Carl walked past me, following dad into the kitchen. “Speak for yourself. I could eat more.”
I was alone for a moment before I followed them slowly. I sat at the breakfast bar as Dad got the frozen food from the fridge and Carl poured himself some more coffee. He grimaced when he took a sip. He always took his coffee black, but whatever Dad put in his own, it was always stronger than anything we could buy somewhere else. He just took another sip, the taste growing on his tongue.
Dad nuked some sausages, bacon, and pancakes in the microwave, then set everything on the counter top and they both sat down. Even though I wasn’t hungry, I grabbed a fork and stabbed a sausage, bringing it to my mouth and taking a bite. It didn’t taste half bad.
A pancake, that tasted awfully good, and two sausages later, I put the fork down as the other two continued to eat.
“So, Dad. What’s up?”
“Hmm?”
“You called us home, remember? What happened?”
Carl finished his food, poured himself some more coffee and turned his attention to Dad. Who, pretty much like my brother earlier, took his time eating, putting off answering. Usually, I was good at being patient with my dad, but I was starting to feel a little irritated. Finally, he finished his food, and threw away the packages, putting the dirty dishes in the sink.
“When’s your next race?”
“We don’t have anything for a while. But we’re comfortable, taking it easy in the meantime. Why?”
“Just wanted to know if you still have some cash you could spare to help your old man.”
I frowned at him. “Dad, we sent you more than enough money less than a month ago. You can’t have gone through it that fast.”
What the hell was he doing with it, anyway? Carl and I were racers, but I did a lot of investing on the side. I talked to both my brother and my dad into doing it, too. Neither one was into it, but I could talk Carl into it easier than I could my dad. If the stubborn bastard had listened to me ages ago, he wouldn’t need to keep bothering us.
I didn’t say any of that, though, because I knew it would just earn me a smack in the head.
“How much do you need?”
He gave the amount, and my eyebrows jumped up. We’d been sending him money for a while, but it wasn’t until some months ago when he started asking for more. We gave it to him, anyway. We weren’t exactly rich, but we weren’t hurting for money either. Still, all the money we’d been sending was a lot, and we were doing it two, three times a month now.
“Why do you need that much money?”
He frowned back at me. “All you need to know is I need the money. Will you help me with it, or not?”
He might as well have demanded we hand it over.
I shared a look with Carl. Yeah, we’d both had enough. Dad was okay, but… he was growing annoying in his old age.
We raced motorbikes for a living. It was okay, but it didn’t exactly pay the big bucks, not when you counted in earnings per year—which, I did. So, if he was thinking we were just going to support him now that we were living out on our own, he was sorely mistaken. If he wasn’t even going to tell us what the money was for, he was on his own.
“It would take a while to clear out the funds.”
I didn’t want to keep taking from our bank account. It was all the money we lived on, and though it was considerable, we would need it in the case of an emergency. I had a few stocks I could liquefy, but I didn’t like doing it just to hand the cash over.
“If you can wait, I can maybe have it for you in a couple days, five days tops.”
“Nah, it’ll be fine.” He grinned. “Will you boys be sticking around town?”
Carl and I shared another look, and we rose at the same time.
“Actually, dad,” Carl said, slowly. “Something came up and we need to go back. Something to do with our schedule. We left the hotel so we could leave early. We just stopped by to know what you wanted, and say goodbye.”
“Huh,” he was frowning again. “That’s too bad. I was hoping you’d stick around longer.”
I shrugged. “Sorry, dad.”
He waved it away. “Don’t worry about it. It’s work, you can’t exactly help it. Just don’t forget to keep in touch, all right? Maybe you can stay a while next time.”
Neither of us said anything to that.
“I’ll call to give you the details when we have a race next. Or email.”
“That’d be great. You boys take care, now. I know you gotta drive fast, but try not to wreck and break anything, yeah?”
“Sure, dad. We’ll see you around.”
We grabbed our bags on the way outside. I wondered what we were gonna do. We didn’t have a permanent place we lived, work pretty much took us all over the place, so we usually just stored the stuff somewhere when we didn’t need it.
“Let’s go to Emma’s place.”
The words were too sudden, breaking me out of my thoughts. It took me a moment to register. Then I scowled at my brother.
“Don’t you think we’d just cause her trouble?”
I wanted to go, I’d been thinking of it, but he didn’t know she was having as hard a time of it as we were with our dad. Probably worse for her.
“What, with her mom? We could just mention we saw her or heard she was in town and wanted to say hi because we haven’t seen her in so long.” He rolled his eyes. “It’s not like we’re going to tell her we spent the night with her daughter.”
That would not go over well.
“Even if we’re not, we have a reputation here, and yours is worse than mine. Yeah, it’s one from our high school days, but that sort of thing never dies. Not to mention, it’s gotten worse. A lot of people would assume just because of our occupation.”
“Whatever. We just play it like it’s a random visit on our way out of town because we haven’t seen anyone else from our high school days around. It should be an excuse she’d buy.”
