Chapter Twenty-One
Nina
After I paid for my book, I followed West back out to his car. Telling him the truth about my family had felt freeing. Once we were on the road again, I said, “It’s kind of nice that you know the truth about my family. It’s cool that I can share things with you and you understand.”
“I’m the last person to judge anyone’s messed-up family,” he said.
“Do you ever think that everyone is just pretending and those perfect families you see on television don’t actually exist.”
“I think every family has issues,” he said. “Some are bigger or stranger or sadder than others.”
Which one of those categories did he place his own home life in? It’s not like I could ask, but I suspected he classified his situation as sad. Not that I could blame him.
Unable to resist, I cracked my book and started reading. I didn’t realize we were in the driveway until West put the car in park and said, “Earth to Nina.”
“Sorry.” I slid the receipt between the pages to mark my place. “Thanks for giving me a ride.” And suddenly it seemed awkward. Was this a date? Would he ever try to kiss me again? Should I just go?
His phone buzzed and he checked it, which gave me an easy out. “See you later.”
“See ya,” He continued reading his text, and I climbed out of the car, intent on hiding away in my room for a marathon reading session.
Sunday was a glorious day. I read my book on the couch, between doing loads of laundry. My mom hated laundry, and my brother was banned from touching the washer and dryer since he shrank a load of my mom’s good blouses by drying them on high. I found laundry cathartic, and I loved the smell of dryer sheets.
The only part I didn’t like was schlepping the clean clothes upstairs to our bedrooms. We used to live in a ranch house where everything was on one floor.
I was folding a load of towels, which were still warm from the dryer, when my cell buzzed. Lisa’s mom had told her there was a rally to raise money to keep the Hilmer Library open. It was scheduled for later today. I bet West and his social studies teacher didn’t know about that. Lisa planned to pick me up in a few hours.
The meeting was at a donut shop near the library. On the plus side, the owner gave us free bear claws. On the negative side, Lisa and I were the youngest people in the room by about twenty years. Where were all the other high-school-aged bookworms?
“We are racing against the clock, ladies,” the speaker said. “A rehab date has been set. They plan to pretty much gut the place and turn it into a recycling center. We still might have a chance to keep the library open until the new one is completed, but we need to get the word out. We’ve handed out fliers, but we need another approach. Any ideas?”
I raised my hand. “There’s a social studies teacher who is giving students extra credit for helping with projects that help the community. One of the projects is volunteering to help salvage things from the library before the building is rehabbed. Why can’t we start a group for extra credit to help keep the library open?”
“It can’t hurt,” the speaker said. “My daughter-in-law, Mrs. Stone, is an English teacher at the high school.” She pulled out her cell. “Give me a moment.”
After a quick conversation, the speaker said, “My daughter-in-law is going to talk to the social studies department about asking students to help maintain the library as one of their extra credit projects.”
If the social studies teacher agreed, this could be awesome. West could get extra credit for keeping the library open, instead of working to turn it into a recycling center.
“Any other ideas?” the woman asked.
Several women offered to pass out more fliers, and a few offered to do an informational picket line. Lisa and I volunteered to pass out fliers at school. Who knew? Maybe we could make a difference.
…
When I went home, Gidget met me at the door, transmitting joy and happiness. “I’m happy to see you, too.”
No one else seemed to be home, so I curled up on the couch with Gidget and my book. An hour later, my mom came in the front door, and she wasn’t alone. She was with the one person I never wanted to see again. I stared at the man who’d thrown us away.
“Hi, Nina.”
“Hello, Dad.” He looked a little worse for wear. His shirt was wrinkled, like he’d slept in it, and there were dark circles under his eyes. “What a surprise.” And not a pleasant one. I looked at my mom for some sort of explanation.
“He needed my signature to sell his car,” Mom said.
I laughed. “Of course. Because it’s not like he’d come to visit, since he doesn’t give a crap about any of us.”
“Nina.” My dad came toward me but stopped short of touching me. “You know I still care about you.”
Anger surged inside of me like a geyser. “How? How would I know that? When was the last time you made an effort to speak to Jason or me?”
He blinked and looked down at the carpet. “There’s no excuse for what I did, but it wasn’t about you and your brother, or even your mom. It was my issue.”
“Yeah, well your issue screwed up our lives. And saying you’re a shitty person doesn’t make up for the damage you did.”
“Nina.” My mom’s voice was gentle. “He’ll be gone in five minutes. I promise. Believe me, I don’t want him here either.”
I couldn’t deal with this, so I headed out the back door. How could my mom even be in the same room with him? I stalked past the patio furniture and kept walking.
I hated the way he made me feel—angry and worthless. And his it’s-not-you-it’s-me excuse was total crap. Nervous energy buzzed through my veins like electricity, so I kept walking past the shed and past West’s barbecue court. I wove through some evergreen trees and came to a halt at the fence that marked the end of our property. No, not our property…West’s family’s property. My anger circled around again. My dad was the reason we were stuck renting. Who knew if we’d ever have our own house again?
