Page 65 of The Big Easy & Other Lies
He pushed off from the bed and wandered over to examine the photos. Two were portraits of my mother, but he picked up the center snapshot, my favorite.
“I found that when I was cleaning out the spare room,” I said. It showed my mom and I locked in a hug, faces mashed together and grinning widely into the camera.
“She was beautiful.” He glanced up to study me. “You look like her.”
I blushed. “Thanks.”
He smiled, but then it faded, replaced by a very uncertain expression. “She obviously loved you like crazy. So...” He swallowed hard, but I interrupted him before he could finish.
“So why would she leave me with Delphine?”
He nodded.
“Because Delphine is literally my only living relative. That I know of, anyway. I’ve never had any contact with my dad’s family. My mom asked me not to. She said they’re not good people.” I sighed. “According to my mom, Delphine wasn’t always like this. She said Delphine was her second favorite person after my grandma, but hard things happened to her. She lost everyone in her life in sad, crappy ways.
“And the hoarding, it wasn’t that bad when we moved in. She kind of kept it all in the sheds out back or in the upstairs rooms. It just seemed messier than most people’s houses.” I fell quiet, trying again to understand my mom. “I tell myself that if she knew what Delphine had turned into, she wouldn’t have left me with her. But she was so sick by the time we came here. I don’t think she could cope with looking too hard.”
“Thanks for letting me in,” he said, drawing me up for another hug. He wasn’t quite six feet tall, and the four inches he had on me meant that my face always fit comfortably in the crook of his neck. I loved that because it meant I could gulp down his soapy boy smell without getting caught. “You can come over to my place and play Freud any time you want.” He paused. “I totally did not mean for that to come out dirty.”
“Sure,” I said, pinching his lean side.
“Seriously. Come over and poke around my room and make your own deep, dark inferences.”
I tensed.
“Angelique?” he guessed.
I nodded, liking the way my forehead rubbed against the soft skin of his neck.
“Has she bothered you lately?”
I picked my head up. “Now that you mention it, no. Did you say something to her?”
“Maybe.” He smiled and I wondered again at their dynamic. I knew he couldn’t care less that she had the social currency to sink him. Which then meant she couldn’t sink him since he didn’t care.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I offered her services she couldn’t refuse on the condition that she back off of you.”
“What services? Will I have to help you bury a body?”
“Angelique has a tendency to freeze under pressure. Like write-your-college-essay-pressure. She gets it done eventually but she makes herself crazy. She jumped all over my offer to help. And by help, I mean let me write them for her.”
“You’d do that for her?”
“No. I’d do it for you.” He leaned down and kissed me again. “Are you okay here alone tonight?”
“I’ll be fine. Get home before you have curfew drama.”
He kissed me again. “Do I have to?”
“Yeah,” I said, smiling. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Only I didn’t. Because I spent the whole next morning at the hospital instead.
Chapter 24
Delphine called a few minutes after my alarm went off, sounding ticked.
