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One that had Luke thinking that maybe, just maybe, the man would be a little bit disappointed if he wasn’t.
Chapter thirty-three
Whenthesunflickeredthrough the blinds the next morning, Andy was dry-eyed. It seemed as though every last tear her body was capable of producing had been shed, and now she was just empty of them.
As empty as the cage on her dresser.
Empty and alone.
Warm fingers combed through the mess of hair at Andy’s ear. Her mother’s fingers. Stroking. Soothing. Reminding her that she wasn’t as alone as she felt.
Davis Whittenbalm had been curled up beside her most of the night. This after Andy had been awful to the man who’d flown thousands of miles alongside her.
Andy had yelled at her father last night. Screamed at him through a fresh onslaught of tears that the empty cage on her dresser was all his fault. All his fault for firing Aldon when she hadn’t wanted him to.
Her father had quietly left the apartment after that, and her mother had remained at her side ever since. Not saying a word, even though Andy was positive there were a whole damn lot of them whirling in that therapist brain of hers. Wisely, she’d kept them in check.
Davis had learned over the years that Andy didn’t want to be psychoanalyzed after a meltdown. Didn’t want to answer a slew of probing, open-ended questions.
God, open-ended questions were the worst. Very high up on Andy’s list of dislikes. And she didn’t need to hear the one at the forefront of her mother’s mind right now to know what it was.
How are you feeling, Andalise?
How the hell do you think, Mom? My bird died yesterday, and I was a total raving bitch to everyone who tried to comfort me about it, and even as you are trying to silently comfort me now, I’m still being a jerk. I feelashamed, okay?
As the thought hit her, some errant spring of tears blurred Andy’s vision. Jesus, she was going to need some Gatorade soon. It had to be unhealthy to cry this freaking much.
She was also going to need to apologize to some people.
Not just her dad for hollering at him but Kory and Gray as well.
Shortly before her parents had arrived last night, Andy had slipped out of her room to grab a drink from the kitchen. There she’d found Kory and Gray locked in a fierce embrace, the latter having just returned from where he’d been with Luke and Dylan.
Pulling loose, Gray had told Andy about how the guys had gone to have a “talk” with Aldon. How they’d found Kory’s necklace in his Camaro, which confirmed he’d been in the apartment yesterday morning.
Andy hadn’t even realized her roommate’s necklace had gone missing, nor had she particularly cared about its recovery. Glancing at the pendant, Andy had been angry about it, actually. She’d wanted to rip that stupid hummingbird right off Kory’s neck and toss it in the trash. No,the ocean. She’d been that mad.
That bird wasn’t real. It wasn’t warm and soft and kind, and capable of saying“Pretty bird, Andy. Pretty bird”in a dozen different ways to mean an infinite number of things.
It wasn’t a living, breathing creature that Andy loved.
It was a piece of jewelry. A little golden bauble.
Andy would trade a billion such baubles to have her bird back.
Something about the way she’d stared coldly at her roommate must have conveyed this because Kory’s eyes had pooled, causing Gray to haul her back into his arms.
That had pissed Andy off too. Because she’d wanted Luke’s arms wrapped around her like that. Only she’d pushedherboyfriend away. She’d screamed at him on the patio not to touch her. Of course, he hadn’t come back.
Gray had said he would. He’d told her Luke would be here in the morning — or sooner if she needed him — but Andy hadn’t called Luke. She’d been too angry then. Too caught up in all the big dark emotions gripping her.
The sad truth was that a part of her had blamed even him for what happened. She’d blamed him because he’d left the patio door unlocked, Aldon had gotten in, and Petals had died.
Now, in the light of day, Andy was ashamed to have felt that way. Ashamed she’d blamed so many people she cared about for the actions of one sadistic asshole.
Andy was so ashamed of this that the emptiness inside her was filling up with it. And surprise, surprise, the tears were back.
Andy sniffled. “I feel bad, Mama. I feel bad for being so mean to everybody. I didn’t handle things the right way yesterday.”
