Page 63 of The Teacher of Nothing
Bringing our conjoined hands to my lips, I kiss one of her knuckles. “I’m the king of being angry at a parent. I get it.”
“She’s just so up and down.” She sighs heavily. “I’m tired of always being the one to try, you know?”
“I’m sorry things are rough at home.”
“I could leave,” she murmurs. “I think about it a lot.”
“But you’ll miss her.”
“I don’t trust Darren not to completely drown my mother. Not literally. I just feel like she’s held on this long, for me, but he’s winning. She’s a shell of the woman I adored when I was young.”
We pull into the library and I turn off the car. Since the library is open until nine, the parking lot is still fairly full, being that it’s only seven.
“Is someone picking you up from here?” I ask her.
“No. I’ll walk home.”
“Not in the dark and alone you won’t.”
She leans over the console and I go to her, her magnetism drawing me in. Our mouths meet for a kiss that feels like one of the last few I’ll get tonight. The thought is sobering and causes my stomach to sour.
It’s a damn shame I can’t keep her at my house and in my bed all night.
“Callum?”
“Mmm?” I nip at her bottom lip.
“I’ve never really dated anyone before. Is this, uh, is this how it always is?”
“What?”
“This feeling,” she murmurs. “Wanting the other person so badly it physically aches.”
“Like the time you have with them is limited and never enough?”
“Exactly.”
“It’s never been this consuming for me,” I admit. “I can’t think about shit, sweetheart. Only being with you.”
“At least I’m not alone.” She sighs. “You can drive me home, but we have to be careful. If Darren or Levi are home and see you, this could be bad for us.”
I understand the risks.
Willa Reyes is worth every goddamn one of them.
Dropping Willa off three houses from hers and having to watch her walk away from me, was by far the most difficult thing I’ddone this week. Since we slept together, it’s like she’s in my bloodstream. I can’t function without her.
I need some distance.
Some perspective.
A thump to my moral compass that seems to be spinning out of control.
“In here,” Hugo calls out.
I close the front door behind me, sweeping my gaze over Hugo’s living room. It’s normally tidy, but since Neena isn’t around, Hugo and Spencer haven’t quite kept things clean. I follow the sound of Hugo’s cursing to find him in the kitchen, sitting on his ass in front of two open cabinet doors beneath the sink.
“Law firm not paying you enough?”
