Crushed (34 page)

They
were running late because
they
’d had to drop Luci off at school.

She
could tell Emma was irritated
—not about running late, though
. She’d wanted to talk to
Cleo
last night
. B
ut
Cleo had
kept Luci by
her
side all evening.
It hadn’t been hard to do. She’d still been upset and unusually clingy. It was unusual
because Luci was eleven and
never
clingy.
She
knew
Luci
was worried about what her dad had said. So she’d more or less attached herself to
Cleo’s
side all night. W
hen Luci
had gone
to bed,
Cleo had followed
.
They
had taken over Ethan’s room.

She
knew Emma knew
she was avoiding her
. And maybe
she
should’ve just talked to her and gotten everything out in the open. Instead,
she’d
tossed and turned for hours
.
That was especially
frustrating because
she
probably could’ve slept well.
She
usually slept well at other peoples’ houses. But
she’d been busy dreading
the conversation that
she
knew
they
were going to have to have.

Everything in
her
life seemed like it was unraveling.
She
didn’t know how much longer
she
had until everything came completely undone.
She
couldn’t stop thinking about it. Worrying about it and flat-out obsessing about it.

After
they
’d dropped off Luci, Emma told
Cleo
she wanted to ask her mom if
Cleo
could stay with them. Indefinitely.
She
didn’t want her to do that. Not yet.
Her
biggest concern was
not
where
she
was going to stay; it was how
she
was going to manage to keep Luci with
her
.

She
had to try to make things right with Paul, as much as
she
despised
the thought.

Between
her
lack of sleep and
her
aching body,
she
felt like
she
was moving in slow motion
. S
he
edged
her
way onto the latest lawn
they
were cleaning up.
She
found
Alan again and checked in.

“Cleo!” Janna called. “Are you doing okay?” she asked
as Cleo slowly made her way over. Janna
instantly frown
ed
as her eyes flew over
her friend
.

She
was stiff, sore and fatigued. “I’m fine,”
she
said as
she
pushed on a smile.

“Okay,” she nodded but a slight frown had appeared
. “Well, the extra rakes are stacked on the backside of that garden shed.
”
She pointed to the small gray building between the two houses
they
were working on this morning.

“Thanks,”
Cleo
told her as
she
set off in search
of
one.

When
she
reached the backside of the shed, a hand darted out, looped around
her
wrist and
gently
reeled
her
in.
She
found
her
self plastered against Reece’s chest.

“Oh my gosh! You scared me!”
she
loudly whispered as
she
looked around. It seemed fairly private on the backside of this lawn.

“I didn’t mean to,” he said with a grin.
She
wasn’t so sure
she
believed him. “I needed to talk to you for a second.”

“Janna—”

“Was more than happy to help,” Reece said with a small laugh.

He was still holding
her
to him.
She
didn’t make any move to get away.  Instead,
she
just leaned in
. H
e mad
e a little sound of contentment as she rested against him. Her head was on his chest
and her arms looped around his waist.

“I’m not even going to ask if you’re okay,” he said quietly. “Because I know you’re
not. I just want you to tell me what to do to make it better.”

“
Just t
his,” she said as he ran a hand over her hair.
Simply
being close to Reece was making her feel better than she had in months.
“Just being with you.”

“Yesterday, you asked me to give you some time.”
She
nodded. “Did you mean you needed me to give you some time before you start answering
my questions? Because I don’t like that
but I could live with it. Or did you mean you needed some time before we could be
together? Because I
hate
that idea and I’m not sure I want to agree to it.”

She
had, actually, meant
…
both
.
She
opened
her
mouth to tell him
that
but he leaned down and silenced
her
.
Her
kiss gave him the opposite response of what
her brain had been planning. H
is hands rested on the small of
her
back
. H
e pulled
her in closer and
she
inadvertently inhaled sharply as pain radiated out from
her
bruised stomach.

He instantly let go of
her
.

“I’m so sorry,” he said as he cringed, as if it hurt him more than
her
. It probably had, hurt his conscience anyway. “Are you okay?” His gaze was scouring
over
her
again, looking for what he couldn’t see.

“I
t’s
fine,”
she
assured him but his expression became tense.

