in. You just got out of prison today. You need… time.”
I had a feeling she wasn’t giving me the whole picture.
But I wasn’t really going to argue with her.
If she didn’t want me around yet, I’d give her that play.
“You’ll still be here once I get everything straightened out? You won’t totally hate me because I’m still getting my footing?” I wondered.
She rolled her eyes. “Sin, I’ve waited all these years. I can wait a few more months.”
I felt something inside of my chest tighten.
“I don’t want you to think that you can’t come to me. If you have a problem, let me know. I’ll handle it,” I urged.
She snorted. “I’ve been taking care of myself all these years just fine. I can do a couple more months.”
Her words, for some reason, made my heart hurt.
“I know one thing, Blaise,” I said as I hefted myself off the counter. “I’ll be back. I don’t want to be in the dark here. I want to be around. I want this. I want you. That’s never changed.”
With that, I let myself out of her door, and headed toward the street where I’d left my bike.
When I got on, I looked toward the front window where I could see her peering out.
I waved and knew that I’d be back.
Maybe not tomorrow, but soon.
• • •
BLAISE
I picked up the phone, tears running down my face, and waited for him to pick up.
“You better be freakin’ right,” I said. “Because I think I might’ve really just pissed him off.”
Johnny sighed, then started reiterating what he’d already told me. “From what Coke told me, they had a really shitty childhood. Coke said that their parents, before they died, were really strict. Forced them to be obedient in every way. First the father died, then the mother. They moved to the grandparents that the dad learned the absolute obedience from. Then he went from one strict household to another when he went Army. He spent years in the military being told what to do. Then he spent even more years in the pen being told what to do. I just think that it’d be a good idea to let him come to this decision on his own, that’s all.”
The decision on whether or not to stay with me. To not be forced into a decision that might or might not make him hate me the rest of his life.
CHAPTER 7
Life update: still a mess.
-text from Blaise to her daddy
BLAISE
Four weeks later
“Stupid, stupid, stupid car.” I kicked the tire as I watched smoke billow from the hood in great huge plumes. “I hate you.”
I really did hate the car, too.
I’d been telling my dad for years that the damn car was an asshole and hated me—seriously, the car was perfectly good each time I took it in to get checked out, then bam, right back to being a dick the moment it’s no longer under someone else’s hands—but no.
“It’s okay, Blaise,” I mimicked my father’s voice. “There’s nothing wrong with this car.”
I kicked it again for good measure. “Nothing wrong with it my ass.”
I looked at the POS in disgust. Piece of shit—my nickname for it.
It was… smoking.
Was it on fire?
I looked at it with revulsion, then pulled out my phone and called my father.
“You’re never going to freakin’ guess what my POS is doing right now,” I said as he answered.
“Driving like the good transportation that it is?” My father’s amused voice filled the air around me.
“No,” I immediately disagreed. “It’s smoking. Like, it’s on fire, billowing smoke into the sky for people miles away to see.”
There was a long pause and then, “What did it do before it broke down?”
I frowned. “Actually, it didn’t break down. It was just billowing smoke so hard into the cab of the vehicle that I thought maybe it wasn’t a good idea to keep driving since I couldn’t see.”
He laughed. “Bring it home, and I’ll take a look.”
“I’ll just buy a snorkel and goggles. Maybe just drive with my head hanging out the window. I’ll be there in three hours,” I drawled.
Dad snickered.
“I can come up and look at it tomorrow. Have it towed to Johnny’s place. I’ll use his garage,” he mused.
The loud sound of sirens wailed on his end, and I sighed. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Daddy.”
“Tomorrow, baby. Love ya.” Then he was gone, going to do what he loved best.
My father was a forty-year veteran of the Benton Fire Department. He’d started out as a firefighter, then