Page 61 of My Return to the Walter Boys
Either he had the world’s worst timing or a built-in threat detection system, because Cole chose that exact moment to wake. “Don’t get up yet,” he said as he pulled me back into his arms, voice still rough with sleep.
I squeezed my eyes shut so I could block out Katherine’s flinty glare. “Cole, let go.”
“Nope.” He nuzzled the back of my neck. “Not gonna.”
“Cole Anthony Walter.”
If I wasn’t currently drowning in dread, I would’ve laughed at Cole’s reaction to hearing his mother’s voice. His whole body jerked like he’d been electrocuted, and he scrambled up so quickly he almost fell out of bed.
“Mom, hi,” he choked out, eyes round with panic. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
Katherine’s lips pursed, but surprisingly, she didn’t yell or raise her voice. She calmly informed us we’d be having a discussion after dinner, kicked Cole out, and then busied herself with getting Parker ready for practice.
As she moved about the room, opening dresser drawers and digging through the closet, I sat on my mattress, limbs numb and ears ringing. I’d expected a detonation when Katherine spotted us in bed together, not whatever this nonreaction was. It left me reeling long after she and Parker were gone, and that was the point, wasn’t it?
The rest of my day was spent overthinking. I tried concentrating on quadratic functions and other polynomials, but my mind kept returning to the angry expression on Katherine’s face. I’d seen it plenty of times before, impossible not to considering how many smart-ass kids she had, but never had that look been directed at me. Just how much trouble were Cole and I in? When he brought me home drunk this past spring, we’d been reprimanded and grounded, but this felt different. Weightier. By the time dinner rolled around, I’d entered an anxiety-induced trance where all I could do was push the food around my plate.
Once everyone was done eating, George instructed me and Cole to stay seated while the rest of the table was excused. Alex lingered behind, a curious expression on his face, but all it took was one cleared throat from his father for him to disappear. Katherine stood at the edge of the room, ears cocked and hands on her hips as she waited for multiple sets of feet to clamber up the stairs. When the sound faded, she took a seat across from us.
“Under no circumstance is it acceptable for the two of you to sleep in bed together.” Her tone was calm but firm.
I hung my head, cheeks burning.
“Really?” Cole said flippantly. “Not even if—”
“Cole,” George interrupted. “You better stop talking right now, or so help me, I’ll—
“Okay, okay!” he replied before his dad could finish. “I’m sorry, but you guys are making a bigger deal out of this than necessary. Nothing happened.”
This was definitely the wrong thing to say, and I winced as a muscle in Katherine’s jaw jumped. While technically correct about nothing happening, Cole being a smart-ass would only get us in more trouble.
“I don’t care what your excuse is,” she snapped. “Nothinggives you the right to flout house rules.”
“What rule did we break?” There was a challenge in Cole’s question. “The only one you made when Jackie moved in is that the door has to stay open if we’re alone in a bedroom with her. Technically, we weren’t alone.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, appalled by his insolence. A sense of self-preservation kicked in, and I inched to the side of my chair, leaning as far away from Cole as possible. Nobody spoke. It was so unnaturally quiet that I could hear thetick tick tickof the pendulum clock that hung on the wall in the den off the kitchen.
“You think the presence of your eleven-year-old sister makes this okay?” Katherine asked after a long, uncomfortable beat. Her voice vibrated with barely restrained anger. “I cannot begin to explain how inappropriate that is.”
“Jesus, Mom,” Cole groaned. “It wasn’t like that.”
“It. Doesn’t. Matter.” Katherine paused, a vein throbbing in her temple. It looked like she was trying to rein in an onslaught of violent thoughts. “Your father and I mishandled things by not explicitly stating additional rules, but that was because we thought you were mature enough to understand anything beyond that was implied. We won’t be making that mistake again. The two of you are grounded until further notice.”
“You can’t ground me.” Cole leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms with a look so defiant it made my blood pressure spike. “I’m an adult.”
“Your behavior suggests otherwise,” George cut in before Katherine could explode. “Regardless, you live under our roof.”
Cole was going to keep arguing. I could tell by the way his brows snapped together and he drew in a breath, so I elbowed him in the ribs to prevent further stupidity. His head turned sharply to face me, but I begged him with my eyes toplease shut up.
He must have received the message, because his shoulders slumped. “Fine, but please—don’t take this out on Jackie. We were out late, and she fell asleep in the truck on the way home, so I carried her up to bed.”
Or not. I sighed but refrained from banging my head against the table in frustration.
“If that was all that happened, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Katherine replied through clenched teeth. “You seem to be forgetting the part where you climbed into bed with her.”
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep!” Cole exclaimed. “Don’t crucifyus for something that was an accident. My shoes were still on, for Christ’s sake!”
My nails dug tiny crescent moons into the flesh of my palms before I forced myself to relax. Ishouldhave been thankful to Cole for trying to take the blame. Even though I’d been drowsy, I remembered asking him to stay with me, and that made us equally responsible. It was truly a sweet gesture, but judging by the expressions on his parents’ faces, Cole was only digging us a deeper hole.
