AllFreeNovel
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Do I hate her? I talk to her more than any other employee. If it was any other person from the brewery, I would’ve driven in silence. I wouldn’t be admitting I was wrong.
“I’m out of practice. With people,” I say. “I don’t like people that much.”
She continues to watch the businesses flash by; she sees a dog being walked and she perks up.
I continue, “It’s just me. I’m like this. It’s not you.”
“It just…” She takes a deep breath. “Are you happy?”
What a question.
My life is quiet and uncomplicated. I spent eight years with lots of unknowns and variables dictating my whole life. Now, every day is the same, predictable. It’s comforting to have so much control. I get to choose what happens to me.
I just didn’t expect someone like Shiloh to barrel through and make me question everything.
“Don’t worry about me,” I say. “My life’s perfect the way it is.”
“What happened to you, Jackson?”
I shift in my seat, the car now stifling hot. My family won’t ever bring it up because I react hotly, desperate to avoid any mention of it. Strangers whisper behind my back instead of to my face.
Shiloh’s question hits me like a sword to the chest.
I breathe in and out slowly, letting my heart slow.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” My tone is curt and direct, and Shiloh flinches.
This is the first time I wish I could be my brother, Cameron, who laces his words with sugar so that even the harshest criticism goes down easy. I’m all thistle and thorns. Everything I touch hurts.
Shiloh presses her rosebud lips together and looks out the window again, away from me. “I’m sorry I asked.”
“It’s okay.”
She folds into herself as we park close to the entrance and the engine is barely shut off before Shiloh opens the car door and hobbles out, toward the entrance.
I race after her, an apology thick on my tongue. “I’m sorry” has never been part of my vernacular, but it feels warranted. She apologized when she didn’t need to, and now I can’t even say it back.
“You can find out from anyone. Your grandpa can tell you if you really want to know.”
“I said before, I want to hear from you. I don’t like gossip,” she says. She continues to the entrance, wincing and limping. She pauses and sticks her hands on her hips. “This really hurts.”
“May I?” I ask with my arms out. She nods, and I scoop her up. She’s light in my arms as I adjust her, her bad leg stretched out. She loops her arms around my neck, and I swallow, her vanilla scent hitting my nostrils.
She smells like a comforting bakery, the kind we used to go to as kids.
Her skin is soft and warm in my hands, and I feel her breath on my chin.
I breathe in and out again, hoping it will calm my racing heart. No such luck. I haven’t realized how touch-starved I am until I touch Shiloh.
Until she touched me.
I open the door awkwardly and carry her in. The receptionist pulls off her glasses as we approach. Goddammit, it’s my old buddy Eric’s mom, Bonnie. Her eyes bug when she looks at me, her mouth agape.
I haven’t seen her in years, and now I’m caught carrying another girl like I’m a third-rate prince. Perfect.
“Hey Bonnie, this is our employee, Shiloh Abbott. She got into an altercation with a raccoon. It bit her on the leg,” I say, hoping the story would distract Bonnie enough.
“Oh dear, are you okay?”
