Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
“Hi, Selene,” I said, feeling shy all of a sudden. She’d known last night something had been going on.
“Did you sleep okay?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Did you?”
From the slight change in her narrow features, she knew I was deflecting but answered anyway. “Not long enough. I miss my bed.”
“Do you live far?” I asked.
“No. We were up late, and I didn’t feel like driving home,” she answered, surprising me for a moment. “Alana asked me to keep an eye on him.” She put her finger to her mouth before dropping her voice. “We’re all worried something is still off that he’s not telling us about.”
Was she expecting me to rat him out? Would I? No. I wasn’t a snitch. If he wanted to lie to his family, he could. Plus, I wasn’t shallow with my words. I had told myself I was going to be loyal to him, and I would.
Even if I wanted to flip him off.
“He just got back a couple hours ago. He’ll be asleep for a while,” she kept on whispering.
“Oh.” I didn’t want to fish. We were back to my rule: the less I talked, the better. The less I asked, the better too. Even if I wanted to know who Alana was.
“There’re leftovers from last night if you want them for breakfast. I need to head into the office today.”
I wondered where she worked, what she did. How old she was. But what was the point when I wouldn’t be seeing her for much longer? She already knew more than most people I’d ever met.
Maybe in another lifetime we could have been friends.
In another lifetime a lot of things could have been different.
“Thank you, but I have cereal. You’re welcome to it if you want any.” See? I could be polite. I could be nice.
“I’m good, thanks,” Selene answered, watching me closely.
It felt like she wanted to say something else but didn’t.
Keeping my chin up, I turned to the cupboard and got my cereal and milk out. I thought about standing up to eat, but decided I was already being run out of here. I took the seat beside her at the table just as she set her tablet on the surface and leveled beautiful blue eyes on me.
I spooned the little, round, donut-shaped objects, only meeting Selene’s gaze after I’d taken a few bites.
I gave her a brief smile.
“Can I help you with something?” she asked gently. “I know you’ve got a lot to figure out.”
“No, it’s okay. I think I can get everything sorted.” I didn’t know where to start or how I was going to pull it off, but I would, dammit.
Those eyes moved over my face like she could tell, and she probably could. I’d never been that good at hiding my feelings. I used to have to walk away so that my grandparents wouldn’t notice when something was up my ass; I didn’t want to hurt their feelings or get chewed out for disagreeing with something.
I fucking missed them. I missed them so much.
“It’s none of my business, but I’ve never been good at minding my own business, you know what I mean?” the woman said. “You look sad.”
I dipped my spoon into my bowl and made myself glance up.
Selene nodded.
What was I going to do? Tell her that her Alex hurt my feelings? That I didn’t want to stay here anymore? No. Instead, I settled for telling her part of it. “I’m just overwhelmed with all the changes in my life. I’m sad over it.” And here I’d just told her I didn’t want her help. That made a lot of sense.
I was pretty sure she didn’t believe me anyway. “Do you want me to show you around the property? So you can settle in? I can show you where the compost bin is,” she offered. “There is a field out back with the solar panels that power the house, and he has plans for a greenhouse by the garage.”
I wouldn’t be here long enough for that to be necessary, so I shook my head. “That’s all right. Thank you. But could I borrow a laptop? I want to send you the money you let me borrow, but I’m not sure if I can even check my account without my cell phone, and I just thought about whether I need to call the police about the incident at my house.” Saying those words out loud hurt my heart.
Would I be in trouble? Would there be a warrant out for my arrest? Could my landlord sue me? Was I a missing person or did someone actually have to report you missing for that to happen?
A grunt made me tense.
Alex was there, by the door, looking sleepy in another set of fitted sweatpants and a T-shirt.
I tipped my chin up higher and decided to be the bigger person. For now. “Morning.”