After spending so many hours on the road to get here, I should feel relieved. I finally made it. I’m safe. I’m free.
But all I feel is more anxiety and worry.
What the fuck am I bringing here? What shit am I dropping on their doorstep?
Would everyone be better off if I just disappear?
I follow the driveway as it curves around the front of the house then force my foot to the brake. What I really want to do is slam on the gas and peel out of here, to keep running.
But my mom is already standing at the bottom of the front steps, waiting for me.
Killing the engine, I take a moment to get my anxiety under control before I have to act like I’m normal and not about to have a nervous breakdown.
Deep breath in, deep breath out.
This isn’t the first time I’ve had to pretend everything is okay while my world is crashing down.
You’ve got this, Bree.
No more puking.
Pull those big girl panties up.
“Aubrey!” my mom calls out as soon as I pop my door open.
I manage to get one foot out the door before my mom pounces on me. She pulls me into a hug that’s so tight my lungs compress against my ribs.
Fuck, when did she get so strong?
“Mom, can’t breathe,” I find myself gasping.
“Oh, sorry!” She laughs and relaxes her arms. Her smile is so warm it flashes in front of my eyes like a beam of light. “I’m just so happy to see you, honey.”
She gives me one more squeeze then takes a step back, her eyes drinking me in as if it’s been years since we’ve seen each other and not a few months.
“I missed you too, Mom,” I wheeze out and let my own eyes drink her in before I remember myself.
Shaking my head, I smile and ask, “Wow, where’d you get the guns?”
I haven’t seen her since spring break, but she looks younger. Rejuvenated even. There’s a sparkle in her eyes and a glow about her that wasn’t there before she met and moved in with my stepfather.
“Guns?” My mom blinks in confusion and looks around her as if she’s really looking for them. “I don’t have any guns…”
“She means your arms, Olivia,” my stepfather chuckles as he comes up behind her and wraps an arm around her waist.
He does it so casually, so naturally, I doubt either of them are even aware that he’s pretty much staking his claim right in front of me.
It would be annoying if it wasn’t so damn cute.
In fact, everything about them is so cute that if I didn’t love them both so much it would probably make me puke again.
My stepfather, Logan, towers over my mother by at least a foot. He’s a big, burly, dark-haired guy with a deep, booming voice that was intimidating as hell the first time I met him, but he treats my mom with the gentleness of a teddy bear.
My mom on the other hand is a petite blonde with a slender frame who looks like she could get blown away by the wind at any moment. Even with the muscle she’s packed on it doesn’t look like it would take much to knock her over.
We Mckenzie women run small. Hell, I’m lucky I managed to grow a couple of inches above five feet in eighth grade.
I’m officially the tallest girl ever born in our family.