AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sorry, I was up late…” I scrambled to think of something clever to say. “Doing a puzzle.”
My mom’s eyes lit up. “You should have come and grabbed me, I was up late doing one too.” Of course she was.
Giving her a warm smile, I moved into the kitchen and grabbed a mug, pouring myself a cup of coffee. It was when I went for the creamer that I heard a gasp behind me.
I jumped, startled at how close my mom had come up behind me.
“Mom!” I huffed. “What are you doing?”
“Is that the hazelnut blend?” She eyed the creamer bottle in my hand.
She looked crazed, like she was ready to snatch it from me any second. Slowly returning the bottle to the fridge, I shut the door and put my back against it.
“I think I’ll try that milk and sugar thing you’ve been doing.”
Her eyes narrowed on the closed door. “No, don’t be silly…just let me smell it.”
I watched her, trying not to crack a smile. She was a total addict, about to break, and my dad was going to kill me if she did.
“Dad!” I called, and he was there a second later, eyeing my mother’s posture and gaze toward the fridge.
“Mil, you worked so hard,” he said reproachfully.
“I just want to smell it, Roger, that’s all.”
I burst out laughing, unable to hold it in any longer. “Why on earth are you so determined not to drink it anymore?”
Finally, my mother clicked her tongue and turned away. “It was just something Thomas encouraged me to give up. We all gave something up as a summer thing.” She waved me off as though I wouldn’t understand, and the pinching in my chest echoed her sentiment. I had grossly underestimated how close they’d gotten over the years.
“So, you guys know him pretty well then?” I toyed with one of the magnets on the fridge, my eyes going toward the photo of a man hiking up Mount Macon.
“Yeah, we’ve gotten pretty close…” my dad said, biting into a piece of toast.
I eyed the photo once more, already knowing that person wasn’t either one of my parents. I pointed at the picture, “This is him, isn’t it?”
“That was two winters ago. We went Christmas tree hunting up there, but that image right there, I just loved how he looked at the mountain—like it was a friend instead of a foe, or something to be afraid of. He taught us how to listen to the mountain, how to safely be on it, and how to respect it.”
More pinching sensations took root along my lungs. Anger surged like an ugly storm head, battering all my logical sense away, turning me into a petty teenager again.
“Yet, he’s never come here, until the other night for dinner?” I raised a brow. “Sounds like a one-sided relationship to me.”
“You just don’t know him, sweetie,” my dad chided, and the pull in my center threatened to detonate. They’d never known of my obsession with Davis; they never knew how madly in love with him I was, or what a fool I had made of myself.
I’d grown accustomed to not telling my mother and father things, and Davis had fallen under that umbrella. They were always missing big cues where I was concerned, and it hurt like hell that they’d gone and adopted the one man on the planet that had hurt me so badly.
“Well, I find this entire relationship ridiculous…and I didn’t have a very good interaction with him yesterday.” I wanted to set my father up for failure with the way I worded my statement. I wanted him to admit that he’d set me up. Maybe I was looking for a reason for them not to want me, to send me back to roach-infested New York with a new chip on my shoulder.
Fuck, I needed to go back to therapy.
My dad’s eyes narrowed. “Well it must not have been that terrible if he drove all the way here on his motorcycle, in the rain.”
His implication was clear—Davis had risked his life just to follow me home. My anger split me in half like a log, forcing my voice to break.
“He wouldn’t have had to drive me home if I hadn’t gone up there in the first place! You played me, Dad.”
My father’s shuttered expression made me feel as though I had gone too far, but I was hurt over their lack of involvement with my life, only to stick their nose in it at the worst possible time.
“Sweetheart,” Dad said softly, right as my mother’s expression caved.
