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Trent slid an arm behind my back proprietarily. “I can take Winter home if she wants to go,” he offered.
“No!” I shot out. “It’s fine.”
“Don’t be silly. You just said you were tired,” Trent pointed out.
I couldn’t be alone with the guy. I had no idea what he’d do.
Mom glanced between us. She’d been drinking heavily all night, which was her go-to move at events and family dinners, but despite that, there was a keenness to her gaze.
“It’s fine, Trent, but thank you for the offer. I’m tired, too. I’ll have the driver take Winter and me home and return for Charles.”
I could have kissed her. I stood and hurried to her side as she pulled her cashmere wrap around her and said goodbye to Duncan.
Trent watched me with his small, greedy little eyes. His cheeks were red. He was pissed off.
“Until next time, Winter,” he said, and leaned in to kiss me goodbye on the cheek. “I’m looking forward to it.”
He pulled away, and I hurried after my mother, not daring to turn back.
I showered when I got home. Trent’s hand on my thigh felt like it had left an imprint of filth on my skin. I emptied my bag next, and the Carrick bend knot fell out.
Asher.
I didn’t have his number, and I doubted he’d want to hear from me even if I did. Would Leonard have gotten him in trouble? What kind of trouble? I chewed my lip and considered calling his sister to ask her. Eve was a sweet girl. One of the nicest I’d ever met. I had a suspicion she might actually be as sweet and kind as she seemed, which should surely be impossible. I took out my phone and stared at it. But what if he wanted to keep the whole drama a secret and I only made it worse?
I stood in my towel, hesitant and undecided. In the end, I threw my phone on the bed and dried my hair. There was nothing I could do for Asher now. Honestly, I’d make the same decision again. I couldn’t afford to lose the crumbs of attention my parents gave me, and getting busted buying pot and smoking it at their country club would certainly do it. I was a daddy’s girl, after all, and he doted on me, giving me everything but his time and attention. The only way our relationship worked was if I hid all the ugly parts of myself, the ones that didn’t fit, and kept it together for the limited time I got to see him every few months. I couldn’t deviate from that unspoken rule. I just couldn’t. A lifetime of habits couldn’t be changed in one night.
Anyway, who was Asher to me? He’d been downright rude to me throughout high school. He’d made it clear how little he wanted to do with me. I didn’t owe him anything.
Anything at all.
If I kept telling myself that, maybe I’d start to believe it.
“Winter?” A soft knock at the door jolted me from my doom-spiraling.
Mom came into my room. I couldn’t even remember the last time she’d been in there. She stood uneasily in the middle, looking around like she was in a museum.
“What’s up?”
“I just wanted to check on you. I know Duncan and his son can be…intense,” she finished. Her gaze latched onto the white-gold bracelet that Duncan had given me for my sixteenth birthday. At the time, it had sent my mother into a tailspin. She’d stormed out of the room, and later, I’d heard her arguing about it with my dad.
“I don’t want her to have it, Charles, you tell Duncan that now. Why would he think that was an appropriate gift?”
“I think he’s just feeling sentimental, and Winter looks like Ruth’s twin. He just misses her, Angela, and so do I.”
“Ruth hated that bracelet; it was the reminder of whatever mystery was going on between her and Duncan that lead to what happened.”
“It’s just a bracelet, Angela. Nothing more. It’s churlish to refuse. He loved her, for all his faults. I’ll never doubt that.”
It had been silent after that whispered exchange. It was a weird-as-hell conversation, and I’d had no idea what to make of it at sixteen, so I’d pushed it deep down inside with all my other raging issues and insecurities. It was in good company. I had a lot of them.
“You wear it often,” Mom mused, and studied the bracelet.
I shrugged. “Dad said it was a family heirloom.”
“Yes, I suppose it is.” Mom sat awkwardly on the end of my bed. I sat near her, wondering what the hell had brought on this maternal moment.
“I can’t believe it’s your birthday already. Freshman year is already halfway done, and soon you’ll graduate and leave us.”
