Page 93 of Deeper

“We’ve really hit it off,” I went on.

He found his page and smoothed it out.

“Anyway, it’s nice to be here.”

It felt like I was begging almost, begging him to join me in this one-sided conversation. Or, at the very least,lookat me. Love me.

My father did no such thing.

Still, I pushed forward. “Hemingway Park is nice, but Lindenwood will always be—”

“Bianka.” He paused in what he was doing, staring down at his coloring page.

“Y-Yes?” I asked.

“Are you pregnant?”

My mouth clamped shut. “No.”

He hummed, his way of saying,Get to the point.

“My landlord got bought out,” I began, peeking over at my father, finding him engrossed at the challenge of coloring in asea turtle. “They’re going to tear down my building and so they gave us all a sixty-day notice.”

My father went through his colored pencils, trying to find a green. “Uh-huh.”

“I don’t…I don’t think I’m going to be able to find a place in sixty days, on such short notice,” I went on. “I was hoping I could come back here, just until I can find an affordable place, or a second job.”

I watched as my father’s shoulders rose and fell with his heavy intake of breath. He went about shading in his turtle, shaking his head. “What happened to Victoria?”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I willed myself to be strong and endure. “We’re not seeing eye to eye right now. If you let me come back, and I can’t find a place, I’m sure I could go and live with her.”

“And Zander?”

“We just met, and I’d like to be a little more serious before I move in with a guy.” I forced out a tortured laugh that no one joined in on.

In fact, I felt Zander turn and face me, study me. His gaze burned my cheek. I was too much of a coward to look his way.

Another heavy sigh came from my father. “If you have no place else to go, I suppose you’re more than welcome to come back here. You’re going to have to put most of your stuff in storage, but your old room should hold some furniture since it’s mostly cleared out.”

Painfully, I smiled. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. “Thank you.”

He nodded and concentrated on his turtle.

Reaching a shaky hand out, I prepared to grab one of my kiddie coloring books to join him.

The sound of a chair scraping against the hardwood floor caused me to look over. I shrank. Zander was practicing the utmost patience as he breathed through his nose and glowered at me. His dark eyes flickered to my father and his face hardened even more.

“Can you excuse us for a moment?” he asked my father in a very clipped tone of voice.

Zander didn’t wait for an answer before practically yanking me out of my seat and dragging me back through the house and out the front door.

On the porch, he released me before taking off for the steps. “Let’s go.”

“Zander.” I hung back, wrapping my arms around myself as I tried to hold it together. Something about this place, this house—my home, made me weak and small. Inferior. I wasn’t strong enough to say what was buried beneath my heart, and I wasn’t strong enough to face Zander’s wrath.

He spun around, his blazing hot eyes shooting daggers at me. “Bianka.” It was a warning, a hint that he was close to losing his shit.

“It wasn’t so bad,” I said softly. “He said yes.”

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