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Tracy hugged her and rubbed her back. “You are super sweet. But people are not for eating.”
Somebody snorted.
I looked around to find every adult in the room snickering at the exchange. I mentally replayed the conversation as Tracy led Paige to hug it out with Brayleigh.
Hope waved me over then held out a hand for me to haul her to her feet. “Don’t listen to that nonsense about not eating people,” she murmured for my ears only.
“Some of us are okay with teeth,” Sean joked.
“Oh, my gawd!” Ava exclaimed. “We do not do sex positivity in this house!
Four Years Old
Ares
The beep of the alarm notified me that the front door had opened.
She’d come.
Just as I knew she would.
Just as I hoped she would.
Just as I prayed she wouldn’t.
My ears tracked her progress through the first floor, her descent to the basement.
“Ares?” Hope’s heels clacked across the wood floors. “Ares? Where are you? Are you okay?”
Half of me wanted her, half of me just wanted her to go away. Sitting in my chair with my back to her, my untouched glass in my hand, I left it up to fate.
Her steps slowed as she rounded the couch, freezing at the sight of me. Tipping her head to the side, big, blue eyes assessing, she asked, “What’s going on?”
“Four years old.” My voice sounded raspy and unused.
“Who’s four years old?” Hope asked, her eyes wide with alarm as she took a step closer and took me in. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
The ice in my glass shook. I moved to place it on the table beside me, the amber liquid I had not yet touched sloshing over the side onto my hand.
This latest insult the final straw.
I took to my feet, hurled the glass into the brick fireplace, and roared. “I was four years old!”
My chest heaved. I stretched my neck back to open my lungs. I searched the room for something else to destroy. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hope move closer.
My hand flew up, inches from her chest. “Stay, the fuck, back.” My voice was not my own. I couldn’t get enough air. My eardrums pulsated with the roar of my blood. She spoke but I could not hear her words. I stomped away, needing to put space between me and her. “You need to leave.”
“Ares…”
“Leave!” The ugliness of my voice filled the room. I closed my eyes.
I didn’t know how to do this.
Her heels retreated across the floor.
My hope.
The dam that held back my sadness.
