long has this been going on?” as she stomps to the table and slams her purse down in front of Dad.
“How dare you do this to me and your father. And to your brother,” said with a vehemence that makes everyone’s skin crawl.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” This one pierces straight into my soul.
“What’s wrong with you, Mom?” I’m vaguely aware that we’re making a scene, but this is the sort of situation in life where you have one chance to stand up for what is right, for what is good, or you will never forgive yourself. I have enough regrets in life and I don’t need another one.
“Excuse me?” she interrupts. “Did you forget who he is and what he did to you?”
Instead of yelling back at her, I keep my voice calm. “How could I forget? Why would you even ask me that? Do you think so little of me that you can’t even fathom that if I make the choice to be with Kris then there must be something going on that you don’t know about? Do you think I’m an idiot?” I pull off my skates and let them fall to the floor. I grab my shoes and swing my purse over my shoulder. “You may think something is wrong with me, but something is wrong with you if think I would forgive him without a good reason. Thanks for asking me what it was before you jumped to conclusions.”
Cat tries to jump in here, but I ignore her, walking in socked feet straight across the room and out the front doors, without a glance back in their direction.
The driver’s seat of Kris’s truck is empty when I get there, and although it’s completely irrational, the thought that maybe he just disappeared into thin air begins to freak me out. But then I see the dropped tailgate and walk around to the back of the truck. Kris lies on his back in the bed of the truck, supporting his head with his hands as he stares at the sky.
“You didn’t leave,” I say as I drop my stuff on the tailgate and crawl up to sit next to him. “Thank you.”
