All the lights were off in the front of the house when I pulled into the driveway. I took a long second to collect myself, found a long-sleeved sweater in the backseat of the car to cover my arm, and climbed out of the car. I was just going to wave Race on, hope he just kept driving, but he stopped and got out of the car, the new Mac clasped in one hand. Crap. I had forgotten all about the computer.
He didn’t give me a chance to say anything, just shoved the lightweight laptop in my hands, bent down, and pressed a hard, marking kiss to my parted lips and told me, “Keep your eyes peeled for anything weird until I can get a handle on who might be screwing with you. Forward me any more shitty text messages, and look over the notes I saved for you. I rearranged them in a different order. I don’t know who is teaching that class, but they are clearly an idiot and should never have gotten tenure.”
All I could do was gape at him as he turned on his heel and went back to the Mustang.
“Race . . .” I called his name and he looked at me over his broad shoulder. I didn’t know what else to say to him, so he grinned at me and I just shook my head.
“This”—he pointed a finger between him and me as he pulled open the car door—“is happening. Maybe not now because it isn’t a good time for you, and maybe not later because I might not be around all that long, but at some point in between, sooner or later, it’s going down. Be ready for it, Brysen.”
How could anyone ever be ready for that? I practically ran inside when I heard the motor on his car rev up. I slammed the front door behind me and marched toward the kitchen, full of so many different emotions that I could taste all the different sweet and sour flavors of them on my tongue.
My mom didn’t just break every dish we had; she had also pulled everything out of the fridge and splattered the contents along the floors and counters. All of the cabinets were empty. The water in the sink was running, and it looked like she had taken the entire jug of dishwashing liquid and poured it all along the floor. It was a mess, a nightmare that was totally preventable and unnecessary, just like the current state of my life. I wanted to kick something, namely both my parents, but that wouldn’t get me anywhere, so I ground my teeth together and went upstairs to set the expensive gift from Race down on my bed and check on my sister. It was going to take hours to clean the kitchen up, and that was after I checked on my mom and ripped my dad a new one. Not that either of those things would do any good. Nothing ever seemed to change.
I knocked on Karsen’s door lightly and waited to see if she would respond. I kind of hoped she had gone to bed and forgotten about the scene from downstairs, but no such luck. I actually heard the lock on the door snick open. She was so scared that she had locked herself in her room.
“Hey. You all right in there?”
Her big brown eyes were so wide in her face it made her look like a cartoon character.
“I’m glad you’re home. Did you see the kitchen?”
I nodded and reached out to fluff her soft hair.
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it, sprite. I’ll get it cleaned up.”
She shook her head slowly from side to side and I saw her bottom lip quiver.
“Dad just ignored the whole thing, Brysen. He just shut the door to his office and let her rant and rave like nothing was going on. I screamed at him to help, but he just wouldn’t.”
Of course he wouldn’t. He was too busy locked away behind his door pretending like he didn’t have a solid hand in the steady decline that was going on inside the walls of this house. And we all knew the booze had to come in through the front door somehow. He was a master at turning a blind eye to his part in the devastation of this family.
“I think it’s hard for him. It just takes some time to adjust to a new way of living with each other.”
That was bullshit but I hoped Karsen loved me enough to let it slide.
“How much time? It feels like it has been forever.” She was preaching to the choir. It still felt like forever to her and she had me acting as a buffer between her and how bad things really were. She had no clue how long this year felt like to me.
“It’ll be fine, Karsen. Just finish your homework. Stay on top of your schoolwork so you can be valedictorian and get a full ride to college. Once you’re out there in the real world, everything that happens here is just secondary and you get to focus on building your own life the way you want it.”
I took a step back and gave her a sad smile. She reached out a hand and grabbed my wrist. Some of the sadness left her coffee-colored eyes and she grinned at me.
“So who was the guy?”
Ugh . . . she would have had to be looking out the window when Race kissed me.
“Just a guy.”
“Is he what came up after work?”
Oh, he had definitely been up, all right. I was going to need another shower, this one cold, if I had any hope of getting to sleep tonight.
“My laptop crashed and he tried to fix it for me. Remember Dovie? That’s her brother.”
Karsen made the “no way” face everyone made when I mentioned the relationship between Dovie and Race.
“He’s pretty.”
“Very pretty.” I couldn’t argue the fact. “He’s also really complicated, bossy, and I have zero time to try and figure him out. I’m gonna go stick my head in Mom’s room, so take care of business and go to bed.”
She let my arm go and muttered so softly I almost didn’t hear her, “Thank you for coming home.”
I knew she didn’t just mean today.
I felt my shoulders droop a little and yet another sigh rattle in my chest. It wasn’t like I had a choice. It was always one more mess to clean up and they didn’t seem like they were going to come to an end anytime soon.