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“You shouldn’t come in because the dynamic duo are upstairs unsupervised, or you shouldn’t come in because you don’t trust yourself alone with me inside my apartment sharing a drink?”
Her lip twitched with a hint of a smile as she stepped onto the elevator. “The kids are asleep. I don’t think they’d get into trouble.”
Well, well, well…maybe there’s hope after all.
CHAPTER 4
Devyn
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
The sound of Heath chomping on his Cap’n Crunch cereal grated my nerves. I’d thought I couldn’t stand the sound of chewing in general, but this crunching was far worse. Maybe I was just on edge lately, with everything that normally bugged me amplified.
He slurped some milk.
Slurp.
Slurp.
Slurp.
That was worse than the crunching.
Heath wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “That Owen guy is alright.”
Just the mention of his name made my pulse speed up. A fleeting memory of my nails digging into Owen’s back flashed through my mind. I willed it away, suddenly wishing we could go back to the crunching and slurping.
I leaned my arms against the table. “What made you think of him just now?”
“We talked the other day when we got pizza.”
“What did you talk about?”
Heath drank the last of his milk straight from the bowl. “Just stuff.”
“Stuff like what?”
He hesitated. “I told him about Mom.”
Ugh.One more reason for Owen to feel sorry for us.
“You shouldn’t be talking about Mom to anyone.”
“Why not?”
“They won’t understand, and it’s no one’s business.”
“It’s not like I can avoid it. People are gonna start to wonder where she is if she doesn’t come back.”
I sighed. “Exactly how much did you tell him?”
“Just like…how this isn’t the first time she’s disappeared and stuff.”
I had to stop myself from scolding him again. The truth was, my feelings on the matter had to do withmytrauma, the shame I felt about having been abandoned by my own mother. I should’ve been asking myself what kind of mother takes off and leaves her child? Instead, my mind often twisted it towhat kind of child makes her mother want to leave?
