her going, allowing her mind to keep full of good things instead of bad. And the Brain-Changing Positivity class had already given her so much to mull over. This week, they were supposed to take note of one thing that made them happy and one thing that made them sad every day, so they could analyze mood trends.
Her footsteps fell quietly as she approached the front door. Over the road, two people were screaming at each other, the sound floating through an open window. The dog three doors down continued to bark, its deep timbre a warning rumble through the night air. Weariness seeped into her bones as she shoved her key into the front door’s lock—but she couldn’t let any of them see it.
She was the pillar of this family—the rock—and she had to be strong.
Pushing the door open, she called out a hello. Deanna was sprawled out on the floor, doing her homework, Oliver’s noise-cancelling headphones perched on her head while the TV blared the baseball game, Red Sox versus Rangers. Boston was losing, which wouldn’t end well for any of them. Her dad was leaning back in his chair, a beat-up recliner with holes in the upholstery and a permanent ass-shaped dent in the cushion. The kitchen was a mess of Chinese takeout boxes and dirty dishes.
Why was he spending money on takeout when she’d left a perfectly good casserole in the fridge? But asking that kind of question would only get her a lecture about how he was head of the family, even though he did absolutely nothing to take care of them.
“Hey!” Deanna pushed her headphones off her head and smiled as she got to her feet, scooping up her work and hugging it to her chest. The gesture made Audrey smile, because she looked like a Mini-Me version of her. “How was work?”
“Busy, little munchkin. I’m glad to be home.” Audrey went to the cupboard that contained their washing machine and deftly tossed her apron in, which had her blouse bundled up inside it. “Did you have dinner?”
“Dad got us takeout,” she said with a beaming smile.
“Did you eat any vegetables?”
“Rice.”
Audrey narrowed her eyes. “You know that’s a grain, not a vegetable, right?”
“If it grows from a plant, it’s a vegetable, isn’t it?”
“Marijuana is a plant,” Oliver quipped as he walked past, grabbing a glass from the cupboard and filling it with water. “And that’s not a vegetable.”
Audrey shot her brother a warning look. “I appreciate the backup, but that’s not an appropriate example.”
“Hey, you were the one talking about elephant penises this morning.” He shuddered.
“Can you lot fucking shut up?” her dad bellowed from his chair. “Are ya blind or somethin’? The goddamn game is on.”
“Come on.” Audrey ushered her brother and sister toward the back of the house. Oliver immediately disappeared into his room with a scowl. Of all the kids, he was the most sensitive to his father’s outbursts and had a tendency to crawl into his shell. That worried Audrey, but she didn’t have enough fuel left in the tank to deal with it tonight.
“Can you help me with my homework?” Deanna asked.
“I sure can.” She closed the door behind them, and Georgie acknowledged them with a slight raise of her head before rolling over on the bottom bunk to face the wall and continue her speed-of-light texting.
Audrey dropped down onto her bed, which faced the bunk that Georgie and Deanna shared. “Sit here with me. Let’s figure this out.”
“High school work is hard,” Deanna grumbled as she flipped to the algebra section of her math textbook. “I’ll never get this.”
“Yes, you will.” Audrey grabbed her little sister’s face in both hands and forced her to make eye contact. “You will get this because you’re smart and one day you’re going to graduate and fly far away from here, okay?”
“But you’re not going to fly away, are you?” Deanna asked, her blue eyes shimmering with worry. “You’re not going to leave us?”
Audrey put a smile on her face that was so well-practiced, even she might fall for it in the mirror. “I’m not leaving. I promise.”
It was a promise she’d made over and over, and it never failed to make her stomach sink a little every time.
Chapter Four
Ronan was officially lost. Well, not exactly lost in the traditional sense, since he knew he was on Main Street. But he was lost in the sense that he’d ended up here without meaning to. Was Kissing Creek nothing but a circular maze,