The Poison of Life (The Grey Chesterfield Series Book 1) by Elizabeth Parmer & Caren Penland

Author:Elizabeth Parmer & Caren Penland [Parmer, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Elizabeth Parmer and Caren Penland
Published: 2016-04-21T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

If Grey turned on the overhead fan and turned up the television volume just so, she couldn’t hear the party outside. She had debated plugging in her earbuds and just listening to music in bed. But that had seemed too pathetic. At least while watching a movie, she could pretend she was relaxing or lounging and not hiding away.

It wasn’t just Bridgette and Zoë’s drama she was trying to escape. That was irritating enough. Her confusion didn’t help. That Janel woman had infuriated her, sure. But something else had hit suddenly, in the middle of the roaring and cheering men and Emily’s giggles, in the smile on Zoë’s face.

Grey’s father had held that same look of complete adoration.

He had tossed her in the air when she was just as small.

He was dead.

Grey was here, a bystander at another family’s Thanksgiving holiday celebration. She no longer felt like celebrating. There was no one she wanted to call—certainly not Tawny. She just wanted to bury herself under a mountain of blankets, sip her wine, and be left well enough alone. There were no tears. She just felt tired and empty.

She flipped through the channels listlessly, finally settling on an old favorite, The Day After Tomorrow. Nothing like a natural disaster movie that kills a ton of people to put your life’s problems into perspective. She was an hour into the movie and three glasses of wine along the bottle when her door creaked open. She didn’t have to look up to know who was there.

“Are you okay?” Zoë had to nearly shout over the roaring of the action flick.

Grey sighed and reluctantly hit the pause button. “Yeah. I’m fine. I just needed to get away.”

“Okay, is there anything I can do?” The sincerity was real.

“Nope. I miss my daddy. Nothing you can do.” Grey didn’t even look up.

She hadn’t noticed that Zoë had walked to the side of her bed. Zoë reached her hand out and tousled Grey’s hair just slightly. Then without a word, she leaned down and kissed her on top of the head. Zoë drew in a deep, long breath and let it out with equal speed.

“Hold on,” she said, walking quickly from the room. Zoë returned seconds later. “Here.” She stuffed a giant Dora the Explorer doll into the bed next to Grey and placed a second bottle of wine by the bed. “Phase one works on Em when she’s sad, and phase two works on me. You are officially off duty.”

Grey looked up at her with grateful eyes.

“And if you are a really good little girl and don’t try to help with anything else today, Auntie Zoë may even bring you something to read tonight.”

Sometimes, when trying not to feel, while shutting out the world and exercising stoicism, just one gesture of sincere empathy is enough to thaw those nerves so carefully and deliberately frozen. Grey felt the back of her eyes burn and cheeks flush in a rush of feeling she wasn’t prepared to experience. A tear rolled down her cheek, and she chuckled up at her friend.

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