Page 74 of Never After Us
“What should?”
“Talking that fast before sunrise.”
“It’s seven-thirty,” she announces proudly.“That’s when Mom allows me to come out of my room, not before.”
“You’re awake before seven-thirty?”
“Shh, it’s a secret.She claims it’s her time.”Mila rolls her eyes and climbs onto the armchair.“Mom usually wakes up early.Why are you awake before her?”
“I don’t know,” I mutter.“Back pain.Life.Regret.”
She nods very seriously.“Makes sense.”
“It does not,” I grumble.
She nudges the throw pillow closer to me like she’s offering first aid.“Did you sleep here because Mom was opening her boxes and got the allergies?”
“She has allergies?”I frown because I’m not sure what to do with that information.
She shrugs.“I’ve got them for dust mites and maybe she does too because that first time she went through the boxes she had red eyes.I noticed but she thinks I was asleep.”
“Well, I don’t know about allergies but I did help her with her boxes.”
“So, you’re staying?”she asks, giving me a suspicious look.
“Umm—”
“Mom says staying is important when people are sick.”Mila narrows her eyes.“Are you ...staying?”
I choke on air.“What?No.I mean—yes?Not like that.I mean, I stayed yesterday, not—okay, you’re eight, this is unfair.”
“I’m eight and three-quarters,” she corrects as if that three-quarters makes a world of difference.
“Even worse.”
She leans in.“Do you like my mom?”
I nearly fall off the couch.
“Do I—why would you—Mila—this is—” I rub both hands over my face.“It’s too early for this conversation.”
“So you do,” she says, delighted.
“I do what?”The words scrape out of me.This feels like a trap, and I’m walking straight into it.And the worst part?She knows it.
If I had any sense, I would’ve escaped last night—right after I got Mara into bed, right after her fingers went slack against my shirt, right after her breath softened and she leaned into me like she trusted me without meaning to.
I should’ve left, but here we are because I lingered.Yep.I lingered like an idiot.
I stood there longer than necessary, staring at the curve of her cheek on the pillow and wondering—just for a second—what it would feel like to bend down and kiss her goodnight.
It was a stupid thought.A dangerous one too.One I shouldn’t have let in at all.
Fuck, I’m doomed if I don’t escape somewhere tropical and stay there for an entire year.
“You like Mom?”she examines me.“You know, someday I’m going to leave for college and she’ll be by herself.It’d be nice if someone looked out for her.”
I’m speechless.
