Page 86 of A Million To Fall

“What things?”

“Your belongings,” she says with a shrug.

I can’t help but smile. “What you saw in my trunk was it, Skye. Everything I own. My phone, my charger. Some food. Toothbrush. And my duffel of clothes. That’s all.”

She blinks like she’s trying to make sense of it. “But… how do you eat? Where do you shower? What—”

“It depends. It’s easier at Jake’s obviously, but my talk about showering in the gym wasn’t a lie. I do my laundry there, too, or at the laundromat. I eat at AJ’s or I live off snacks and stuff that doesn’t require cooking. That’s just… life.”

“God, Boss, I never knew.”

I smile. “You weren’t supposed to.”

Her brow creases. “But you work so much.”

I know where she’s going with this. “I keep a couple hundred bucks for food and gas. The rest gets deposited. To get Cass and Bronx, I need a place to live and money for legal fees.”

Skye doesn’t say anything, but I can feel her watching me. I, on the other hand, stare at the TV where the angry drunk lady’s still screaming.

“I didn’t leave Stillwater because I wanted to.” The words come out rough. Unstoppable. “I left because I had to. To protect my family.”

My throat tightens.

“And in the end”—I shake my head—“I still failed.”

I feel her hand move to my knee, the warmth seeping through my jeans. I look at her, at those ocean eyes that have always been so beautiful and somehow carry both sadness and warmth. “Boss,” she breathes. “You didn’t fail. You’re here. You came back for them.”

“Yeah, but I can’t—”

“Not yet,” she cuts in. “But you’re trying.”

I don’t know what to say, so I just nod.

“Anyway, enough about me.” I shift, cracking my neck, desperate to shed the heaviness.

“Tell me what you’re going to do once you graduate college.”

She withdraws her hand, and my knee immediately feels cold.

“Well, if it was up to me I’d go to law school after graduation.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “What do you mean if it were up to you?”

She shrugs. “I’m not sure Archer would love the idea.”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

Another shrug. “He says it’s a waste of time.”

“I don’t understand.”

She exhales deeply, her lips pressed into a thin smile. “You have to understand, Arch grew up in more of a traditional household. Stay-at-home mom and all that.”

“Uh-huh?”

She shrugs yet again. “So I kind of think he’s envisioning that for, you know, his own life.”

I nod once, my jaw tight.