Happily and Madly by Alexis Bass

Author:Alexis Bass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

Chapter 32

Chelsea and I spend most of the rest of the afternoon, after we get back from the Smiths’ island, out on our beach shared with other families staying on this side of the cove. It’s scarier on this side. George and Trisha don’t let Phoebe play in the bare sand; they put down a blanket. They don’t carry her into the water with them either, too scared of rogue splashes because this side of the cove is prone to hasty boat activity.

There’s a tiredness about Chelsea, and I can’t decide if it’s a sadness of sorts, maybe left over from overhearing Edison’s argument with the Duvals, or if she simply wishes that after Edison dropped us off, he didn’t go rushing back to the Duval estate. She wears her heart on her sleeve—and her discontentment. The two of us are lying with our heads at opposite ends of a large tube we found in the garage and pumped up with a bike pump, our bodies parallel.

She’s very quiet as she stares up at the blue, blue sky.

“I’m waiting for Edison to tell me he loves me,” she says finally. “He’s never said it.”

Chelsea thinks I am safe. And I wish I were someone she could trust—a sister to share in her distress or at the very least sympathize with it.

“I’m waiting for him to tell me a lot of things, actually.” She crosses her arms.

“Like what?”

“That wasn’t the first time I’ve caught him fighting with Warren and Sepp. About a week after his mother died, I overheard them arguing about Edison leaving for school. I never asked him about it, but at the time, I thought the fight was because he didn’t want to leave. But now it seems he can’t wait to go back. It almost sounded like he didn’t want to come to Cross Cove this summer at all. But that’s not what he said to me. All year, he told me how great it would be, us together here. And now he apparently hates being here? He told me not to worry and had all these reasons to explain himself. Mostly he said it was in the heat of the moment and he’s missing his mother a lot, so I can’t ask him about it again.”

“You can ask him about whatever you want.”

She is quiet for a while. “I don’t think I’m supposed to ask him. Whatever it is, I don’t think he wants me to know. If he would just tell me he loves me, it would be easier. It would be the only thing that mattered.”

I flip on my side so I’m facing her. It rocks the tube.

“Love doesn’t erase everything. It doesn’t fix everything. It doesn’t make lying okay. It doesn’t make unforgivable things forgivable.”

She stares at me, a look of pity in her eyes. “Yes, it does, Maris.”

“They’re only words,” I say, lying back down.

“But I need him to say it,” she says. “He’s everything I’ve ever wanted. And I’m not talking about the money.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.