I hold up my hand when she rolls her eyes. “She’s real smart. Has a masters in English. Let her help you.”
“She hates me.”
She doesn’t. Allison’s upset with me, and I’m going to make that better, too. But my problems with Allison, our pain at losing our child, aren’t Beth’s issue—they’re mine. She has enough burdens and doesn’t need my baggage crashing down on her. “Let me handle that. You focus on school.”
“Whatever.” She glances at the clock. “Shouldn’t you be heading to work?”
“I’m working from home today. We’re going to do this every morning. I want you up at six and out here for breakfast by six-thirty.”
“Okay.”
I gather the dishes and go to the sink. “About last night….”
“Let’s not discuss last night.”
“You were shaking.” I was mad at her for upsetting Allison, and I lost my temper, but my words, my actions—they weren’t bad enough to provoke the reaction Elisabeth gave me. She has her own demons, and I want to know their names, addresses and phone numbers.
She stands, fidgeting from head to toe. “I should get my backpack together.”
“Has someone hurt you?” I push. “Physically?” Because the emotional part is obvious.
She picks up her dishes and brings them to me. Her words pour out as if she’s in freefall. “I really need help with calculus. I want to drop it.”
I take the dishes from her, place them on the counter and cross my arms over my chest. I’m not letting this go. “What happened after I left town? My dad was dead and buried. Did my brother take his place as residing bastard?”
Elisabeth begins to shake, and her fear causes a wave of protectiveness to course through my veins. But her fear quickly turns into red-faced anger. “Fuck you.”
Fuck you. Elisabeth is a smart girl with a smart tongue. If that’s the best she’s got, it means that I just punched through a few layers of those walls she’s been fortifying for years. Fuck you. What a great comeback. I chuckle. “You’re still as stubborn as you were at four. Go get your stuff ready for school. I’ll drive you in today.”
“I’ll take the bus.”
I turn my back to her and load the dishwasher. “I’m making pancakes tomorrow.”
“I won’t eat.”
I laugh again. “Yes, you will. Allison’s making goat-cheese-and-tofu casserole tonight.”
And They All Lived Happily Ever After:
A Thunder Road Novella
Chapter 11
Pigpen
Growing up I didn’t believe in true love. I couldn’t wrap my head around the bull about a princess trapped in a castle and how some random guy who never met the chick before takes one look at her sad blue eyes and feels compelled to place himself in front of a fire-breathing dragon to save her life. No way that type of love was real.
Don’t get me wrong. When I was younger I believed in caring love, protective love. The type you have for your family, your friends, and then for your friends who become your family. That shit was and is real. For my friends and family, I’d take on the dragon without the armor and the sword. I’d slay that bastard with a smile on my face just to piss it off, but no way could there be some woman out there who owned me more than I owned myself.
Fairytales. That’s all that kind of nonsense was. Then I met her—a woman who slipped under my skin without even trying, who took possession of my soul with a smile and a blah blah blah, and that makes me grumpy. Like a damned toddler who had to eat peas and doesn’t want to take a nap.
In the back of the high school’s auditorium, I lean against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest and do what my club has allowed me to do—look from a distance.
Ms. Whitlock.
Let’s all take a moment to savor that name. Whitlock. Ms. Whitlock. Ms. Caroline Whitlock. Her name rolls off the tongue like a Spanish “r.” Blond hair slicked back in a perfect bun, white silk shirt, gray slim skirt that fits her so perfectly I can’t stop staring and blue eyes behind dark-rimmed glasses. She’s in her twenties, like me, and I have so much respect for this woman that I can’t bring myself to call her by her first name without her permission.
She’s gorgeous, she’s intelligent, she’s cold and she’s feisty. I can’t name one student who doesn’t think she’s a tyrant, and she has never looked once in my direction. Worse, I haven’t been able to do