I still wasn’t sure, but I kept my mouth shut and let Carl drag me over. It wasn’t so far from our home, just a couple of blocks over, around a corner. I would have been surprised Carl knew where she lived, but Mrs. Davis was pretty involved in town matters. Besides, I knew where she lived, too.
We dropped our bags beside the front steps, and I let Carl go up them and knock on the door, giving three sharp raps. We didn’t have to wait long. Sharon Davis opened the door, dressed casually with her hair held up.
She frowned at both of us when she saw us, but the look was more confused than unwelcoming.
“Carl and Abe Thomas. I didn’t hear you boys were in town.”
Carl, ever the charmer, smiled disarmingly. “We got here early yesterday to see our dad. But something’s come up so we’ll be leaving a little early.”
She looked around, saw our bags, and her frown cleared almost entirely.
“Oh, I see.” She eyed us curiously. “What can I help you boys with? I doubt you came by just to see me.”
“Mrs. Davis, we thought we saw Emma last night, she was out on the street going somewhere. We thought we’d stop by and say hi before we left town.”
The frown was back. “You boys remember my Emma?”
“She’s only a year younger than us. We saw her around, but she didn’t really have a lot of friends. No one else from high school is around for the weekend, and we haven’t seen her since her high school graduation.”
She eyed us both a little suspiciously and then shrugged her shoulders. “I’m afraid you boys are a little too late. If you saw her last night, she was probably going to a friend’s house. She left earlier this morning.”
Fuck.
She’d clearly said she was around for the weekend, though. What happened to make want to leave so quickly? Another argument with her mom, maybe?
“I appreciate you boys stopping by to pay my daughter a visit, but you might have to try next time.”
Only, I didn’t think there would be a next time. Emma had mentioned coming home every
couple of months. But not only would it seem like stalker behavior if we came back after two months asking after her, after how she talked about her relationship with her mom, I doubted she’d be coming back.
“Do you know where we could find her?”
Her eyes narrowed at Carl’s tenacity, but she sighed and didn’t argue. “She works at Central General Hospital as an intern, in the city, but I don’t know where she lives. If you want to get in touch with her, that’s where you start.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
She just gave them both a narrow-eyed look. “You boys take care, now.”
It was practically an echo of our dad just moments ago. Then she went back inside and closed the door behind her.
Carl walked down the steps and grabbed his bag. I took mine and followed him.
“Well, there you have it. She’s not even in town. Probably left when we woke up.”
“Let’s go pay her a visit.”
“What?” I gave him an incredulous look that he didn’t see because he wasn’t looking. But he looked determined in a way I hadn’t seen in a while when he wasn’t getting on a bike, about to go on a race.
“She isn’t here, we haven’t seen her. We met her mom. “
“We don’t even know where she is.”
“She works at Central General. It’s only a few hours away. It makes sense she would go into the city, anyway. There’s only one hospital here and it isn’t that big. A girl like Emma probably wouldn’t settle for that.”
“What, so now you’re an expert?”
“No. But I watched her back in high school, and you watched her about as much, if not more, than me. You know I’m right.”
Yeah. I kinda did. She deserved more, and she must have known that. So, I did something that was more like my brother than me.
I made an impulsive decision.
“Sure, let’s go. If we go now, we might make it there before traffic, find a place to stay before it’s dark. We’d probably have to wait till Monday, though.”
“Why say that?”
“If she was coming down for the weekend, it makes sense that she has the time off, right? She’ll probably report back on Monday.”
He frowned because he honestly hadn’t thought of it. I rolled my eyes at him, but he didn’t see it.
“Whatever. We’ll deal with that when it comes to it. We should take the car and go find her.”
Usually, I was the voice of reason. And I should have spoken up, said we couldn’t. Because technically, we were supposed to be resting before our next championship race in a few weeks’ time. But I met my brother’s eyes and agreed with him completely because we both had something dirtier in mind.
Resting up could be interpreted in so many ways.
Chapter Twelve
Emma
Saturday night and I was in my home instead of at my mom’s. Well, I said home even though it was a tiny apartment that couldn’t fit me and a pet, but I’d found the place while still in college and never moved. It was just as well because it was close to the hospital.
My phone rang, and for a moment, my heart leaped in my chest. Until I remembered that there was no way they had my phone number. They didn’t ask for it, and I didn’t give it to them. I cursed myself for a moment, for not giving into my idea to leave my number in one, or even both, of their phones.
Then I sighed, disappointment following quickly behind my waning excitement as I went to grab my phone. I was supposed to be making dinner, but I didn’t feel like anything, and my groceries were very low, anyway. I had a few cups of yogurt, so I could probably just have that. I had to remember to go shopping for real food, though. I’d end up starving and it would just leave me more depressed.
I grabbed a small cup of yogurt from my fridge as I rushed to my phone. I saw the name on the screen before I answered, and though I wasn’t quite as excited as before when I thought it was the twins calling, I was still happy.
“Hey, Brandi. What’s up?”
I didn’t tell my friend I was going home to visit my mom. Usually, even though the trips came frequently-ish, they were never really planned for. The soonest I had free time, I’d get up and go. Just as well I hadn’t told her, or she’d have been wondering why I was back so soon, and I didn’t want to get into it.
