by Hughes, Maya
Unlocking the front door, I stared down at my phone and tapped on Emmett’s name. Would he even take the call? I pushed open the door and screamed, nearly falling back outside. My mind went blank. It was like walking in on a scene so foreign your brain couldn’t process what was happening. Then it all clicked together, the pungent smell overwhelming me from across the room.
My dad was sprawled out on the floor, a puddle of vomit around him. Scrambling across the room, I knelt down and shook him. The warm mess on the floor soaked through my jeans. A gurgle came from his throat.
“Dad, what did you take?” I shook him harder.
His clothes were coated in sick. Rushing back to the front door, I grabbed my phone from beside my bag. Clearing away Emmett’s name, I dialed 9-1-1 and rummaged through my stuff. My fingers wrapped around the tiny bottle. First responders had told us about the stuff during a safety fair, said they all carried it for overdoses. I shoved it up his nose and squeezed the spray. When the operator came on the line, I screamed out our address.
His back arched off the floor. His glazed eyes searched the room without seeing anything. He swatted at me.
The operator’s requests for me to stay calm almost sent me into a fit of maniacal laughter. Fuck calm.
“Yes, he’s alive, but I need an ambulance.”
My dad rolled to his side, his eyes half open. I rocked on the floor beside him, my hand wrapped around his, pleading with him to stay with me.
The wait for the ambulance was the longest fifteen minutes of my life, Dad moaning and grumbling, scrounging around on the floor trying to get what was left of his stolen stash, berating me for taking it away. I’d flushed it all.
Little did I know the worst was yet to come—cleaning the house before Alyson got home and telling her dad had hurt himself. She eyed me suspiciously, but didn’t push for more. Showing up to school after the weekend, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Barely keeping my eyes open, I went through the motions, so tired I fell asleep in class more than once. I was on the brink.
The questions at the hospital had led to even more questions. The police questioning us. I was so scared they were going to come and take Alyson away, scared someone would pull up in a car with paperwork from a judge and take her. I slept beside her bed, worry twisting my gut and making it impossible to eat.
Standing in the hallway before school Monday morning, I watched everyone mill around like nothing had changed, like my life hadn’t been ripped apart in a matter of hours. Rocking myself beside Alyson’s bed the night before, I’d tried to call Emmett. My mind had raced, trying to find the words to explain everything to him, but his phone had been disconnected. He’d probably gotten a brand-new one to make sure he never had to hear my voice again. He hated me. I didn’t blame him. I’d buried my face in my legs, muffling my tears so I didn’t wake my sister up.
With a weariness so deep I felt it in the pit of my soul, I barely made it through the day. The snide remarks and staring might have killed me if the party had been the worst thing to happen to me over the previous three days, but it hadn’t been.
A call to the principal’s office was the perfect end to a perfect day. I squeezed my fingers around my knee, trying to stop the bouncing. I’d logged into Dad’s HR account and used some of his vacation days to buy us some more time.
“Ms. Davis, please come in.” Principal Vander held the door open.
Wrapping my hand tighter around the strap of my backpack, I stepped into his office. I stopped short two steps in when my eyes landed on the pristinely polished woman inside.
“I’ll take it from here, Mark.” The venom-tipped voice was one I knew far too well.
I whipped around, my eyes pleading with him not to leave me there, but he did. The door closed behind him, sealing me inside. I was alone with her.
“I have to say, I’m quite impressed with the way you went about it.” Her voice dripped with an icy viciousness.
“I didn’t do it for you.” My words bounced against the solid wooden door in front of me. I couldn’t figure out how to tell Emmett. How did I tell him what they’d said? Would he even believe me? I turned to her with my jaw clenched.
“Nevertheless, it’s done, so thank you.”
“Once he’s back, I’m going to tell him everything.” I stepped toward her where she stood against the principal’s desk.
“No, you won’t, and do you want to know why?” She leaned forward.
