Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Clenching my teeth, I stepped into the elevator. Even if he thought I would misunderstand what he’d said to me last night, I didn’t deserve him running off without even telling me his plans had changed.
The next time I saw him, I would act as if last night had never happened. It would be business as usual. Then, I’d keep my distance from him. That was what I should have done to begin with.
• Nineteen •
“Who made you cry?”
Capri
Nine Years Ago
My mother was never going to let me live my own life. She was determined to control everything. My feet pounded on the pavement as I ran along the path that circled the lake at the park. The rage and frustration burning inside me felt as if it was going to drown me. I’d had to get away from that house. From her. Running was my escape.
I wished I’d been able to go away to college. Get distance from her, this town, the church. She did not understand that I had no desire to be her. I didn’t want the life she had for herself. It was boring and tedious just to watch it. Much less live it. My dad seemed to get that I wasn’t like her. Or like him. The church wasn’t my future. Sure, I’d attend to make them happy, but I didn’t want my world to revolve around it.
There was a world out there I wanted to see. I wanted to explore. Taste foreign food, learn another language, have a passport full of stamps. Yet every time I took a step in any direction other than one she deemed appropriate, she stood in my way. If that didn’t work, she got nasty.
Today, she’d done the latter. I’d saved fourteen hundred dollars over the past seven months with full intentions of moving into an apartment of my own. I had made sure to find a place that I could afford, that I had enough money to cover first and last months’ rent, pay to have my utilities turned on, and that my income could handle the monthly bills. I had even met with Mrs. Bellhaven, the landlord at Baystreet Apartments. She’d shown me the available studio apartment that was up for rent, and I had signed the paperwork and handed over my debit card to secure it.
This morning, I had walked into the kitchen, fully prepared to tell my parents. I was going to tell them last night, but I left work and went directly to a babysitting job. When I got home, they were both in bed. What I hadn’t been prepared for was my mother already knowing. But how was I to know my mother would run into my new landlord? Mrs. Bellhaven didn’t attend our church. She was Presbyterian. Furthermore, she was twenty years older than my mother. They did not run in the same circles anywhere.
My eyes stung as I circled the far corner of the lake. I had been so close, and she’d taken it all from me. Not once allowing me to explain, plead my case, anything. She’d told me that when Dad got home from work, we’d discuss my punishment. I wasn’t a child anymore. How was this cause for punishment?
Reaching up, I wiped at the tear that had broken free and slowed my pace, wanting the peace that came with the secluded area on this bend. If I was going to cry like a baby, then at least I could do it in private. God knew if someone saw me crying, they’d call Momma, and I’d get in trouble for that too.
I was a legal adult. How did she get to just take my money from Mrs. Bellhaven and cancel a lease her name wasn’t on? That just seemed wrong. It was unfair, and she had told me she wasn’t giving me my money back until I was mature enough to handle it. That was my hard-earned money.
A small sob filled the silence, and I wiped my face off with both hands this time.
“Running always make you cry?” a familiar deep voice asked.
I spun around to see Thatcher Shephard leaning against a tree only a few feet from me. Where had he come from? I’d been running out here for over an hour and not seen him once. How had he suddenly popped up way down on this end of the lake, where there was no way he could get here without being seen walking this way?
He stuck a cigarette between his lips and flicked the lighter in his hand. I watched him inhale and puff as he held the flame to the tip before closing it and slipping into his pocket. Those dark eyes never once leaving my face. I didn’t feel like breaking down into a fit of sobs anymore, but my chest was all weird and fluttery.