Page 81 of Call It Home

What the hell just happened?She wasn’t even going to give us a chance? Just end it because it didn’t go she didn’t think there was anything to fight for?

I flung my front door open. “Cam!”

She didn’t even look at me, just quickened her pace as if the hounds of hell were on her.

Well, they might not be, but I was. Before she could do anything to prevent me, I opened the door to the passenger side of her car and slipped inside.

She held her hand out. “Don’t do this, Mac.”

“No,youdon’t do this. Let’s talk this out.”

“There’s nothing to talk about, apparently. You’ve already made up your mind.”

“That’s not fair. I need you to understand.”

She twisted in her seat, and for a moment, I thought she was going to come across the center and rip my heart out.

“No. Let me tell you what’s not fair. You’ve had a secret plan behind my back this entire time.That’swhat’s not fair. I’ve been fighting a battle I can’t win. All this time, you wanted to leave, and I was too blind to see it. It’s why you’ve never made any real connections with anyone here. So you could leave easily. And I’m just another one of those people, aren’t I? Little Cameron Allen. So easy to leave behind.”

I shook my head. “No!” I answered sharply. “Don’t you ever think that. I’d stay in a heartbeat if it was that easy.”

“So why isn’t it that easy? What’s changed that you decidednowis the time, when you could have made that decision before I—before we got so close?”

Explanations were piling up, waiting to spill out. If only I could get her to calm down and listen. “Trey’s petition for an early parole hearing happened. His lawyer thinks he has a good chance of being granted itifhe can prove he has a place to live and a job waiting for him. I have the chance to make that happen for him.”

For the first time, I saw her shoulders slump. I wasn’t sure which was worse, her anger or her look of defeat. “Please, just let me explain. I know you’re hurt and angry, and I should have told you sooner. Everything has happened in the past few days. I’m still processing it myself. I needed to think through things and try to have answers before I dumped all of this on you.”

“Are you ever going to tell me about him?”

“I’ll tell you now.”

“Start at the beginning,” she demanded. “And don’t hide anything else from me.”

I gave a somber nod. She had such a great family that I wasn’t sure she’d really understand, but I had to try. “Trey and I didn’t have a steady family. Our dad was never in the picture. Or should I saydads?We don’t even know if we have the same father.”

She sucked in a breath. I knew she was close to her father, so I’d bet she was trying to envision a life growing up without one.

“Anyway, I’m sure it won’t surprise you to know that our mom didn’t win any awards either. She disappeared one day and never came back. Trey and I ended up in foster care after a neighbor caught us digging in her trashcan for something to eat.”

I heard her suck in a breath. But that wasn’t the worst part I had to tell her, so I hurried to continue. “We were lucky because we always got placed together, probably because I clung to him so hard. I know we were better off than some. Some places were better than others. None of the couples were assholes, but some of the other kids we were placed with were. The last couple was the best, but then the wife was diagnosed with cancer, and they couldn’t keep up with two teenage boys. That’s when Trey and I decided to make a break for it. We were both big for our age. So, we dropped out of school and got jobs at a construction company. Eventually, he insisted I earn my GED at night. He thought if I had it, I could take some classes at the community college, maybe learn more about running a business so I could do something other than construction. He’s always put my needs ahead of his own.”

I managed a small smile as I remembered how we’d sit somewhere, and he’d go over every lesson with me. I’d repeat everything I could that the teacher had said in class. We pretended it was a way for me to study, but we both knew it was a way to keep his education going, even if he wasn’t going to have a piece of paper to prove it. I think it was a big reason I caught on so quickly to most subjects; I knew I’d have to explain it later.

“Where did you live?”

“Sometimes we could stay in a shelter, but other times, we had to sleep in my beat-up old truck,” I answered.

Her eyes locked on mine as her mouth gaped. “That same truck that quit on you?”

I nodded. “Mm-hmm.”

“Oh, my god,” she muttered. “How did you fit? I mean, you’re huge. You had to have been a big teenager, as well.”

Despite the moment, I had to chuckle. “It got pretty damn uncomfortable at times, but it was an excellent motivator to work hard to get something better.”

“And I thought living in a small trailer was bad.”

“Now you understand why I had an attachment to that truck. Not only was I trying to save money, but it was a reminder of how far I’d come.”

---