Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
If I was wrong, then maybe she would take it to the police. And if she did, I wouldn’t have anything on her. It was all a bluff. I’d deleted those videos off my laptop, couldn’t stand to look at them. If she was a moral and decent person, she would do what she claimed was the right thing and turn me in, regardless of what it meant for her own career. But the Sheila I had come to know wasn’t any of those things, and I was certain she would imagine I was as cruel and vindictive and manipulative as she was…and be too scared to chance it.
“So what are we having for dinner tonight?” I asked, tugging him close.
“I was gonna try to persuade you to grab some Taco Bell with me on the way to see Tex.”
I shook my head. “Nope. That’s not gonna work for my evil dick tonight.”
“I can probably compromise with KFC.”
We shared another laugh before I rubbed my nose against his.
“You are so giddy,” he said. “This is the James I prefer.”
“I know it’s been a rough week, but things are gonna change for you and me.”
“Yeah, I think they are.”
“No more being afraid,” I whispered to him, and his face turned serious. “No regrets. No fear. Just you and me. You got that?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I got it, Teach.”
I took another kiss as a reward for my renewed sense of freedom.
I could feel it in my soul that this moment, right there in the kitchen with Kyle, was the beginning of my life.
EPILOGUE
KYLE
I folded another shirt before setting it on a stack I’d made on the bed, beside my open suitcase.
It was strange to think that soon this bed would be my old bed, joining so many old beds from my past. There were those from my childhood, back in the home I’d survived. Then there was the one Tex had for me when I visited him occasionally, and the one he’d purchased after he took me in during my teens, once I finally had enough and escaped the only family I’d ever believed I could have. The sets of sheets had changed over the years, but even these were reminiscent of the ones I’d cried into with the vain hope that by some miracle, Mom would come back to me…and somehow Dad would be better.
It disturbed me that I ever needed to have this image of a dad who never could have imagined hitting his child.
A man who could love me without the pain.
But that hope had been little more than a pipe dream.
Now I was moving on to another bed, and just like with those first beds, there was no goodbye. This particular one had been there for nights of working in private on my homework, or jerking off, joking and gossiping with Ben and Taryn, chats with my uncle, and holding James close the nights we spent there while caring for Tex. It had been my companion for every heartache, every feeling of loneliness and despair that reminded me of this journey I was on, my own quest in life.
I smiled at the thought of James seeing it as my very own Odyssey.
I folded another shirt, glancing into the floor-length mirror on the inside of my closet the way I might have on mornings when I’d woken up and checked myself more than usual, because I wanted to impress him. At the time, I wouldn’t have copped to it, but I knew it was true.
I’d spent so many days wanting to impress Teach.
It was painful to want someone as much as I wanted him, but now I knew it was so much worse to fear losing something that had turned into so much more.
A rap on my door made me brush my hand across a warm tear I felt slipping from my eye.
I turned to see Tex, his knuckles against the open door.
“Sneaking into my house?” he joked. “I need to change the locks, I guess.”
“I figured you might be napping. Didn’t want to disturb you.”
He approached, eyeing my suitcase and the stacks of clothes.
“Obviously, I was going to wake you up before I headed out.” Something about his somber expression made me blurt that out, since he didn’t exactly seem thrilled at the thought of me leaving.
It’d been a month and a half since he was discharged from the hospital. Still working through physical therapy, he was doing well on his own, without the noticeable issues walking he’d had initially. James and I had practically moved in to Tex’s at first, watching him during the ensuing recovery until gradually we’d become more comfortable with allowing him his space.
“It’s strange not having you around,” Tex said. “Like you’ve already moved out.”
“Gonna need to be more moved out once we get back. Don’t want to use your house as my storage facility.”