Page 53 of The Way We Swing Back

The coolness of the water in my mouth started to bring me back to reality.

Now, the banging came from the door in the kitchen, loud and obnoxious. The door was weak and breakable, and the spare key was lodged under a chair on the deck. If he did any snooping, he’d be able to get inside.

Zach sat against the wall five feet away from me, his knees bunched up near his chest, watching me closely. He’d found a bat, and one hand ran up and down the barrel, the other locked and loaded on the handle.

Gavin joined us a minute later, sitting next to me, our thighs touching, as silence filled the air. Words kept forming and then deleting in my mind.

I grabbed my phone. Three missed texts from Tanner and two FaceTimes, the screen still lighting up. Gavin must have called him. I couldn’t make my thumbs work, so I tossed it across the carpet and picked at the little fuzzies instead. I’d call him when I could figure out what to say, when my brain didn’t feel like I was four beers in and halfway through the fifth.

Finally, the pounding stopped, though the ringing remained in my ears.

The three of us still sat wordlessly, neither brother wanting to make me talk, until the older Quinns got home fifteen minutes later.

“Are you three alright?” Mrs. Quinn said, her voice frantic, her purse still around her shoulder, keys dangling in her hand.

“Yeah,” Zach said.

“Easton?” she asked as Mr. Quinn stepped inside as well, his face as unbearably stern as Zach’s.

I swallowed, or tried to—my mouth had gone dry as paper. “How did he find me?”

“I have no idea, sweetie. But we’ll look into it.”

I couldn’t make eye contact with her. With anyone. The room had gone a half-step too far away, like I was watching it from outside myself, unaware that I could move.

“Easton?” she said.

“Yeah?” I managed, my lip tasting of blood. I guessed I’d been biting it.

“This isn’t your fault.”

I nodded, not sure I believed her but wanting desperately for her to be right.

My lungs burned as if I’d been running for hours even though I hadn’t moved off the floor. I desperately wanted to run back to my grandparents’ house, almost as much as I wanted to breathe. I wanted to find that bottle. I wanted to forget everything that’d happened today.

Then the doorknob on the front door rattled, and my eyes snapped toward the handle as it spun. I squeezed the carpet again, my muscles tensing. Zach stood, and Mr. Quinn stepped in front of me, Gavin a half step behind.

Instead of Dad, Tanner walked in. His face was sullen, his eyes sharp as they made their way around the room. I exhaled, my breathing steadying as I focused on Tanner.

“Is he gone?”

“Yeah,” Zach said. He leaned the bat against the wall and made his way to the couch.

I finally stood, my eyes never leaving Tanner’s. “I thought you had a big test tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” he said, his face softening. “Something came up. Staying here tonight.”

No hesitation, no opening to argue. I bit my bottom lip and nodded at him. I didn’t want his studying ruined, but I needed him here. Needed them all here.

“So what are we going to do about this?” Tanner asked as we joined Zach on the couch. He flicked on a baseball game, the volume level low enough that I couldn’t hear the announcers.

Mr. and Mrs. Quinn looked at each other, then me, before Mrs. Quinn spoke. “I think we should be able to get a restraining order. If you want.”

I nodded my head as I pulled a throw pillow to my chest. “Would that work?”

“Probably not,” Mr. Quinn conceded, “but if we got one, and he came around you again, he’d end up in jail.”

I didn’t want him in jail. Not really, at least. But I wanted him around me even less than that, and if a restraining order was the only way to keep him away, then that’s what I needed.