Page 19 of Small-Town Secrets
He gazed at the flowers as if secretly hoping someone would care to buyhimsome too, and for a moment, there was nothing I could do but stare at him because I wanted to be that someone.
What was wrong with me?
"I'm sure Conner would love those flowers," I made myself say to break out of the stupor Laurence had put me in.
"Yeah? Okay. We can bundle a few."
I nodded. "That would be lovely."
"Also, um..." Laurence lowered his gaze to the floor, but then snapped his attention back to me as if he'd just remembered that he didn't want to cower in front of alphas anymore. "The kids can go to karate again, but... I'd kind of like to watch, at least once or twice."
"Sure." If that was all... "You can come watch anytime. And I'll try to be a little more careful around Tyler."
"Thank you. He's more sensitive than he looks."
"I get it. You all have been through a lot."
"It's fine," Laurence said and I had to make myself look at the flowers instead of him before my eyes could linger on the scar on his face that called his words lies. I wondered if anyone had ever told him how strong he was for going through life the way he did after everything that had happened to him. I wondered if he even knew how impressive that was.
"I hope things get better for you. Thanks for trusting me with your kids."
"I um..." Laurence flustered all of a sudden, though I had no idea why. "Oh! You mean karate."
"Yeah. What else would I have meant?"
"Nothing. I just... I don't know. I mixed something up in my head. Come on, let's get these flowers bundled up for you."
"Sure," I said, following as he led me to a different part of the store. I had no idea what he'd meant by his earlier words, and no matter how hard I racked my brain, no answer came to me.
Notthen, anyway.
7
Laurence
Itoldmy kids that they could continue karate if they managed to go a whole week at school without causing trouble. When they did it, and I had to keep my promise, I conceded. The whole situation still made me buzz with anxiety on the inside, but Raphael had a point. There was a good chance I wasn't getting around this, and if I wasn't, it was better to face the issue head-on. I was done closing my eyes and pretending my problems weren't that bad or didn't exist.Definitelydone.
Which didn't mean I didn't get to be paranoid about it all.
Or that I wasn't being a nervous wreck all day, leading up to my kids' karate lesson.
I wassonervous, indeed, that I acted like the worst klutz in the history of klutzes. If there had been a price for being the klutziest klutz of them all, I would have won. And then promptly dropped it.
Just the way I dropped Gregory's expensive tablet on the bathroom tiles.
Fuck!
Why did Gregory need to take that thing into the bathroom anyway? And why couldn't he have put it away himself when he was done in here?
In any case, when I picked the tablet up, the screen was cracked. Naturally.
"Fuck," I cursed again, this time out loud. My hand shook as I looked at the broken thing I was holding. My cousin was going tokillme for this. He was going to skin me alive. He was going to—
Stop!I shouted at myself through the panic clouding my thoughts.Breathe!
I closed my eyes. Counted back from ten inside my head. I had to focus on my breathing. Calm myself down. Find something to focus on other than the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
Five things. Just, find five things.
