Not About Love by Jamie Bennett

Author:Jamie Bennett [Bennett, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

I did the stomping thing as I got up onto the porch, but it was real this time. It had been raining and I actually did have mud on my boots. Work boots, because we’d been over at Owen’s new house and I was pretty filthy again because as the unskilled one, I had been in charge of cleaning up the building supplies rather than trying to work on the electrical panel. That had been hard enough that even Owen had needed to take a break. I was really beginning to think that he could do almost anything, but running wires through the entire house was getting to him.

“Hello?” I called into the kitchen. It was dark in there, not even the light over the table on, and this was odd. Usually at least one adult was cleaning up from their dinner while the other one got the kids ready for bed, the “routine” they talked about of baths and teeth brushing and reading. They were really into routines, but Aric and Gentry just rolled with it. They even liked it.

But there didn’t seem to be anyone around, and I’d told Owen that I would drop off the rent money so he could ice the thumb he’d accidentally whacked with a hammer. Construction work was full of injuries, I had learned. It made sense with all the scary tools we were using, and I personally had not much idea of what I was doing with them most of the time.

“Hello?” I called again, and looked out at the driveway. I noticed that my dad’s truck wasn’t there, which was weird. Maybe they’d all gone out.

“Hello.”

“Mother of God!” I leaped into the air and fumbled for the light switch, smacking it on. The yellow glow showed Aubree sitting at the kitchen table, blinking as her eyes adjusted, holding a mug, a pile of crumpled tissues in front of her. I stared at them and she looked down, too, then swept them off the table and onto the floor.

“Uh…” This didn’t seem like the Aubree I knew. She’d just purposely made a mess?

“Your daddy isn’t here. He took the kids out to eat tonight,” she said.

Which was also extremely odd. She wasn’t cooking? I’d thought the pinnacle of her day was standing in front of that stove.

“I get tired of making meals sometimes, and Wyatt’s idea of dinner is a big batch of grits.”

“That’s not—” I started to defend him, but realized that she was smiling slightly. The grits didn’t bother her. “Yeah, neither of us really gets into cooking. Owen’s better than I am.”

“He’s been asking me to show him things,” she told me. “Before you get home some nights, he’s been coming up here to watch me cook and ask me questions.” She got the little smile again and then grabbed another tissue to wipe under her eyes.

“Um, are you, uh…”

“Yeah, I’m crying,” she said sharply. “Happy?”

“Me? Happy?” I actually had to think for a minute about my answer and realized that… “No, I’m not happy that you’re crying.

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.