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“Tell Dakota I’ll take a beer,” Warren barks at Shelbie before walking away.
“Oh my God, I’ve been so worried.” She pulls me into a hug. “Are you okay?”
“I guess.” My eyes dart to the floor.
“Kennedy, what did he do?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I fix another smile. “I’m here now, and it beats being holed up in the trailer.”
“Come on.” Shelbie motions to the long counter at the back of the room. “Did you eat already?”
“No, Warren seemed in a hurry to get here.” I scan the room. It’s quiet, a few mean looking guys occupying one of the booths. There’s an older couple eating wings at another table. Warren is at the back in one of ten booths, but whomever he’s meeting is obscured.
“Hey, who is that?” I ask Shelbie.
“Beats me.” She shrugs. “You know the kind of people that roll in and out of here. Hey, Dakota, Warren wants beer. And put through a basket of bacon and cheese fries for me and my girl.”
“Put it through yourself.” The woman smirks.
“I thought you loved me.” Shelbie pokes out her tongue and chuckles.
“Oh, I do, but it doesn’t stop you being a pain in my ass.”
Dakota is her cousin. Her older and much wiser cousin. She doesn’t take any shit from the guys who frequent the bar, and they know not to mess with the Garret women. Shelbie’s dad might be rough around the edges, but he looks out for the girls in his life.
Dakota brings us two sodas and a basket of fries. “Kennedy,” she says coolly. She never has been fond of me. I don’t know why, and I don’t ask.
“Hey, Kota,” I say. “Thanks for this.”
She gives me a sharp nod before taking Warren his beer.
“She really doesn’t like me, huh?”
“Oh don’t mind her, it’s just her asshole-o-meter.”
“Warren,” I say flatly, and Shelbie nods.
“He gives a lot of people the creeps.”
“Yeah, I know.” He doesn’t just give me the creeps, he makes my skin crawl.
“Are you ready to talk about it?”
“Shelb...”
“I know, I know. But you got out, Kennedy. I just don’t understand why you—"
“Because this is my life, okay? I can’t stay there and pretend to be one of them.” The lie coils around my heart. “They’ll all be going off to college and embarking on their futures, and I’m just supposed to what? Sit around and wait to be left behind again?”
God.
Why did it have to hurt so much?
Living with Warren is my worst nightmare, but at least I know what to expect. In a really fucked-up way, it’s stability. But now I’ve experienced life with Conner and his family, I know there’s something better out there. I’ve had a taste of it, and I want more.
God, I want so much more.
I want it all—the comfortable life, the safety and security, the contentment. I want the happily-ever-after. But the harsh reality is, so long as Warren is breathing, so long as he exists in this world, I will never be free.
