Page 147 of Just One Kiss

Carly turned away from the stovetop and stared at him dumbly. “What are you talking about?”

“Did you tell Dad to go back to Chicago?”

Carly wiped her hands on a kitchen towel. “No, and I don’t appreciate your tone.”

He handed his phone to Carly. She glanced down and found a text from Josh.

Hey, kid, I’m heading back to the city—work is calling. I’ll be back in a week for your appointment, and then we can figure out a time for you to come stay with me for a few weeks if your mom is cool with it.

Carly’s heart dropped. He was leaving? In the middle of all of this? What was wrong with him?

She thought about Gloria, likely terrified out of her mind. She needed her son.

Was Josh so angry he couldn’t do the right thing?

“So was it you? Did you push him to do this?”

Carly glanced up and found Jaden’s eyes drilling into her. She shook her head. “Jaden, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“If it’s you telling me that Dad’s no good, I don’t want to hear it.”

“No,” she said. “That’s not it at all. Your dad is actually very,verygood.”

She kept her promise to Josh. She told their son the truth about his grandparents, about the way his father grew up. She told him about all the times Josh would show up at the back door, bruised and bloody, the nights he would sleep in the shed so nobody ever found out.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Jaden asked.

Carly’s mind spun back to a night it had gotten so scary she went to her father, and though she’d promised Josh, she knew keeping his secret was only hurting him and his mom.

But Gus didn’t give her a chance to explain. It only took a few minutes of discussion for him to clamp down on Josh and everything that was wrong with him—Jim was, after all, well respected in their small community.

Nobody would ever believe me.That’s what Josh had told her. And he was right. Nobody would’ve believed him. And if he didn’t tell someone who would get him out of there, wasn’t he risking making everything worse for everyone?

“I was scared,” she told her son. “I was scared of putting them in more danger. I was young, Jaden. I didn’t know how to help them—and then your father left. One time I tried to ask your grandma how she was and she pretended she didn’t understand what I meant. Glossed right over it, like I wasn’t making sense.”

“So, what? Dad’s just running away?”

“I think he’s trying to sort through quite a bit right now, Jay,” Carly said. “Let’s just try to be patient with him.”

But inside, Carly’s head was spinning. How could Josh just leave? Again.

Maybe it was time she realized that he’d never really changed at all.

38

The following morning, Carly woke up late, the smell of coffee tickling her nose. While she wished the night before had all been a terrible nightmare, it took only seconds to remember it wasn’t. It was real life. And her heart was unsteady because of it.

She told herself to be strong—for Gloria, for Jaden. But she didn’t know how to stand up under the weight of her emotional turmoil.

She loved Josh. She’d been vehemently denying it—even to herself—but saying goodbye to him had nearly done her in.

Downstairs, she found Gloria standing at the stove, making pancakes and bacon. The smell wafted toward Carly’s nose, reminding her how long it had been since she’d had a proper breakfast.

Josh’s mom looked up. “Oh, hon, you don’t look so good.”

Carly pushed the hair out of her face and tied it back with the elastic from her wrist. “I feel even worse.” Her stomach growled as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

“Did you see Josh?” Gloria asked. “Will he talk to me?”

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