Page 43 of One Last Chance

Chapter 15

I was gettinganxious for a plan, but Kash had been dodging every attempt I made to talk about it. Still, I’d been squirreling my own pay-checks away, not spending anything except what I needed to for the sake of the household. My measly three hundred dollars in savings had turned into eight hundred. At this rate it would still take me a year to save enough to leave on my own, but I was sure that Kash was working on something on his end, even if he wasn’t ready to tell me about it yet.

I had been prepared to be patient for as long as it took for him to come to me—until I came home to find my mother furiously scrubbing tears from her face, tears which refused to stop flowing even though she kept an iron-fisted control over her breath and expressions.

“Mom! What happened?”

“Allergies,” she lied weakly.

I took her hands and made her sit at the table with me. I had all intentions of searching her watery eyes for the truth behind her tears, but she refused to look at me. “Momma, seriously. What’s going on?”

She sucked in a long, deep breath and blew it out slowly. There was a time my mother was filled with strength; a time where no one would ever feel like they had a reason to pity her. It wasn’t that she had everything, it’s just that she had her crap together. Now, looking at her, it’s even more obvious that she’s completely lost in this big, gaping world.

“Your father,” she finally said, “he’s been laid off for the season. It’s temporary, they say—just not enough work to go around right now unless we move to Asheville, and they won’t pay relocation expenses—so we have to be very careful about money for a little while.”

My heart sank. The last time the construction company did this, Dad was out of work for three whole months. Back then I’d had almost three thousand dollars saved up. It was all gone by the end of the dry spell. I could feel the trap closing over my head again, and all the hopelessness that came with it. If I didn’t get out now, I never would. I loved my mom, dad too, but…at some point kids had to live their own lives, didn’t they? Somehow it didn’t quite feel that way. Maybe if it was only my dad who’d grunt and groan about me turning my back, then it’d be alright. He was big and strong and bold, he could figure things out. My mom, though, as things were, she was barely hanging on by a thread.

I kissed her cheek and pulled her close, squeezing as tightly as I could manage. “Cheer up, Mama. It’s happened before and we survived. We’ll survive again.”

She smiled at me, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I know how we survived last time, Daisy. I—can’t tell you not to spend your savings again, but—maybe I’ll start working. He can’t object to that now, can he? Not when he’s not making anything?”

He could and he would and we both knew it. But I squeezed her hands and gave her an encouraging smile. “Of course not. It’s the only logical thing to do. Heck, I can even pick up the late shift at the diner. It’s only four hours, that’s nothing.”

She huffed exasperatedly. “You’re already working full shifts or more at the library, Daisy. You can’t kill yourself over this.”

I winked at her. “I’m young and spry still. Don’t worry about me. We’ll get through this.”

I couldn’t make myself believe the things I said, though. By the time I snuck out my window to meet Kash in our usual place, I’d whipped myself into a panicked frenzy. I couldn’t stay. I’d take her with me if she would come, but I couldn’t keep living like this. We—I, at least—had to get out from my father’s thumb before my whole life passed by.

“Hey sexy,” Kash said as I climbed into his truck. He went to give me a kiss, but I was glaring under the weight of my thoughts and he pulled back. “What’s going on?”

“We need to get out of here,” I said.

He looked over his shoulder, brows furrowed with concern, and started the truck. “Somebody after you?”

I shook my head. “I mean out of here, out of here. Out of town. Dad’s been temporarily laid off again and it’s going to eat through my savings. We have to act now, or we’re never going to make it. Do you have anything saved?”

His expression was carefully blank as he navigated through the forest to the street and turned toward town. I slid down in the seat and put my hood up.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Somewhere I should have taken you from the beginning,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff I should have done already.”

I looked at him curiously, but he wasn’t in an elaborative mood. I kept my head down while he snaked through town, parking long before he should have. I peeked out the window and froze.

“Kash, this is the park! People are going to be here.”

He shook his head. “City ordinance says the park’s closed after dark.”

“That doesn’t stop anybody, and you know it. Also the walking path isn’t closed. That’s where people are going to be, so they can do the bridge thing.”

“Exactly,” he said softly.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You brought me here to do the bridge thing, didn’t you?” It wasn’t really a question.

He sighed. “It’s tradition, Daisy. A kiss on the bridge, it’s what everybody does. It’s good luck. God knows we need it.”

“It’s public,” I said. “You might as well propose to me in front of the market if you’re going to kiss me on the bridge.”

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