Page 69 of Crumbling Truth
When his response appeared, I laughed aloud and startled her into leaping off of me.Pretty sure my mom invoked a demon and faked the shelter’s adoption paperwork.
Without the cat to keep me there, I threw my coat back on to return to the guest house, still grinning when I stepped outside. The grin fell away when I ran smack-dab into Alex, standing in the driveway.
“Shit!” I gasped. My phone slipped out of my hand and into the few inches of snow that had accumulated on the concrete that morning.
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly, crouching down to grab the phone. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I heard Theo was away and came to take care of the driveway for you. It’s supposed to keep snowing through tonight, so I’ll swing back later and again tomorrow morning.”
I glanced behind him and saw his truck with a red plow attached. My heart still threatened to beat straight out of my chest, but I managed a tight smile. “Right. That’d be great, thank you.”
Before that moment, I’d thought of Alex as a smoother, slimmer version of Theo. He’d always been quick with a charming smile, but today he looked as flustered as I felt, nervously running a hand through his hair. I wasn’t thinking about the accident from his youth or the fact that he and Theo still hated each other when I spoke again.
“Alex, are you okay?”
His gaze shot to my face like that simple question was the last thing he’d expected to hear. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“If you say so.”
A rueful grin tugged at his lips. “Careful, though, the driveway is icy underneath the snow.”
I nodded, started toward the guest house, and immediately slipped. Alex caught me under the elbow before I could go down and I found myself staring straight into his eyes.
Theo’s might have ghosts lingering at the edges, but Alex looked downright haunted. My heart broke for him, for both of them.
“Let me help you to the door. I’ll salt after I clear the snow,” he said, his grip firm but gentle on my arm.
“Very chivalrous of you. I’ve had my share of spills on icy pavement over the years.”
“Not on my watch,” he assured me.
We fell silent in the remaining few yards to my door, but when I glanced up to thank him, he was biting his lip like he wanted to say something.
“What is it?”
For a moment, he hesitated, then he said, “I just don’t want to see you hurt. I know that’s stupid, it’s just…Theo is quick to run away. He’s hurt my parents enough already, and if he breaks your heart, it’ll hurt them even more. They think the world of you.”
I stared at him blankly while my brain processed all of that. “I appreciate your concern, but I’ll be okay, Alex. I know he’s leaving.”
“He told you why he went away, didn’t he?” he asked, reading my expression as accurately as his other family members could. When I nodded, he scrubbed a hand over his face. “I know it was my fault. All of it, start to finish, it was on me, not him. But he didn’t have to abandon them like that. They’re not getting any younger.”
“This feels like a conversation the two of you should be having,” I said gently.
A harsh laugh broke from him. “He won’t even speak to me, Esther. It’s fine. I don’t expect his forgiveness. I never meant to hurt anyone, though. You don’t need to be afraid of me.”
Startled, I repeated, “Afraid of you? I’m not afraid of you.”
“Esther, every time I’m near you, you flinch. I thought for a long time it was because you knew about what happened back then. If that wasn’t why, then what is it about me that you hate?”
This seemed like a bizarre conversation to be having as we stood outside in the falling snow, but he looked truly upset about the fact I hadn’t warmed up to him in the years I’d been living outside of his parents’ home. I drew a deep breath as I thought back to all of our past interactions.
“You’re charming,” I said simply.
He blinked at me with eyes so like Theo’s and yet so different. “Charming.”
I wasn’t about to bare my soul to him, even if he looked like a lost puppy at the moment, so I just nodded. With his dark brows drawn down, he studied me, then his expression cleared.
“Like Steve,” he said.
“God, you Silvers,” I muttered under my breath. “You’re all so freaking perceptive.”