I grabbed the top metal bar of the chain-link fence and stared past it. A field separated us from the houses in the next subdivision. Nothing to see out here. Now what? And why hadn’t I thought to grab a coat? Goose bumps broke out on my arms. I released the cold metal fence and hugged myself for warmth.
“Nina?”
I turned around. “West? What are you doing out here?”
“You stole my line.” He came closer. “Are you okay?”
“No.” And I didn’t want to talk about it. I’d managed not to cry up to this point, but if I talked about it, the angry tears might make a break for it.
“I was about to start a fire, if you want to come sit with me.”
“Thanks. I’d like that.” I followed him back to the overgrown basketball court. The barbecue pit was full of paper covered with charcoal. I sat in one of the lawn chairs and pulled my knees up to my chest.
West sat and scooted his lawn chair close to mine. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I studied his face. Concern shone from his bright blue eyes. He really did care. But talking about it wouldn’t change anything. “Can I have a hug instead?”
“Sure.” He wrapped his arms around me. I closed my eyes and sighed, trying to let my cares slide away. It wasn’t working. I needed a distraction. And there happened to be a handsome, masculine-smelling hottie-of-a-distraction right in front of me. I repositioned myself so my mouth lined up with his and waited to see if he’d play along.
A cold wet splat landed on the top of my head. I jerked backward. “What the hell?”
Big, fat raindrops splattered all around us. “Seriously?” Like I needed to be rained on right now.
“Come on.” West grabbed my hand and we ran through the rain until we reached the overhang of the shed.
And now we had a problem. “I’m not ready to go back in my house yet, and we can’t go in yours. I mean you could go in yours…” I hoped he wouldn’t leave me.
“If I show you something, you can’t make fun of me,” West said.
“Okay.” This should be interesting.
He turned and opened the shed door, waving me inside. With the click of a light switch, I understood what West had meant. The shed was more like a playroom. Or at least half of it was. A love seat with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles blanket sat against one wall. And there was a bookshelf stacked with books, puzzles, board games, a radio, and a few model cars. There was a small refrigerator plugged into the wall. Boxes of Pop-Tarts and protein bars were stacked on top. The other half of the shed had storage boxes, shelves for tools, and a lawnmower.
“What is this place?” I asked.
He went over and sat on the love seat, so I joined him. “This is the last bit of normalcy from when I was ten, before my mom became sick. We used to keep all these games in the living room. My mom loved to play. And then things changed. I moved the games out here because I always hoped one day she’d want to play again. That never happened, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw all these things away. I come out here to read sometimes. I know the Ninja Turtle blanket is ridiculous.” He pointed at the refrigerator. “But I do have soda and strawberry Pop-Tarts.”
I could picture a ten-year-old kid, hoping his family would become normal again, trying to preserve something that was special. And now I wanted to cry for West. “I’m so sorry about your mom.”
He shrugged. “It is what it is. So what were you running away from?”
He’d confessed, so it wasn’t like I could blow him off and not give an answer. “My jackass of a father stopped by, but not because he missed us or wanted to catch up. He came by because he needed my mom to sign off on selling his car. And when I called him on that, he played the, it’s-not-you-it’s-me card. And I hate him.” My voice broke. “I hate how he makes me feel.”
“Like your life is out of control and the grown-ups running everything don’t really know what the hell they’re doing?” West guessed.
“Well yes…but I meant how he makes me feel…like trash…because he threw us away.”
West stared at me for a moment, and then he said, “That is ridiculous.”
My face heated. “That’s what it feels like.”
“This is one of those hugging moments, isn’t it?” He rolled his eyes. “It’s totally your fault that I now think this way.”
“I’ll take complete credit.” I met him halfway, but the hug was awkward. I shifted around on the loveseat and our faces lined up. This was it. The do-or-die moment. He’d either kiss me, or consign me to the friend zone. I stared into his eyes, looking for a clue.
His warm breath feathered across my lips, making me hyperaware of how close he was, how good this could be.
“West?” I murmured, hoping he’d understand what I was asking, what I wanted.
The corners of his mouth turned up in a small, sexy smile, and then he kissed me. His lips were warm and soft. The sound of the rain hitting the shed roof faded into the background as his mouth moved against mine. I threw myself into the moment. Nothing mattered except the sensation of his mouth pressed against mine, and the warmth growing between us. Unlike the car, there was no reason to stop, no car horn to honk and break us apart.
The sensation of his hands skimming under the back of my shirt, his palm pressed against the small of my back, sent a wave of heat through my body, making it difficult to think. But I didn’t want to think. I just wanted to hide away from the world with him. Being in his arms like this helped drain away the anger…helped me focus on the good things in my life.