“Hey, Emma. I wanted to ask if I can come over?”
I didn’t even ask why. “Please. I would be happy for the company, you have no idea.”
There was silence over the phone, making me think I’d come off a tad too strong. Brandi was my closest friend—my only friend, really—and she had this uncanny sense of knowing when something was wrong with me.
“Okay, spill. What happened that I should know about?”
I sighed, putting the yogurt down as I sat at my tiny kitchen table. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“When you say that, you know I’ll just tell you to start at the beginning.”
“I know. But it’s not something I can talk about on the phone. And it would take too long, anyways.”
There was a pause. “Fine. You better be prepared to spill all the details. I’ll bring over some ice cream, okay?”
I groaned, even though it was clearly a bribe. “Brandi, you are an angel.”
She laughed at me. “Not quite, but it’s nice that you think so. Give me twenty minutes, half an hour, tops. Bye.”
“Bye.”
I looked at the cup of yogurt I hadn’t opened yet in my hand. Ice cream was technically not food, yogurt was at least more filling. I suddenly had a craving for ice cream, though. I put the cup back in the fridge, and got some bowls and spoons, that I set on the table and waited for Brandi.
There was a knock on my door twenty minutes later, and I went to let my friend in. She held up the shopping bag, while plastic, and I could see the big tub of ice cream in it. I took it from her, closed the door behind her, and led the way back to my little kitchen, where we sat at the table that incidentally sat only two comfortably if that.
I pulled the tub out of the plastic bag, set it on the table and popped the lid open. Then I spooned some into both bowls and sat on one side, letting Brandi take the other chair. She waited for me to get settled before starting in on the questions.
“So, why don’t you tell me what happened?”
“Can’t we just sit here and eat delicious ice cream and pretend nothing is wrong?”
She just stared at me until I sighed.
“Fine.” I took a spoonful of ice cream, let it melt in my mouth, then swallowed. “So, I went to my Mom’s this weekend.”
She looked surprised at the blunt statement. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going?” she frowned. “In fact, you never tell me when you’re going. I just find out that you went, or I don’t.”
“It’s not that big a deal, Brandi. And I don’t tell people because I usually just decide last minute, get in the car and drive over, sometimes every two months when I’ve got free time.”
“And what happened? Going to see your mom can’t be a bad thing.”
Oh, if she only knew. I just ate some ice cream until her face contorted into a frown.
“What did your mother do?”
I didn’t really want to talk about it, but I kind of did want to talk to someone. I never had before, the few people I mentioned my mom to thought we were just fine, if a little distant. But I’d known Brandi since the third year of college. If there was someone I trusted, it was her.
“So, my mom and I aren’t exactly the best of friends.”
“I gathered that. Just stop stalling and speak.”
I stabbed my spoon into the ice cream, watching it melt into a liquid instead of taking any more.
“I’ve always known my mother wasn’t my biggest fan, but I was still surprised.” I circled the spoon over the top, encouraging it to melt. “How my mom treated me… it was just bad. I don’t know if I can say it was worse than it’s ever been, or if I’ve been wearing rose colored glasse
s for a while without really noticing. Or maybe she’s not right in the head and I’m dodging a bullet because I am never going back home.”
It was a vow; one I knew I would keep. I should have felt something, maybe sad, but again, I didn’t feel anything. If I was being honest with myself, it hadn’t been home in a long time. I didn’t hate my mother, I liked her just fine when she wasn’t around. I would mourn her when she passed away, but every time I got near her I just got so close to hating her, it was scary.
“I agree that your mom is not right in the head. Any other mom would be proud of their daughter.”
Well. Not entirely.
I thought back to the night with the twins, feeling a mix of guilt and shame, very little, though, and mostly pleasure.
“There was something that happened Friday night. Besides Mom and me arguing again.”
Her lips curled in a grin. “I know that look on your face. You had a little fun, didn’t you?”
“I wouldn’t call it little.” I swallowed more ice cream and cleared my throat. “Well, them. I wouldn’t call them little.”
Brandi watched me, frozen, for a second. Then she put her spoon down in her bowl and folded her arms.
“Explain.”
My lips twitched for a minute, then I giggled, giddy.
“It was the most amazing night of my life, Brandi, you have no idea.” I knew I was gushing, but I couldn’t help myself. I wasn’t the kind of girl that gushed, about anything, but I felt it was warranted.
“Don’t you dare tell me you went to bed with two hot studs when I was at home and bored out of my mind?”
Her warning just made me laugh.
“I won’t tell you, then,” I teased, pressing my lips together.
“You better tell me what is going on before I take my ice cream back,” she threatened, making me laugh again.
“All right. Picture this. You’re in high school, very low on the social hierarchy. And there are these two guys, brothers—twins—and they were both voted as prom king in their senior year because people couldn’t tell who was who.”
Her jaw dropped. “No way. Twins? Hot ones?”
I smiled, a little smug. “Yup, blond, and blue eyes built body; pretty amazing everywhere.”
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