Right! List.
FIX BROKEN BOARD IN MAIN ROOM DOWNSTAIRS.
Huh. I think I can do that.
I grab the tools from the office and make my way to the main room—the room that Evan always uses. Switching on the light, I scan the floor, looking for the broken board.
As soon as I see it, I walk toward it, kneeling down and inspecting it as if I have any idea what I’m looking at. All I know is that it needs replacing, the crack running down the middle tells me that much.
Opening the red tool box, I locate the hammer and turn it around in my hand with a smile on my face. I’m assuming the first thing that I need to do is take the old board out.
I sit down on my ass, legs wide apart as I use the back of the hammer to try and pull the board up.
Five minutes later, I still haven’t got the blasted thing free. I lean up on my knees, putting all of my strength behind it, and pull as hard as I can.
I squeal as the board splinters free and comes at me, smacking me in my left eye, the splintered part digging into the soft skin of my eyelid and under my eye.
I drop the hammer next to me, the thud echoing around me as I hold my hand over my eye and scramble back.
Fuck me, that hurts!
I grit my teeth as I feel wetness on my hand and pull it away. Seeing the red blood coating my palm has my stomach rolling. I’m going to puke.
Standing up on shaky legs, I step toward the wall of mirrors, wincing as I get closer. The sight of the blood is all I can see and I immediately turn away and walk out of the room. My hands shake and my stomach lurches. I can’t stay here, I need to get outside in case I throw up.
I pick up the keys off the desk, not thinking to grab anything else as I walk out of the doors and lock them behind me. The fresh air whacks me in the face, almost knocking me over as the cold wind picks up and skates across my skin.
I don’t think, I work on autopilot, picking my feet up and walking back toward Livvy’s. The walk soon turns into a run the more I feel the blood coat my hand from the broken skin around my eye.
The blood now drips down my neck and I hate it. I hate what it reminds me of. Of all the times that I bled while in prison—of the day that changed my life. I can’t stop the flashbacks: the image of my face full of bruises, the officer on the floor surrounded in the sticky redness. The lock I felt around my throat at not being able to say how I got hurt in prison, the threats I felt every time I went out of my small room that I shared with one other person.
They all mix together, creating a montage of images that has me wanting to scream.
I’m still that scared girl, the one afraid to walk out of her room, the one afraid to say or do the wrong thing.
My boots sink into the grass of Livvy’s front lawn and I run into the house, banging the door behind me and leaning against it, catching my breath.
“Lexi?”
I jump and scream at the voice in front of me, popping my eye open and wincing at the pain that spreads through it.
“What the hell happened?”
I stare at Evan, seeing the confusion on his face as he steps closer. He scans my entire face, and when his eyes finally settle on the hand covering my eye, he takes two big leaps for steps and clasps either side of my neck, pulling my hand away.
I swallow against the feeling of his calloused hands on the soft skin and shiver. I’ve never felt safe, not in the way that he’s making me feel right now.
“I had an accident with a hammer and a floorboard.”
“I—what?” He frowns.
“I lost.” I pout but the action has me wincing so I say, “Roy’s gone away to his sister’s.”
“I know that,” he answers, his voice deeper now as he narrows his eyes at me. “But what does that have to do with your eye?”
I bite my bottom lip, squirming in his hold. How can I want to move away but want to step closer all at the same time? I don’t get it; I blame not being around men for so long.
“He left me a list—”