Page 38 of Things We Hide from the Light
This was more life than this old house had seen since my own childhood, more than I could handle. I’d been prepared to do what I’d learned to do, white knuckle my way through. But Lina’s presence on my left gave me a tangle of feelings that knotted themselves up in the middle of the emptiness that now lived full-time in my chest. That burn of attraction that I didn’t understand was still there, along with a sliver of guilt for using her to get a few jabs in at that asshole Nolan. But more than anything, I was pissed.
She’d deliberately misled everyone when it came to her work. And that was as good as a lie to me. I didn’t tolerate lies and liars.
Our exchange this morning left me with questions.
I’d done a little digging between slogging through paperwork and helping Animal Control capture one of Bacon Stables’ pain-in-the-ass runaway horses after it shit its way down Second Street.
But the dinner table wasn’t the place to start the interrogation. So I bided my time and tried to limit the number of times I glanced in her direction.
She was wearing tight jeans and a gray cardigan that looked soft as a cloud. It made me want to reach out and touch it, to rub my face against the fabric. To—
Okay, creeper. Get a hold of yourself. You’re depressed and pissed off. Not a sweater-sniffing stalker.
I shook myself out of the fog and made a weak attempt to join the conversation.
“Lou, how’s the golf game?” I asked.
On my right, Amanda kicked me under the table. Naomi choked on her dinner coffee.
Lou pointed his fork at me from the foot of the table. “Lemme tell you. There’s no way Hole Nine is a par three.”
“And now we all have to suffer,” Amanda whispered as her husband broke into a discourse on his trials and tribulations on the green.
I made an effort to drag my attention away from Lina while Lou gave us all his top ten reasons why Hole Nine was mislabeled.
Piper was snoring that strangely loud nose whistle that had startled me awake twice the night before. The tip of her tail flicked out a beat or two as if her dreams were happy ones. At least it beat waking to the other noise, the one that lived only in my head.
Naomi’s eyes sparkled as Knox slid his hand to the back of her neck and whispered something in her ear. Waylay waited until she was sure her guardians were occupied before slipping two green beans into her napkin. She caught me looking and feigned innocence.
Night had fallen on the other side of the glass, making the woods and creek vanish. Inside, the lights were low and the flicker of candles made it even cozier.
“Pass the chicken, Nash,” Liza J called from the head of the table. I picked up the platter and shifted to my left. Lina’s fingers got tangled up with mine, and we nearly dropped the dish.
Our eyes met. There was a spark of temper in those cool brown eyes, most likely carried over from our run-in that morning. But in the overall tally, I had more reasons to be pissed than she did.
She’d added makeup and styled her hair differently. Edgy pixie was what it made me think of. Her earrings were tiny bells that dangled flirtatiously from her lobes. They jingled every time she laughed. But she wasn’t laughing now.
“Any day now would be nice,” Liza J said pointedly.
I managed to hand off the plate without sending the chicken to the floor. My fingers felt warm from her touch and I balled my hand into a fist in my lap to hold on to the heat.
“Your face looks like shit,” Knox announced to me.
“Knox!” Naomi said, exasperated.
“What? If you’re gonna grow a beard, grow a damn beard or have the decency to make an appointment and sit in my fuckin’ chair. Either way, commit. Don’t go walking around town with a half-assed stubble farm all over your face. It’s bad advertising for Whiskey Clipper,” my brother complained.
Waylay put her head in her hands and muttered something about a jar and vegetables.
I rubbed my hand over my jaw. I’d forgotten to shave again.
“Have some more green beans, Nash,” Amanda insisted on my right, dumping a scoop on top of the one I hadn’t touched yet.
Waylay caught my eye from across the table. “This family is obsessed with green things.”
My mouth quirked. The kid was still getting used to the whole “family” thing after a short lifetime with a bad influence.
“Waylay, isn’t there something you want to ask Knox and Nash?” Naomi prompted.
