even ask when they basically told me I would be staying with them. “Well if it’s too much trouble, don’t bother. I’m capable of checking by myself.” I turn my legs to the door, dislodging Ares’s hand.
He sighs. “I never said it was a problem Cara, I just said there are better ways of knowing when and if she comes back, safer ways.”
I lift my lip in a small sneer. “Safer for who? Why wouldn’t it be safe?”
“We haven’t really had a chance to talk about this with everything else going on, I was hoping we could talk more at dinner. But we really don’t have any information on your mom, and what happened to her. From what I’ve gathered from you, it seems like pretty strange behavior for her. So, there might be more to this than your mom just taking off.”
I’ve been thinking that all along, but I haven’t really voiced it, or had anyone to talk about it with. My stomach does a flip, it feels more real all of the sudden. “Sorry, okay.” My voice is small.
“Don’t be sorry Laura, there’s been a lot going on, I have a feeling there’s a lot more we don’t even know about yet. I just… we just want to keep you safe.” Ares turns into the drive of Turtle Creek, gravel crunching under his tires. It only takes a few moments to drive to the back of the park, my camper still stands alone among the tress and blacktop pads.
Tugging my keys from my front pocket, I hand them over to Ares before he even asks. “I only want to check. But you’re right, I don’t think she randomly decided to leave me. Not after all this time, and without telling me.”
Ares places his hand over mine, not taking the keys right away. “We’ll figure out what happened.” I’m grateful he doesn’t make empty promises to find her, or bring her back to me. But I’m even more grateful I have someone who can help me and I’m not alone anymore.
I toe off my sneakers in the entryway and I’m too drained to bother lining them against the wall. Ares keeps his steps close to mine. He hasn’t said much since we left the RV, no one had been there in my absence. At his insistence, I took most of the rest of my stuff, which consisted of a few pieces of dirty clothing and my toiletries. He stood vigilant as I sorted through our things. He didn’t bat an eyelash when I removed the drawer next to the bed and pulled out and envelope with a few bucks inside. I’d already taken my sock money the other day and this was my new hiding spot since the one from the freezer was emptied.
With a small plastic grocery bag in hand I turn to face him. “Do you mind if I do a load of laundry or two? It’s already late but I’d like to get it started so I’ll have stuff for school tomorrow.” I know he said they’d been waiting on me to eat, but I really need to get this taken care of.
Ares looks away from me. “We already took care of the that.” He urges me further into the house.
“What do you mean?” I’m walking with is hand on my back but looking over at him.
Ares ignores my question and keeps moving to the kitchen. I can already hear the sounds of the guys banter as we near. “Ares?”
“Hope you like bruschetta chicken, I took a chance since you like lasagna so much. I’m betting you’ll like it.” He tells me like I didn’t just ask him something completely unrelated to dinner. “And bread, there’s lots of garlic bread. I have to admit it’s a weakness of mine.”
“Hey, finally,” Ollie calls once we round the corner. He rushes over, stopping just shy of touching me. His mouth opens, and he looks over my shoulder at Ares who’s still behind me. Ollie snaps his mouth shut and glances back down at me. “Who’s hungry?” he asks unnecessarily loud, spinning on his heel away from me.
I narrow my eyes at Ares’s back because he’s now stepping away from me too. What is going on here? I have a feeling I’m not going to like it.
We’re all sitting around a long dining table just off the kitchen. The table is already set with plates and silverware, even little goblets of water. I feel like I’m being buttered up