The sinking feeling was back, pulling me deeper into the abyss. I crossed the room, not wanting to get closer, but also not wanting to give her the satisfaction of seeing me cower.
“Because I’m going to do you a favor, Avery.” Her smile brightened. “To show my appreciation for your cooperation. Would you like to have a seat?” She motioned to the high-backed leather chair beside me.
“I don’t need any favors from you.” My hands fisted at my sides.
Her vindictive smile made my stomach turn. “Oh, I think you do, and here’s what’s going to happen. The charges against your father for drug possession will no longer be an issue. He will enter a rehab facility we will fully fund for ninety days, just in time for the new school year to start, and he will have a job waiting for him, due to the recommendation of certain board members that upstanding members of our Rittenhouse Prep community deserve second chances. We all know how terrible a plague addiction can be. It would be awful to turn our backs on someone who has been employed at this school for so long and needs our help.”
The watery feeling was back in my mouth. I wanted to throw up, and tears pricked the backs of my eyes. She was holding the answers for everything that weighed on my shoulders.
“We’ll also ensure that child services knows there won’t be any issues like this in the future, so their assistance will no longer be needed.”
I fell into the leather chair beside me.
“I hope my generosity won’t be thrown back in my face, because all it takes is one wrong move…” She tugged at the stray thread sticking up from the shoulder seam of my uniform. I needed new ones, but since it was my last year, it didn’t make sense to replace them when Alyson needed hers more. “For things to fall apart.”
She picked up her bag, which had probably cost more than our house, and strode out of the office like a woman who had the world by the balls. And she did. I sank down farther in the chair, the tears I’d held at bay spilling over. I wrapped my arms around myself and sat there until Mr. Vander came back. Rushing out, I sat in my car, shell-shocked. If I told Emmett the truth, everything would be destroyed, and if I didn’t, my heart might never recover.
I closed my eyes and let the feeling of his strong arms around me pull me into sleep. In the morning it would be another day, and maybe then I’d be able to figure out how to keep him.
20
Emmett
“I’m thinking about doing the salary match donation to your foundation.” Colm looked over the top of the newspaper with his sunglasses pulled down his nose. The deck of the boat was slick with the salty sea spray, and our fishing poles sat in their holds along the edge of the deck. After two hours, Declan and Heath were the only two still giving it their best. The seabass and bluefin were just not feeling it that day.
“Really?”
“Yeah, why not? After five years of taking care of Olive, I’m not freaking out about making us both destitute by the time we’re twenty-five. My parents would roll over in their graves if they knew I wasn’t keeping up their charitable ways.” While Declan, Heath, and Ford had attended Rittenhouse Prep on hockey scholarships, Colm and I had paid the full sticker price: a high school education that could buy a huge house in many parts of the country. When his parents died, between the insurance, the trust, and their savings, he and Olivia had been set for life.
“Awesome. I’ll have Randolph send over the gift agreement and you fill in whatever you want.” I’d originally started it as a tax protection, but seeing the reports from the foundation’s impact and getting letters from k
ids had turned it into something more. My parents were more than happy to sip champagne on a yacht circling the Caribbean and never think of anyone other than themselves. With their recent behavior, though, I thought maybe I should bring up the foundation to them. Maybe they’d surprise me.
“Good. I’ll have Olive do some volunteer work too. She’s always so noncommittal.” Colm tossed his cards into the center of the table, folding.
“It’s only because you baby her.” Ford collected the cards, and his fingers made quick work of shuffling the deck then passing out another set to each of us.
“I wouldn’t baby her if she didn’t need it.”
Ford shrugged.
“Are you three just going to sit there while we reel in the big fish?” Heath poked his head around the divider on the side of the deck where we’d set up our game.
“Is that what you mean by big fish?” I pointed to the end of his line.
“That’s the bait.”
“Sure…I bet the fish won’t mind if we sit this one out.” Colm picked up his cards and fanned out his hand.
