Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
I snatched the bag out of his hand, ripped it open, and crunched on a couple of corn chips. They tasted more like wood chips. “Happy now?”
He frowned, and I could see in his eyes how concerned he was about the eating thing, so I choked down most of the chips in the bag. My stomach cramped around them.
Dad ruffled my hair. “You look like shit, Jamie. Don’t make me have to worry about you, too. I’ve got enough on my plate with your mother, okay?”
“Don’t worry about it, Dad. I’ll be okay when I get back to Vegas tomorrow.”
He stared at me, as if it was the first he’d heard of my plans. “Are you really serious about going back there? I don’t understand. He left you here and went off to somewhere else. Do you even have a job anymore?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I didn’t get fired. But even if I don’t still work for him, there are loose ends that need tying up. I haven’t even moved out, you know? All my stuff is still there in my place just like I left it.”
“Your place,” he scoffed. “That’s not your place, Jamie. It’s a hotel room. You need to go get your things and come back home. If you don’t feel comfortable staying in our house, then go back to your apartment at school. Call your friends. Talk to someone.”
That was laughable. Talk to someone? Who was I going to talk to about all of this? The truth was, I was floating and I had no place to land. I didn’t belong anywhere or with anyone.
“Yeah, I’ll probably just grab my stuff and go back to school,” I said, knowing I had absolutely no intention of leaving Vegas until school started back, or until someone officially kicked me out of my suite in the Alcazar. But I couldn’t be honest with him about that. We’d already pushed the boundaries of father-son communication the day before when I’d poured my heart out to him, and I wasn’t about to go there again.
I was still reeling from that conversation, mainly because of his shocking reaction. In the beginning, I’d only hoped that he’d refrain from murdering me long enough to let the news sink in. After the words were out of my mouth and I was still alive, I figured the best case outcome would be a reserved sort of acceptance on my father’s part, with neither of us ever actually speaking of my sexuality again.
What I got was so much better, yet worse at the same time. Dad hadn’t condemned me or called me horrible names, which was good. But now he saw Kage as some sort of sexual predator, which was bad.
The craziest part was my admission that I might be in love. Why the hell had I said that, anyway? I wasn’t qualified to make that kind of determination, because I didn’t know what love was or if it even existed. What I should have told Dad was that I wanted to explore my attraction to Kage, something noncommittal that only hinted at the truth. Now I’d made myself out to be some lovesick puppy at best, and at worst, a victim.
But I’d be lying if I said that the thought hadn’t crossed my mind that Dad might be right. It was entirely possible that Kage had simply been manipulating me all along. During our argument on the gazebo, Kage had accused me of using him, but what if it was the other way around? Maybe he’d been planning on using me all summer long, but then the trip home had proved to be more drama than he’d anticipated. Or what if he’d gotten what he wanted and was simply ready to move on? If he’d decided it was time to cut me loose, there wasn’t a much better way to do it. In essence, he’d just dropped me off at home, hopped on a plane, and disappeared. Clean break, end of story.
I woke up some time later, still in the chair, jogged out of a dreamless sleep by the sound of voices. Dad was gone, but the nurses were chatting loudly while they made their afternoon rounds. I kept my eyes closed and listened, hoping that no one noticed I had woken up and tried to engage me in any conversation.
I could tell by the voices that there were two nurses, one male and one female, and they were cracking jokes that I would never be able to understand. It was medical profession humor. I’d heard my mother talk with her nurse friends enough to know I might as well not even try to follow. Those people had a language all their own.
Then again, I imagine most nurses would be confused if they’d dropped in on a training session with Marco. I’d been so lost those first few days, listening to him spewing orders at Kage. They had a smooth, well-practiced way of communicating that often made it unnecessary to speak more than one word at a time to convey complex meanings. I supposed that would come in handy during a noisy fight, when Marco was coaching from the corner.