Page 16 of Malaise

“I guess thank you is in order,” I say as I slot the key in the lock. “But it doesn’t seem enough.”

He pushes off the front wall and takes a step toward me. “Hey, you don’t have to say anything.”

“I do,” I insist, hesitating with the handle turned. “You didn’t have to call Tanya, or help me out at the bonfire. Shit, you didn’t even have to say hello to the sad girl on the log, but you did, and….” Damn the recurring restriction in my throat. “And it meant a lot.”

He takes me by surprise and reaches out a hand to run his fingers in a gentle sweep along my jaw. “You’re a strange creature, Meg, but I like you.” An awkward moment passes with me stunned silent, my hand still on the door, before he turns and jogs down the porch steps.

I step inside, head spinning from more than just my burgeoning hangover, and pause when he calls up the path, “Don’t forget to ring next weekend, even if you are busy with… you know.”

Shell-shocked by the man who’s just made himself a fixture in my life, I watch as he ducks his large frame into the front passenger seat of the Falcon. Tanya starts the engine, and as they pull away, Carver throws a hand out the window to wave over the roof.

I close my eyes, the pain so real at having to let go of a night of distraction and enter back into the fresh hell that awaits me. My breaths come steady and even as I do my best to prime myself for the inevitable. Ten, nine, eight, seven—

“Where the hell have you been?” Dad’s low question resonates off the walls of the entrance and shakes its way through my skin to settle deep in my bones.

“Out.” I open my eyes and murmur, “I’m ready to talk now.”