The rest of the trip was complete with zero fish caught by Declan and Heath. After our poker hands had been played, Colm owed Ford a year’s worth of booze and one get-out-of-jail-free card.
“How long is this trip supposed to last?” I asked.
“Eager much? You’re the one who booked this the day after you got here.” Colm leaned back in his chair.
“That was when he was trying to avoid Avery. Now a whole five hours away and he’s ready to jump out of his skin.” Declan laughed, leaning against the side of the boat.
“We don’t have much time until she leaves. I don’t want to waste a minute.”
“What are we doing about the Fourth of July?” Heath yawned and shielded his eyes from the sun.
“If you guys will let me, I’d like to handle the party.” I kept talking over the groans. “You paid for the house, at least let me plan the party—nothing crazy, just us and some other people we’ve met down here, a bar, good food. They’ll clean everything up.”
“You had me at clean up.” Ford chuckled into the beer he’d been nursing the whole day.
“Nothing big, you promise?” Heath held out his pinky like we were eight.
“Totally.”
We carried back the cooler full of fish we’d bought from the store, ready to tell the ladies a harrowing story of our incredible seafaring adventure. Opening the front door of the house, the ‘Honey, I’m home’ died in my throat as I watched Avery’s head lean back in laughter right in front of the guy who just didn’t know to stay away: Noah. His hand was wrapped up in hers, and she was holding the back of his hand in her palm. I gritted my teeth. What the hell was she doing touching him? What was she doing letting him touch her?
The thump of the cooler on the floor drew her attention through the opening from the kitchen to the living room. Ford lunged to keep the lid on, and Avery’s head whipped around at the noise. Her laughter died and she dropped her hand from Noah’s.
My lips twisted into a grim line. Not even the smell of baking chocolate was enough to snap me out of it. What was he doing there? What were they laughing about? What had they been doing for the entire day while we’d been out on the boat?
Olivia hopped down the steps before coming to a skidding stop halfway down. The heavy footfalls behind her definitely didn’t sound like Kara or Mak.
“You guys are back.” Liv’s eyes swept over us all standing in the doorway before landing on Ford. “I thought you wouldn’t be back for another couple of hours.” She tugged the sleeve of her halfway unbuttoned shirt back onto her shoulder.
My eyes darted back to Avery. She’d hopped down off her stool and was moving quickly around the kitchen.
“Yes, we’re back. Eight hours is a ridiculous amount of time to be on a boat so we cut it short.” Colm crossed his arms over his chest. “What the hell is he doing here?”
Her eyes snapped to Colm. “Noah and Mason came over to visit. They brought over a regular bottle of bourbon and we were helping Avery make brownies.”
“You were helping her make them upstairs?”
“I got chocolate on my clothes.” She sputtered.
“I’m not buying it and you can get the hell out.” Colm lunged for Mason.
“Calm down, Colm.” Ford stepped up and put his arm on Colm’s shoulder.
He shrugged it off. “Like you have any place to talk about people sneaking around other people’s backs,” Colm snapped.
Their conversation floated into the background. My focus was on Avery. As I entered the kitchen, she kept her back to me, taking a tray of brownies out of the oven. Mixing bowls and trays covered the counter.
“Hey, Emmett, right? Man, you’ve been missing out. I’ve been eating up Avery’s sweet treats all afternoon, but I’m sure there are still some left.” He held out his hand for a shake, but I didn’t even glance down at it.
“Avery.” I kept my voice level, even with the vibrating anger pulsing through my body.
The oven door slammed shut and Avery stood with her hands braced against the counter.
“Did you have fun fishing?” She dipped her hands into the sink filled with soapy water.
“We need to talk.” I wrapped my hand around her arm and dragged her with me from the kitchen into our bedroom. A trail of water followed us down the hall. I slammed the door shut and the entire wall seemed to shake.
“What the fuck?” I bit out.
