Chapter 17
Gideon
Iknew right away I’d never be able to last a couple weeks without her. I have no other choice but to ask her to come. To be honest if she had said no, I wouldn’t be opposed to begging.
When my parents passed away, they left me practically everything with the sole contingency being I take care of Max along the way. So every summer I make sure to spend a couple weeks up at their old beach house, keeping things up to date and running. It’s a small two bedroom cottage right on the bay. I have no doubt Snow is going to love it. The downside will be trying to keep Ryan off my back for as long as possible. He told me Bowler wouldn’t move in until the end of summer, and I took his word for it. Bad thing is we only have a few weeks left.
“You ready?” I ask Snow, who seems to be staring at the house before us. She seems nervous but she insisted on picking up a few things before we left.
“Yeah, I just gotta pack a bag real quick.” She hops out of the truck before I can even reply. I catch up to her just before she walks through the screen door.
“Your mom home?” I ask as I take in my surroundings. The odor is strong and I know right away this is definitely the location of their lab. The garbage pile outside was the first indicator. The smell and the bare walls inside was the second.
“She’s somewhere.” She shrugs a shoulder seemingly unfazed by everything around us. It’s eerily quiet, something I was entirely not expecting. I follow her slim figure to a wooden door at the end of the hallway. As soon as I step foot into her bedroom, my eyes dart from wall to wall and stop directly on her. There’s a pad lock on the door. I’m fixated on it as she turns the key and locks it in place.
“Precaution.” She quips. As if it’s the most normal thing in the entire world to have a lock like that on the inside of someone’s bedroom. Her space is small yet accommodating. She has the bare necessities. It seems lifeless, much like Snow herself. The smell doesn’t seem to wrap around the room like a contagious disease unlike the rest of the house. It’s a good sign, considering Adeline seems to be at the top of Ryan’s suspect radar. The less foot prints leading to her the better.
“For what the apocalypse?” I kid, but her face is stock still.
“My mom has a lot of boyfriends.” She goes over to a small dresser and starts rummaging through the drawers one by one.
“I thought you said she was married.” I mentally take note adding it to the list of things I’m going to tell Ryan later on tonight.
“Yeah, recently as a few weeks ago” She stuffs the small pile of clothes she collected into a ratty old purple bag, my eyebrows quirk up in disgust. “It’s my favorite!” she defends herself holding the bag tightly to her side as if I might take it away from her.
“I didn’t say anything!” I chuckle as her cheeks heat up with fire. We head out of her room back towards the front of the house where we came in.
“Hey there pretty lady.” Snow’s shoulders tense before she stops in the door way of the kitchen. I purposely stay a few steps behind, waiting in surprise.
“Is my mom home?” Snow asks sharply.
“She’s down stairs doing laundry.” From the shadows I can see the way his eyes leer at her. “Did you need anything?” the fat bastard literally licks his lips as his eyes travel up and down her body.
“No she’s all set.” I came up to stand behind her. Just like I suspected his eyes widen in first surprise and then annoyance. I rest my chin on her shoulder while having a mental showdown with the man before us. Her body relaxes into mine as a small smirk forms across her lips.
“Who are you?” he puffs out his chest, spreading his feet apart and crossing his arms across his potbellied chest.
“I’m,” before I’m finished, Snow cuts me off completely.
“My boyfriend.” She states loud and proud. I have to mask my shocked expression. It’s all a game, I remind myself. She doesn’t mean it. The man’s eyes glance between us in a questioning manner. “Tell my mom I’ll be home in a few days.” She seems to have found her confidence as she grabs my hand and drags me towards the door. We hop in the truck not a minute later, with her mom’s husband watching from the door way. Snow was right, he is a creepy bastard. But what she doesn’t know is that this guy has one hell of a rap sheet.
“My new step daddy.” She nods towards the door while rolling her eyes.
“You don’t seem too thrilled.”
“Would you be?” she asks.
“Absolutely not.” I shake my head at her.
“How long have you lived there?” I ask nonchalantly. I need more information. I need to know for a fact she has no idea what kind of operations is going on directly under her nose. You’d seriously have to be as blind as a bat to not have any indication. Or in her case you’d have to be completely high or drunk at least ninety percent of the time.
“All my life.” She pulls her knees up to her chest as she watches the trees pass by out the window.
“Just you and your mom?”
“And her endless supply of one night stands.” She tucks a stray hair behind her ear. “Until now, that guy gives me the creeps.” She shivers for emphasis causing me to chuckle.
“Yeah, you’re not kidding.”
“What about you?” she inquires.
“What do you mean?”
“Have you lived in your house since you were a boy?” her eyes burn a hole through my head as she waits for me to answer. Since when did this get turned around on me?
“Since I was a baby,” I smile at her before turning my attention back to the road. “Max, too.” As if on cue the big goof whimpers form the back seat. Memories of endless summers and holidays with my parents come flooding back all at once. I’ve tried so hard, to leave it all behind me but sometimes it sneaks up when I least expect it.
“What were they like?”
“My parents?” she nods her head yes. “My mom was the most amazing woman I knew. She was intelligent, kind and loving. She home schooled me most of my life. It’s one of the reasons I decided to go into the service. I never knew what true friendship and brotherhood was until I saw it first hand out on the field.” She listens intently as I continue. “My dad was the cook in the family. My mom couldn’t cook for shit.” she laughs at that and I feel my heart fill with joy. “He was a great man. I used to walk around in his huge boots, thinking if I wore what he did I could be just like him. I only ever wanted him to be proud of me.” I sound like a sap. But every time I speak about my parents I can’t help but let all of the feelings flow.
“I have no doubt they would be.” She says with conviction. My heart constricts an inch.
“You think so?”
She shakes her head before replying “Definitely.”
“The beach house was my mom’s favorite place in the whole world. You’re going to love it there.” I squeeze her thigh gently and she gives me a shy smile in return.
We spend the rest of the drive with me reliving most of my past and her listening contently. A small part of me feels guilty for lying to her. But the bigger part argues it’s what’s best. I can only hope that when it comes down to it she doesn’t hate me.
About half way through I manage to turn the conversation around back on her. She tells me some of her darkest secrets. Things about her mom, her friends and her life all spill from her lips. She tells me them in confidence as I mentally take note, knowing I’m going to have to expose each and every one of them once I speak to Ryan. I might keep the one about me being the first to eat her out to myself, considering my jobs on the line.
After a fair amount of talking she leans her head against the window and I watch as she slowly begins to fall asleep. Her breathing evens out and her eyelids flutter closed. She seems so at peace, that I barely have the heart to wake her once we arrive. I send a quick text to Ryan letting him know we have to talk. I take one last look at Snow’s sleeping body and pray she’ll forgive me for what I’ll eventually have to do. My only hope is that it happens later rather than sooner. The worst part of all is I think I’m falling for her.