Credence

“Dude, look at me,” Noah barks at him.

Slowly, Kaleb pulls his gaze away and finally meets his brother’s.

“It’s Dad’s… brother’s daughter,” Noah explains, and I hear humor in his tone. “Remember? The step-brother he hates? This is his kid.” Noah gestures to me. “She’s family. She’s staying with us for a while. You can’t fuck her.”

And then Noah releases him, laughing under his breath.

“This isn’t funny!” I snap. And then I glare at Kaleb, now able to finally find my goddamn voice. “What the hell is the matter with you? Huh?”

“Just cut him some slack,” Noah says. “He’s always starving when he comes back from being in the woods this long.”

“Then eat!”

“That’s what he was doing,” Noah shoots back, glancing at me.

Eating.

Eating me.

Oh, you’re fucking clever, aren’t you? Assholes.

Kaleb watches me, cocking his head a little to the side again, and then he brings up his thumb, wiping the corner of his mouth like you do after a meal.

In the woods. In. That’s what they meant. Kaleb disappears into the forest for spells.

Maybe he should disappear again.

“Why do you keep answering for him?” I ask Noah.

“Because he doesn’t talk.”

“What?”

“He doesn’t speak, Tiernan.” Noah turns his head only enough for me to see his lips move. “He hasn’t spoken since he was four years old.”

I look at Kaleb, not sure how to process the information. A touch of pity winds through me, but I think he sees it, because he glares down at me as he refastens his jeans and yanks his belt free, the end of it snapping in the air with his anger.

I flex my jaw. “Is he deaf, too?” I snap. “I told him to stop.”

“He can hear you just fine.” Noah sighs. “He’s just not used… to women…”

“Saying no?”

“Women like you,” Noah retorts.

Like me? There are plenty of girls like me in town.

Kaleb casts me one more look before he turns around and heads up the stairs, back into the house, and Noah faces me, his eyes taking in my clothes. I quickly pull my shirt down, but I’m too mad to be embarrassed.

I can’t remember why I came to the shop in the first place.

Mute? He’s mute? He can speak. Noah said he hasn’t spoken since he was four, not that he lost his ability to speak when he was four. Why doesn’t he talk?

And what does he do in the woods by himself?

I still see his eyes, looking down at me, when he pushed me into the wall and rested his forehead against mine. The way he looked at me…

His mouth on my… My cheeks warm.