Total pages in book: 238
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
I climbed my steps and twisted the door handle, my heart dropping a little because that meant Martin was still up.
I stepped inside and heard Will’s truck finally pull off, breezing past my house. I closed and locked the door, my lips twitching with a smile.
He actually waited until I was inside to leave.
Dishes clanked in the kitchen, and I dropped my bags to the floor, heading in to face the music. I had no idea how late I was, and I hadn’t checked my phone for missed calls.
Hands in my jacket pockets, I stopped just inside the dark kitchen.
Martin stood at the sink, pre-washing dishes before loading them into the dishwasher. He turned his head, eyeing me over his shoulder.
“Dinner is there.” He gestured to the plate on the table.
But I rushed up to his side instead, taking the plate out of his hand. “I can do it. You worked all day.”
He let me take over, grabbing a towel and drying his hands as he stepped away. I took the dish brush and scrubbed the crust from our breakfast this morning.
“You know,” he said. “Funny thing. When you didn’t make it home by ten, I tracked your phone.”
I faltered, feeling the hair on my arms rise. He could track my phone? How long had he been doing that?
“It told me that you were at the Cove.” He walked away and leaned against the counter, his eyes on me. “Funny thing is, the Cove closed at eight tonight, and when I drove out there, all I saw was Will Grayson’s truck in the parking lot.”
I rubbed circles on the plate, pressing hard so my hands wouldn’t shake.
“I support your education, Emory,” he told me, “your extracurricular activities, and your projects, because I want you to make something of yourself, and I know that all looks good on your college resumé.”
I put the plate in the dishwasher and picked up another one, avoiding his gaze.
I wished I was still in Will’s truck.
“And while you’re off playing, I’m working or I’m here.” He inched closer. “No woman wants me with you in this house. No one wants me because I can never give her the Thunder Bay life, because I’m paying for Grand-Mère’s nurse and for you.”
He stopped at my side, and I couldn’t stop shaking as I washed the dish.
“And you’re off playing,” he said, pushing me in the head.
I stumbled to the side. “Martin…”
“You don’t listen to anything I say.” He dug the tips of his fingers into my skull and shoved again, and I almost dropped the brush. “Is it so hard? Just doing what I tell you to do?”
He pushed me in the head again like I was stupid, and I fell to the side, dropping the dish and brush into the sink. I waited for the slap, but he just grabbed my wrist and yanked me to the table.
Pushing me down in the seat, he grabbed a handful of the spaghetti and stuffed it to my mouth.
Tears swelled my throat, and I squeezed my eyes shut, holding it back.
“As if we don’t have enough problems, you go and get a reputation for being one of their little whores,” he said, stuffing another fistful into my mouth. “Thinking you’re going to be one of them. Thinking you’re better and them thinking they’re better because they get to play with you like a toy!”
Spaghetti flew in my face, dirtying my glasses as he stuffed handful after handful at my mouth, the noodles pressing down my throat so hard I couldn’t breathe.
Silent tears streamed down my eyes. I twisted my head away, trying to spit it out, but he grabbed my face and squeezed my jaw to open me up again.
I couldn’t stop crying as I gasped for air. I couldn’t breathe, and I gripped the sides of the table, my teeth cutting the insides of my mouth.
I tried to think of my gazebo. If Will helped me build it.
How nice that might be someday.
Will and the gazebo… Will and the gazebo…
The breeze on my face was warm, and the leaves in the trees smelled like summer.
But as Martin yelled, and I gagged, spaghetti choking me, I couldn’t muster another single coherent thought.
I couldn’t think. I couldn’t remember what Will looked like. What my gazebo looked like.
I didn’t have a gazebo. There was no Will Grayson.
There was nothing but this.
There was nothing but this.
Emory
Present
Wrapping the towel around me, I ignored the eyes I felt through the glass and grabbed the clothes Micah had brought, taking them to the privacy—hopefully—of the bathroom. Of course, there could’ve been a two-way mirror in there, too.
Stripping off my soaked boxers and top, I dried my hair as best I could with the towel, brushed with the brush I found on the sink counter, and dressed, pulling on my clean underwear I’d washed out last night and hung to dry on the shower door, someone’s clean boxers over them, and their button-down white Oxford.