Page 29 of Feed Your Fiends

My ass barely grazes the pavement before I hear that dreaded nickname again.

“Ellie?”

I look up, shielding my eyes from the sun to peer into the last face I want to see.

Or is that Gant’s?

“Jaime,” her name slips from my lips, and her pathetic smile, as if everything is fine, slips too.

“What are you doing here?” she asks, instead of the question I know she wants to ask,‘Why are you calling me Jaime instead of Mum?’

Because I don’t have a mother. I never have, and I finally understand that I never will, I answer mentally.

“I don’t have to ask why you’re here,” I say, nodding at the bar. “Jarett isn’t in there.”

She knits her brows. “Why would he be? He’s been missing for years.”

So Harod hadn’t told her. Yet.

“I just came for—”

“A drink? Well, I didn’t assume you came here to see me,” I say, leaning left so that she can sidestep me and reach her destination. “Your new pastime awaits.”

“That’s not exactly fair. I wanted to see you, of course I did, but I couldn’t visit you in the hospital. You banned me from the visitors’ list. I tried.”

On daytwo.And I’d banned Gant too, and yet he made a way.

I cringe away as she slides onto the pavement to sit beside me.

“Look, I know I embarrassed you on your big night. I messed up. Royally. And I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am.” She tries to touch my arm, but I give her offending hand a scornful look, and she drops it into her lap.

If it weren’t for my bum feet, I’d already be two blocks away to get the fuck away from her.

“But after I learnt why you were in the hospital, don’t you think that’s a bigger topic for us to discuss first? Why on earth didn’t you tell me about Gant Auclair? That he was at your school?”

“What would you have done?” I ask boredly.

“Something!”

“How? You would’ve pulled me from Beaulieu and taken me where? And with what money? Or are you forgetting that you blew that ten grand and you’re homeless now? So what? Would we sleep together in your car with no heat? The car you’re going to lose, plus your life or your freedom from drink-driving because you can’t stop fucking drinking all because your bum ass husband left you?”

“Elle—”

“What?” I hiss, finally glaring at her and meeting her mossy green eyes and the second I do, memories flood me.

I suddenly remember the way she ran to Sylo’s father and away from me in favour of who she thought was Jarett.

“You’re right and wrong,” she says, a tremble in her voice. “I have a flat. I got our old one back. The one we fled from because of the Auclairs.”

I snort. “The one with the fond memories of hiding beneath the Formica counter while Jarett tossed dishes at us? Were you being sentimental? Reminiscing and hoping the Auclairs would show up and take us out for good?”

She shakes her head slowly. “I ran into our old landlord after I dropped by the deli to ask if they’d take me back. Even if only part-time.”

Minutes tick by, and I hate myself when I ask. “Did they?”

She nods with a hopeful smile at my curiousness. “They did, full-time. And with my new salary, I can afford our rent because the home was abandoned this entire time. So long as we don’t demand any repairs from the landlord and we handle it all on our own, he rented it to me for practically nothing. An as-is sort of thing. It’ll probably take me a few weeks to clean it properly, but…”

“I take it you aren’t scared of the Auclairs any more then.” With Jarett back, maybe she should be.

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