She let out a defeated sigh. “Nothing the fuck about it, Emmett. Noah and Mason came over while the girls and I were baking.”
“Why were you touching him?”
“He hit his hand against the oven checking on a tray of brownies. I was checking to see if he needed something for the burn. He didn’t.” She crossed her arms over her chest. The spaghetti straps of her tank top were showing off way too much skin for me to handle.
“Where is everyone else? Olivia was upstairs banging that guy, and Kara and Mak are nowhere to be seen.”
“We better get triple brownie rations for this emergency supply run or someone’s getting huuuurt!” Mak’s voice carried down the hallway.
“They went to the store when we ran out of supplies. They’ve probably been gone for twenty minutes. You can ask them yourself if you’d like.”
The jump to distrust was automatic, reflexive after so many years.
“This is why I asked the ‘us’ question. You don’t trust me.”
“And whose fault is that?”
Her gaze dropped. “Mine. I can’t say part of it isn’t my fault, but it’s not all me.” Her eyes snapped back to mine, her deep browns pleading with me. “Some of that is you. I wasn’t doing anything. I’m saying it loud and clear for you. You can decide what to do with it from there. I wasn’t doing anything other than baking. He came by with his friend and that’s it.” Her eyes searched mine.
“Fine. I believe you.”
Her shoulders relaxed. That didn’t mean I was going to let some guy flirt with her, have him think she was someone he could take away from me.
I tugged her against me, running my fingers up her back. “I missed you.”
* * *
AVERY
The relief was overwhelming. He believed me. “I missed you too.” I looped my arms around his neck. “I’m only here for a few more days.”
“Don’t remind me.” He groaned and closed his eyes.
“And you’ll start training in September, right? Maybe—” My words were cut off by the fierceness of his movement, like me mentioning us being apart had set him off.
He pushed me up against the door, unbuttoning my jeans with one hand and sliding them down below my ass. I wasn’t going to fight this. Kicking them off my feet, I gripped the hair at the base of his neck and yelped into his mouth when he lifted me, wrapping my legs around his waist.
When he sank into me in one smooth motion, I hissed at the sudden invasion and rolled my hips to get
him deeper. Every time we came together was just as explosive as the last. The door rattled on its hinges.
He drove my legs higher with his hips, opening me even more. His fingers were up under my shirt, yanking down the cups of my bra until I spilled out into his hands. His fingers tweaked and twisted my nipples, drawing a hiss from my lips.
“Yes, Emmett, more.” I gasped against the side of his face. Holding on, I screamed as his strokes got harder and faster.
“So tight, Avery. It’s always so good.” His words were clipped like he was holding back.
“Em.” His name fell from my lips. I was close, the crest of the wave I was on nearly at its peak.
“Fuck yes. Let him know you’re mine. Tell him I’m the only person to make you come this hard.”
His words hit me like a surfer flung off their board by a rogue wave. What? I jammed the heel of my hand into his chest.
He winced, rubbing the spot. Good!
“Is this you staking your claim?” The anger bubbled up. His words were a bucket of ice water poured over my head.
Let him know you’re mine. Shame wrapped its iron grip around me, thinking about everyone out there listening.
He fell free from my body. It wasn’t the usual feeling of loss; instead I burned with humiliation. Knowing others could hear us when we were professing our feelings for each other was different than him drawing the words out of me as a warning to anyone who might dare to touch what was ‘his’.
I glared at him.
“Avery—” He reached for me, but I batted his hands away.
“Why not take me out on the deck and rent a fucking spotlight?”
Snatching my jeans off the floor, I shoved my legs back inside.
“Are you running back out there to pretend like this isn’t happening?” He buttoned his pants.
“No, I’m going out there to be with people who aren’t using me.” I wrapped my fingers around the doorknob.
“Do you know why I have trust issues? Why it freaks me out to see you touching another guy?” His voice was like a lash across my skin, harsh and stinging.