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“Hannah!” Ganny enters the living room. “There you are, honey pie.”
“Hey, Ganny.” I kiss her soft rosy cheeks. “I missed you.”
“I missed you two, sweetheart.”
Cash follows her in and reaches out to ruffle my hair, but I dodge him and head into the hall for the open kitchen doorway. I drop off the tiramisu on the counter next to a collection of dishes. The interior is filled with the scent of baking lasagna and pies. I turn to find my brother filling the doorway, arms folded.
“You haven’t been answering my calls,” he says, his blue eyes laser-focused on me.
“Cash, I’m fine.”
“You almost died this week.” His usually surly expression, the one that only shifts when he’s looking at June or Alex, is filled with concern. “And what’s going on with that Fucklin dude? You haven’t updated us.”
“Fucklin? Nice.”
“I came up with it myself,” he says.
“Proud of you,” I reply. “Nothing’s happening.”
“I heard you turned down Dad’s offer to move into Ganny’s?” He says it like I’m out of my mind.
“I’m fine, Cash. But I do need to talk to you. And Dad, and everybody. Kind of?”
“What’s going on?” Cash asks.
Here goes nothing.
Four
SAVAGE
“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” Cash says, from where he’s sandwiched between his grandmother and Mr. Taylor, his hands on his knees.
June stands next to Hannah, her arm around her shoulders. “Han, are you sure about this?”
I’m standing in the kitchen, my back braced against the counter, my arms folded. I’m part of the family as far as Cash is concerned, but I refuse to be in the living room for this conversation. The minute Cash called for everyone to gather around, I bowed out. I figured what this was about after overhearing Hannah in the library, and I’m fucking knotted up about it.
Hannah leaving.
“I’m sure,” Hannah says, after a beat. “Look, this is important to me. I need to be free. I—All of you have left Heatstroke, you’ve lived your lives, and I want to be my own person. I want to leave this place. I want to?—”
“Nope,” Cash says. “Nope. You went to college. That was far enough away.”
“Cash,” June says. “She’s her own woman. You can’t tell her what to do.”
“You can’t baby me forever,” Hannah says. “I’m not sick any more, Cash. We’re not kids. And I love you guys, but I’m doing this no matter what you think.” And then she slips out of June’s grasp and heads into the hall. She doesn’t meet my eyes as she moves out of sight and to the back door. The screen door slams and an awkward silence spreads through the living room.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
She’s going through with it.
Which is a good thing. Because that fucked up temptation will be gone. She’s not the only one who’s going to be free.
The Taylors disperse. June pulls Cash aside to talk to him, but he’s scowling like only he can. He kisses her on the cheek, whispers something in her ear, then makes a beeline for me.
