“Whitewashed is a damn good way to describe it. ‘Cause it definitely was that in more ways than one.”
“Did they even hang any of your art on their refrigerator? Did they read you bedtime stories? Did you and your sister play games? Was laughter even heard in this house at all?”
He turned his head, pulling his gaze from his mother, a lifeless shell of a woman wearing her laundry apron full of clothes pins and stiffly hanging the wet laundry, and settling it on the very full-of-life woman he’d spent all morning making sigh and moan in pleasure. Not to mention, leave a huge wet spot on the bottom sheet.
Reilly’s face had been a work of art as she came during their adult games, he could easily read her mood, and he could still hear her laughter when he touched her somewhere that tickled.
Fun and passionate. Vocal and open. Totally opposite of his childhood.
“Do I need to answer that?”
“No. If this house looked the same when there were two children living in it as it does now…” She sighed, using the hand on his back to turn him toward her. She blinked her big green eyes up at him. “I don’t know how you didn’t turn out to be some sort of cardboard cutout of a man.”
“I left.”
“Yes, but not before some damage had already been done.”
“Instead of groomin’ me for the life they wanted me to live, their actions showed me what I didn’t want. I didn’t want this fuckin’ life. The submissive wife. The obedient daughters I was expected to ‘ready’ for their husbands. Didn’t want any of this fucked-up shit. Didn’t wanna be the one to continue the cycle of what I consider fuckin’ madness.”
She turned her gaze back outside to his mother. “Madness is a good word for it. I’ve only seen the very tip of the iceberg. I can’t image the rest.” She shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t want to. It breaks my heart for you and Saylor, it really does. I still don’t understand why you needed to come back here, but it’s not for me to understand. If it’s something you need, then it’s something you need and this is why I’m here with you.”
He wasn’t stupid, he knew coming along to clear out her storage unit had only been an excuse.
“Woman,” he breathed. She was wedging herself under his fucking skin without even trying. Like that damn splinter.
She glanced back up at him and squeezed his waist. “Can we just get done what you need to so we can get the hell out of this place? I’m worried that the house will start shifting wildly or we’ll see ghosts, or some monster will slither out of the cellar.”
“A monster will slither out of my jeans later,” he assured her.
She rolled her eyes. “Uh huh.” She pulled her hand from under his T-shirt and patted his cotton-covered stomach. “I should have added: Let’s leave before we both start having delusions. I guess we’re too late on that one.” She went up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips.
He hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her into his chest, deepening the kiss for a brief moment. When he pulled back, he noticed how soft her eyes had gone.
Fuck.
Yeah, she might be burrowing under his skin, but he was afraid he was getting under hers, too.
And that was a problem he didn’t know how to deal with. Hell, maybe it wouldn’t be a problem. Maybe once they got home, they could easily go back to the way it was.
Or, for fuck’s sake, maybe he could stop lying to himself. He knew bullshit when he heard it, even if it was his own lie and only said in his own head.
No matter what, he needed to push that problem aside for now and deal with the one at hand.
John Schmidt.
“All right. Let’s go see if we need to stick around or we can head back to the motel where I can unleash my monster.”
A soft smile curled her lips even though her words didn’t match it. “I just want this over for you and Saylor.”
You and me both. But when this is over, we’re over and that’s gonna suck.
She peeled away from him and turned to head back to the sitting room, where his father had been sleeping when they first walked through the front door.
The asshole had probably been faking it to avoid him. But Rev would sit at his bedside all fucking day if he needed to.
“Hey,” he called out softly, stopping her from walking out of the kitchen by nabbing her wrist.
She paused and glanced back over her shoulder at him.
“Thanks for bein’ a fuckin’ pest.”
“You can thank me properly later.” She tipped her head toward his crotch. “By unleashing the Kraken.”