Page 62 of The Love of My Next Life
She’ll turn me to ashes, and I’ll gladly burn.
I’m unbuttoning her jeans when her phone vibrates in her front pocket.
“Don’t answer it,” I say, pressing open mouth kisses to her belly while she writhes under me. She lets it go to voicemail, and I smile against her skin. I trace my tongue over the hem of her panties and move my hands to the band of her jeans. I’m about to pull them over her hips when the phone vibrates again. I groan and drop my head to her stomach as she pants.
“I have to,” she says. I take her phone out of her pocket and hand it to her without moving. My head bounces when she laughs, and I can’t help but smile. I hear her type something and she sighs. “It’s a text from Claire.”
Of course, it is. I look up at her, resting my chin on her pelvis.
“And?”
“And apparently family dinner is tonight.”
We don’t speakas we lock up. Lennon drives us back to Chesapeake and drops me at my car in the liquor store parking lot.
“See you at six,” she says. Her voice is sad. Her mouth has been stuck in a small frown since the text.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I tell her. “It’s just a dinner. You’ll have time to adjust.”
She forces a smile and nods, so I climb out of the car and wave goodbye as she drives away. I unlock my car and rest my head on the headrest. I run back through the events of today. I itch to open the glove box and light up the half a joint I’ve got stashed in there, but I don’t. Instead, I put my car in drive and pull out of the parking lot and head home sober.
When I pull into the driveway, Claire is waiting on the front steps, and she looks murderous. Fucking great. I drop my head on the steering wheel once, then again, and take a deep breath. I turn the car off and get out.
“What the fuck did I do this time?” I say as I close the distance between us. I notice her eyes are red, and it looks like she’s been crying. For a brief minute, I worry something happened to Mom, but then Claire stomps toward me and clocks me right across the face.
My hand shoots up and covers my jaw.
“What the fuck, Claire,” I shout.
“I hate you,” she growls. “I hate you.”
“Yeah, well what else is new.”
Fuck, she hit me good. Right in the spot that’s already bruised from my fight with our father.
“He’s not paying for my college,” she yells, and I sigh. Mom told her. “This is all your fucking fault.” She shoves at my chest.
“How the fuck is it my fault?” I yell back. She shoves me again.
“You fucking hit him? You threw eggs at his house?” She tries to punch me again, but I step back, and she swings at air. “You’re not fucking twelve anymore. Jesus Christ, when are going to grow up and think of anyone other than yourself?”
“I went over thereafterhe punked out of paying for your college, Claire,” I tell her. “It’s not my fault he’s a fucking prick.”
“Mom called him andbegged, Macon,” Claire seethes, and my stomach drops. “She fucking cried on the phone with him.”
“You’d let her do that?” I spit.
Momhatestalking to our father. He’s a manipulative asshole and makes her feel like shit. Claire would let Mom subject herself to his bullshit over a couple grand for in-state tuition?
“I can’t believe you’d make her call him over this.”
“I didn’t make her do shit,” Claire says through her teeth, angry tears streaming down her face again. “This ismy college, Macon. Myfuture. Just because you don’t have one doesn’t mean you get to fuck up mine. She got him to reconsider! He was gonna pay half and then you went over there, and you fucking ruined it!”
Fuck.
Do I even bother telling her that he’s full of shit? That he wouldn’t have done it? He was just jerking Mom around like he always does. Making her crawl to him just so he can kick her lower.
“I didn’t ruin anything, Claire.” I shake my head and laugh at the sky. This is real shitty karma. “He’s a prick and he’s always been a prick.”
