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Friday started off okay. I managed to score the last of the strawberry freezer jam for my toast. Win!
The sun was shining. Double win!
And the kiss that rocked my world was still percolating in my brain, summoning sighs and smiles when it wasn’t exactly appropriate. Case in point. The night before at dinner, while my parents went about their charade, Mom making small talk and Dad looking like he actually cared, my mind drifted to the old mill. I closed my eyes and could practically feel the heat of the sun, Trevor’s sweat-slicked skin, and the ache his kiss left me with.
“Why is your face all screwed up?” That was from my little brother, who was in the process of making an epic smiley face out of his mashed potatoes.
“It’s not.”
“It kind of is,” Dad said.
“No,” I said, digging into my food. “It’s not.” My tone said “don’t bother me,” and I tuned out the rest of their conversation. The good thing about all the tension at home was that it was a lot easier for me to get away with being a bitch. Mom was afraid to say anything because she was guarding her secret and didn’t want me to spill, and Dad was just confused. I guess he thought if he left me alone, I’d eventually morph back into the girl he knew.
Funny how lies do that to people.
But now it was the Friday of the long weekend, and there was a world of possibilities before me.
Trevor hadn’t asked me to go to the Fourth of July celebrations with him. Or the cookout down at the park. Or the overnight trip to Link’s parents’ cottage near Baton Rouge. There was still time…right?
Dad had already left for his part-time gig at the used car dealership in town. I know. But he was surprisingly good at it, mostly because everyone trusted the pastor. If only they knew.
Mom came down for breakfast already dressed, which surprised me. She’d taken some time off work since her episode, and as far as I knew, she wasn’t due back to her office job until after the long weekend.
She didn’t say a word about the crumbs left on the table or the fact that I’d put the empty jar of jam back in the fridge. She even overlooked the coffee grounds smeared across the garbage container.
Something was up. I wasn’t sure it was a good up or a bad up, but when she took a sip of coffee and cleared her throat, I knew right then that I wasn’t going to like what she was about to say.
“I hear they’re calling for rain this weekend.”
Okay, opening with the weather wasn’t a good sign at all.
“What’s going on, Mom?” I so didn’t want to play games with her. Not now. Not when I knew that she played by a whole set of rules I knew nothing about.
She opened her mouth to say something but sighed instead and took another sip of coffee, her eyes settled on me over the rim of her cup. She looked tired. Sad and maybe a little scared. She finished her coffee and set her mug on the counter, pushing at it with her forefinger until it was a safe distance away from the edge.
She was starting to freak me out a little bit.
“Mom?”
“The weather looks good in New England,” she said softly.
Wait. What?
“For the long weekend, I mean.”
I stared at her for so long that she shifted, her eyes sliding away from mine.
“Maybe longer.”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Everly…I can’t…I need some time away to think things through.”
“I’m not going with you.”
“I thought I could stay here and things would just go back to the way they were before but—”
“I’m not going with you.” My heart was beating nearly out of my chest, and I took a step backward, legs crashing into a chair and sending it skittering across th
