Page 59 of Lake
My eyes slid over to Laurel’s and she just beamed at me and nodded like she agreed with him.
“I’m leaving soon. I don’t live here.” I had to say something, and that was the one thing that made sense to me. This wasn’t my home and I was never meant to stay here.
“Women,” he said and though he didn’t roll his eyes, I could feel it in his tone. “Always got to make shit complicated.” His eyes slid over to Abigail and I got a sense of that brother-sister playfulness there as she narrowed her eyes at him.
“So what happened to your leg?” I asked in an attempt to change the subject. Hey, I never said I was smooth at that shit.
“Got dealt a bum hand.”
What the hell kind of response was that? Since I figured it was something recent and he was still dealing with it, I tried to brush off his grumpy demeanor. I was sure it didn’t help to have his sister fussing over him making feel like he couldn’t do things he used to do, even if she meant well.
Pity. That was what he was expecting from me as he forced his eyes to stay locked onto mine. And I could tell he dreaded it.
“That sucks, dude,” I said with a shrug. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel bad for the guy, I just didn’t want him to see it. “But don’t you mean you got dealt a bum leg? You still have both your hands.”
Yeah, I know. Corny and not really funny in this situation. And by the way the room went stiffly still, I could tell that everyone was holding their breath either from shock or because they were waiting to see how bad this guy was going to blow up at me.
But what I got was so unexpected it made me smile. Because after a few blinks, like he couldn’t believe that he’d heard me right, his eyes got this mischievous twinkle in them and his lips spread wide across his face, lighting the whole thing up.
“I like you,” he said with a deep chuckle, then resumed shoveling food into his mouth.
“Thanks,” I said. “But apparently I’m already taken.” And for shits and giggles, I winked at him.
“Oh, shoot,” Laurel said jumping out of her seat. “I have to go walk Biscuit and get Blade to PT.”
“Biscuit?” I asked.
“Ugliest fuckin’ mutt you’ve ever seen,” Dade said with a shake of his head.
“Don’t let him hear you talking about hisbabylike that.” Laurel shook her head at him then looked at me. “Come on, you can meet her.”
And so I waved bye and went to meet the not-so-cute dog that was actually really sweet and loving. Oh, and her… daddy? That sounded so strange. But yes, I met Blade. Who was every bit as intimidating and frightening as his name. His face was stern and showed not even a flicker of emotion. He was grunty and grumpy and I didn’t miss how he referred to Laurel as ‘Cami’s sister’ instead of by name.
Once they were gone, I headed back up to Lake’s room for a bit.
I had to admit hanging out and getting to know them made me see things that might have been missing in my life. I could tell they were close though they were clearly all different.
I saw it then, what I didn’t have. Especially now that my dad was no longer here. And for the first time, I sat down and really felt how lonely I truly was.
My dad had always been my best friend and maybe that sounded kinda sad, but it wasn’t. He was the best kind of friend anyone could have. But now I could see how not having that outside connection may have hindered me a little. It wasn’t like I was going to talk and joke about sex things with my dad. That was just fucking weird.
And now that he was gone what did I have? No one. I sure had done a good job at isolating myself.
I batted away the sad cloud that was looming over me. I didn’t have time for that now.
So with that, I decided to jump into work.