“I want to kill Paul. You get that don’t you? And I’m not real happy with you either,”
he said carefully, “for keeping this from me.”

“Reece…”
she
started.
She
made a move to back away
. B
ut then his arms were ar
ound
her
again.
They were
gentle but firm this time.

“No,” he said. “Don’t do this. Don’t push me away. I’m supposed to be going to the
football game tonight with Adam. I want to cancel.”

“I don’t want you to cancel your plans for me,”
she
protested.
Though it was more than that.

“My parents are gone,” he told
her
.

“Visiting Amanda and the
girl
s?” If that was the case, they typically made a weekend of the trip.

He shook his head. “
No, they went there last weekend. This weekend they’re visiting
Chelsey
. She
helped organi
ze an exhibit at an art gallery. O
r something like that.
I don’t really know.
Anyhow, it’s for one of her classes and a huge part of her grade. She asked my parents
to come check it out. It’s
not until
Saturday night
. But they’re leaving t
his afternoon
so Mom can take Chels shopping all day tomorrow. They want to get a head start on
Christmas shopping.”

“It’s September!”
she
pointed out.

He shrugged. “It’s my mom.” As if that explained
everything. A
nd really, from what
Cleo
knew of Beth Hilde
n
brandt, it did.

“You can come over. We can talk,” he continued.

There was a glaring problem to that plan. As much as
she
wanted to spend time with Reece,
she
wasn’t
ready
to talk. He wanted answers
and he deserved them.
She
wasn’t ready to give them.
She
shook
her
head.

“I can’t come over. I’m not even supposed to be kissing you,”
she
muttered.

“Says who?” he demanded. He pushed
her back, still carefully holding her waist,
but didn’t let
her
go. “I know something is going on, Cleo. This
never
felt right.
It never made sense. And after the last few days…
I
love
you. And I know you love me, too. Even if you are all over the place about it.
T
here’s no way you can tell me
this is
about
you wanting to see someone else.” His
voice hardened at the last part and he pulled her back in again.

“There is more,”
she
said, finally going for honesty.
She
had let too much slip to deny it. Truthfully,
she
just couldn’t do it anymore. Emma had thought from the start
she
needed to tell Reece everything.
She
still wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. But
she
knew very soon,
she
was going to have to find out.

He was getting ready to shower
her
with questions when Janna appeared.

She grinned hugely at the sight of Reece
and Cleo together
. Him leaning against the shed, his feet firmly planted on either side of
her
body and
her
tangled up in his arms.

“I hate to interrupt,” she said as she winked at
Cleo
, “but Mr. Jessen just got here. He’s checking in. I thought I better let you know.”

Janna
disappeared again and Reece reluctantly let
her
go.

“This isn’t over,” he said.

“No, it’s not,”
she
agreed. He instantly looked relieved.
She was
sure he thought
she
was going to argue.

He gave
her
a small nod. “Okay then. But I’m driving you back to school today, not Janna.”

He gave her a relieved smile
when
she
didn’t argue.

***

“Cleo?” Patty said as she met Emma and
Cleo
at the door. “Paul called earlier. I was at the groc
ery store but he left a message.” T
he look on her face showed her surprise. He had never called
their house
before, as far as
Cleo
knew. “He said he wants Luci home immediately. But isn’t she gone for the weekend?”

Cleo’s
heart somersaulted.
She
was certain
she
knew exactly why Paul wanted Luci home. It had nothing to do with him wanting to
see her. It had
everything
to do with letting Cleo
know that he wa
sn’t going to allow her
to have her
sister
.

“She went with Jill’s family,”
Cleo
told Patty. “She asked him.” Actually, she’d simply told him because she’d gotten
permission from
Cleo
, and that’s typically the way
they
did things. “But he probably forgot. I’ll let him know.”

“Is everything okay?” she asked. Her eyes darted from
Cleo
to Emma and back to
Cleo
again as
they
stood there.
They
had just gotten back to the Donovan’s and
they
were still holding
their
school bags and wearing
their
jackets. “You know I don’t mind having you girls stay here. You’re welcome anytime.
But if something is going on, I’d like to know.”