Page 35 of Secondhand Smoke
“Fine. At least let me walk with you. It’s too late for you to be alone.”
She glanced at the clock—half past midnight. At this rate, she’d be home no later than one. She already knew they’d be up and waiting for her by the door, pacing anxiously and wondering when was a good time to call the cops again. She shivered at the thought and rubbed her arm.
“It’s pretty far away,” she told him.
But he was already pulling shoes on by the front door. He smiled up at her, then stood straight. “That’s all the more reason not to let you go alone.”
* * *
It was the perfect night to walk home. The breeze was chilly enough to clear her head but nowhere freezing to death.
There weren’t any clouds in the sky, leaving it open and clear to see the Milky Way. She glanced up at it, grateful for the view. Plus, the full moon was bright enough that she could admire Barrett now and then when she traded the stars for a peek his way.
At first glance, he had the appearance of a psychologically embedded warning sign: shaggy rockstar hair, a denim jacket with pins and patches covering its stitches, and tattoos that would make her mother faint.
On a second, third, and fourth glance, however, she noticed new things.
The soft twinkle in his eye as he looked at the sky too. The light humming of an unfamiliar tune under his breath. The fact that he was pushing her bike so she wouldn’t be bothered.
For the first time, she had the stray thought that she was attracted to him.
Maybe she wasn’ttotallysober yet.
“I can go the rest of the way from here,” she said and tried to take the bike from him, cutting her thoughts off at the roots.
He blocked her with his body. “Ah-ah. No can do. I said I would walk you home, and I meant I would walk you all the way, not halfway. I’m no quitter.”
“You know, you sound a lot like my friend Minnie.” She smiled at him and caught the moment he realized whom she was talking about.
He blanched and tensed.
She should know better than to bring up her friends. “Sorry.”
“Hey, no.” He stopped walking, and she was forced to do the same to stay next to him. “Don’t say sorry. If you want to tell me, I’m all ears.”
She bit her lip and studied him, looking for a sign of insincerity, though she’d done that several times before with him and not once had she seen any.
“Minnie . . . ” she tried again, testing the name on her tongue.
It’d been so long since she’d said it. Twice in one minute was like saying it for the first time again. Turned out, shedidwant to tell him because as she started, the words came crashing from her like they’d been waiting for an excuse to be said. She couldn’t stop them if she wanted to.
“She walked home with me once when my car broke down three miles from my house in the middle of the night. She did that for me even though her house was closerandin the opposite direction. This . . . You remind me of that right now.”
Nell could feel Barrett’s eyes on her face, but she kept hers ahead on the road—away from him, away from the sky. She couldn’t risk facing how pitied she was as the words kept coming.
“But she’s always doing things like that, you know? Honestly, she’s got to be the nicest person I’ve ever known. Just one of those people who iscompletelyselfless, you know? Everything she does is for other people.” Her shoe scuffed on a pebble, and it scraped against the pavement as she finished speaking and there was a silence for several full seconds.
Barrett broke it. “My uncle Ron . . .”
Confused, Nell turned to him. Despite what she’d been worried about, she found no pity in his eyes, just an inkling of something she couldn’t recognize and a reminiscent glow. “That sounds like him. The most selfless person I know. Putting everyone else before himself.”
“You live with him, right?”
He nodded with a wry smile. “He put his single bachelor lifestyle on hold to raise an eight-year-old boy who wasn’t his responsibility. He had a chance to move out of state for a new, high-paying job that would have him traveling around the world, but because I didn’t have parents anymore, he turned it down to raise me. He gave up a whole life for me.”
That silence was back, and Nell found herself smiling weakly at him. “You’re very lucky.”
“I am, aren’t I?” He smirked and tilted his head at her, attempting to lighten the mood.
