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As soon as we’re alone, with Marco still silent, Michelle demands, “Tell me everything!”
“I can’t,” I whisper, closing my eyes and letting the warmth of the tub assuage my tension as much as is possible, which isn’t very. “I’m sorry. I just…you know already.”
I hear her sigh, and feel her hand on my shoulder, “Oh girl, I’m so sorry! You don’t have to say a thing.”
Marco asks, “What is going on?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Michelle says.
I peek out of one eye and see her give him a quick kiss before leaning against his body, his arm around her as they silently put their make-out session on hold to be my friends and keep me some much-needed company.
Where is Ben? Did he stay? What is happening inside?
TWENTY-FOUR
Jaxson
Ben and I and enter the house with determination, ready for anything, but find Rachel and Shelby gone.
Sylvia rushes over to us and whispers, “They went outside to the jacuzzi!” scanning Ben’s dry body and having no clue where he was or what to do. I shoot a glance to the arts and crafts room and find Laura standing in its doorway.
"Where is Willow?” she asks with a friend’s worried frown.
I answer for my son, "I don't know. Ben was in the shed, getting some tools he needed. You haven’t seen her?”
She looks at his empty hands. “No.”
Ben swears under his breath, and I cover for him, “He put them in his truck."
"That girl is crazy," Dax snaps, racing down the stairs into the main room. "She rifled through my suitcase! I think she thought it was Willow’s!”
My wife and I heard Shelby's car racing up to Sunflower, and we got dressed as quickly as we could, but not fast enough. We arrived right as she was coming downstairs so she must have investigated Willow's room first. She didn't know if Willow had a private room or not, and since Laura is the only one with the private room and was downstairs in the arts and crafts room, she probably investigated both the rose room and the one Laura is in, the lavender orchid room — both with their doors open in all probability. I’m sure she wouldn’t have had the balls to knock on doors. Or did she? “I’m sorry to have to say this, but you might want to go and check out your room.”
Laura disappears upstairs in a flash as Dax walks up to us, heavy eyeliner fixated on Ben. "Is she okay? Is my roommate okay?”
I answer, “She's relaxing in the jacuzzi. Why wouldn't she be okay?”
"Because Michelle and Marco were in there probably getting some action, so I don't think that she would've gone back out! Are you saying she went back out to the hot tub when they were clearly interested in each other and we all left them alone to give them some space?"
Now it's my turn to want to swear under my breath, but I keep it together. Dax has an aggressive nature that spurs my own. "I didn't see her. So I don't know where she is. It was a guess.”
Sylvia offers, “Maybe she went out to build a fort like Ben and the kids used to do when they were little."
Ben starts laughing, the tension of the moment and her sarcasm getting to him. Suddenly, the front door flies open behind us and in rush my daughter-in-law and wife, the latter looking more relaxed than when we arrived. It must have gone well out there. Our plan to divert attention, successful.
"Where were you?" Shelby demands.
Ben grunts, “Let's take this outside."
"I don't wanna go outside!"
Dax uses their irritation as fuel. “We’re having a retreat here! Stop being such a crazy bitch!”
“How dare you talk to me like that!”
“You went through my things! Every time you’ve shown up, relaxation has ceased to exist!”
“What are you, a poet?”
