He cut me some slack and nodded. “I’ll let you know.”
The sense of relief that gave me was irrational and staggering. “Thanks, man.”
“No problem. Just don’t tell Shane I agreed, yeah? Honestly, I love your sister, but sometimes she terrifies me.”
I got that. More than he knew. “Yeah, brother. I won’t say a word.”
With that, I turned on my boot and started back down the hall toward the exit, feeling a heaviness in my chest that refused to go away for the rest of the day. And I knew it was all because I didn’t get to see her.
Willow
I’d gone from never taking a single sick day to missing nearly an entire week of work, but there was no way in hell I was going to be seen around town, sporting a dark, ugly bruise that would make people ask questions.
I’d waited until it had faded enough that makeup could cover the majority of it before risking a venture into town. Lark and Aurora had been amazing, coming by every day after work with takeout from different restaurants around town, but I was running seriously low on food, and had used up the last of my coffee this morning, so a trip to the grocery store was necessary.
My heart was still hurting too much to care about putting any effort into my appearance, so I’d slipped on a pair of yoga pants, a long, slouchy T-shirt, and thrown my hair up into a messy bun on the top of my head. The only makeup I’d bothered with was the concealer I used to cover the purple and yellow smudges on my cheekbone. It covered everything up, for the most part, but there was still a dark violet crescent moon starting right at the inside corner of my eye that showed through. Fortunately, my sunglasses covered it, so it looked like I would to be one of those douchey people who wore their sunglasses indoors.
I’d spent the past few days worried about my father and desperately wanting to see him, but Crissy and I had both agreed that I needed to wait until the bruises were completely gone. He’d blame himself, and that would just send him into another spiral.
For the time being, she and Phil had picked up the slack for me when it came to taking care of him, cleaning up the mess he’d made of his bedroom that night, running him to doctor’s appointments to have his meds adjusted, preparing his dinners, keeping him company.
I was missing him like crazy, but I was so grateful to my sister for being there when he needed someone the most.
I headed out the door toward that damned truck I was quickly coming to hate because it reminded me of him—the interior even smelled like him, for crying out loud. I had a constant, glaring reminder of what went down sitting in my driveway, and I was over it.
Hell, I was over pretty much everything at this point.
After the week I’d had, I was fully embracing the righteous indignation coursing through my body. I was a woman scorned. I was hurt and angry and sad, and I was sick and tired of taking people’s shit!
As soon as I stepped outside, my eyes narrowed behind my sunglasses at the offending hunk of metal like it had personally betrayed me.
“That’s it,” I said to the truck as I stomped up to it. “You’re gone. Today.”
Yanking the door open with a bit too much force, I climbed in and plopped down on the seat. Before I could get the key in the ignition, my cellphone rang. I pulled it out and let loose a frustrated sigh as Elaina’s name scrolled across the screen. I hadn’t spoken to her since she blew me off on my birthday a week ago, and at this moment, she was second on the list of people I had no desire to talk to. Stone Dickface Hendrix had the number one spot, and he probably would for the rest of eternity.
Swiping my thumb to answer, I lifted it to my ear and gave her the same kind of greeting she usually gave me when I called her.
“Elaina, now’s not a good time. I’m just getting in the car to—”
“This’ll only take a second,” she interrupted.
Rolling my eyes heavenward, I silently asked for a bit of patience as I said, “All right. What is it?”
“I know it’s last minute, but I need you to cover for me with Dad’s dinner tonight. I forgot that my friend Lois from book club and I made plans to meet for drinks tonight. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
Like I hadn’t heard those words before.
I gripped the wheel with my free hand, squeezing so tight my knuckles cracked as I hissed through the line, “No.”
Silence filled the line for several seconds before her voice returned, full of bewilderment. “What do you mean, no?”
“Last I checked, that word only had one meaning, but if you require further explanation, here it is. No, I will not cover for you. You made a commitment to Dad long before you made stupid plans to have stupid drinks with a stupid friend, and you’re going to uphold your end of the deal that you, Crissy, and I made.”
“What the hell—?” she started to argue, but I wasn’t finished. Not even fucking close.
“Even if I wanted to help your spoiled, self-entitled ass out—which I do not—I couldn’t. It’s obvious you’ve been too busy in your own little world, not giving a shit about anyone else, so I’ll fill you in on some of the things that have occurred in the past few days.”
“Now, you listen to—”
“No!” I barked through the line. “You listen, Elaina. For once, you’re going to hear what I have to say, because it’s important. On Monday, Dad had one of his episodes, only this time, he was extremely violent. I got the brunt of that, and until the black eye he gave me heals, I can’t see him.”
That was met by her sharp intake of breath on the other end of the call, and I knew I had her full attention.
“If he sees the bruises, he’ll ask questions. If he finds out the truth, it’ll kill him. You know that. He never once raised his hands to us, and if he knows he hit me . . .” I swallowed down the lump that had suddenly formed in my throat. “You know what that will do to him.”
“I-I know,” she whispered, her voice holding so much pain. “Oh God, Will. I-I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry.”
The sudden and unexpected shift in her took some of the wind out of my sails, and it took me a moment to get my bearings. “Thank you.”
“Is he okay? Are you okay?”
Well I certainly hadn’t been expecting that. “Crissy’s been taking care of him, and she said he’s doing okay. She took him to the doctor and they adjusted his meds to see if that would help. As for me . . .” I thought about how to answer that and decided the truth was the best option. “I’ve definitely been better, but I’ll be okay.”
“Willow, I—”
Vulnerability wasn’t necessarily one of Elaina’s strong suits. She’d always been the hardest of the three of us. I’d never doubted that she loved me, she just tended to be incredibly selfish.
“It’s all right,” I said softly. “But he needs you, okay? I need you. I’m struggling. This is really hard on me, and sometimes I need my big sister to hold me and tell me it’s going to be okay.”
I could have sworn I heard tears in her voice when she said, “I’m sorry I’ve been such a shitty sister to you.”
“Well, you haven’t always been shitty,” I teased and felt a sense of relief when a short laugh carried through the line.