'What do you want? Do you want me to jump through
hoops? Is that it? Is that what you want?' He studied my
face and must have seen something in it, because al at
once his shoulders slumped. 'What kind of man does
that?'
Helplessly, I thought of Eric and the mingled heat of
shame, fury and desire mingled with despair. 'Some men
would.'
Austin tossed his hands in the air and made a noise that
had a depth of meaning, even without words. This time,
when he walked away, I watched him go and I didn't cal
him back.
him back.
The car ride back to my dad's was quieter, thank God, as
Tyler wound down. We made it home to a message on the
answering machine teling us they'd be home later than
expected. I sent Tyler upstairs to brush his teeth and get
into bed, but I held Jeremy back. It was proof of how
much Tyler was worn out that he barely argued.
'Sit.' I pointed at one of the bar stools pushed up against the kitchen island. 'Want a soda?'
'I'm not supposed to.'
I'd already puled out two from the fridge and pushed one
toward him. 'Yeah, yeah, save the innocent act for your
mother.'
We both cracked the tops of our cans. From upstairs
came the rush of water and some thudding footsteps, then
some singing. I laughed. Jeremy roled his eyes.
'So,' I said after I took a long swig. 'What crawled up your ass and died?'
'Nothing.'
I understood sulen. 'Dad says you've been giving him and
Stela a hard time. And that you even got into trouble at
school. What's up, dude?'
'Did Dad tel you to interrogate me?' Jeremy sneered and
didn't even open his soda.
'Ooh. Mr. Vocabulary.'
He scowled and hunched over the island. 'Why can't he
just leave me alone?'
'Because he's your dad.'
Jeremy had the same color eyes as my dad. As me. Blue
edged with gray. Now they'd gone dark with his anger.
'He's your dad, too!'
Of al the things he could have said, I wasn't expecting
something like that. 'Yeah. So?'
He shrugged violently and hunched forward again. I leaned
on the island across from him and waited. Jeremy had
used to be a lot like Tyler, mouth going a mile a minute. I
could wait him out.
'Don't you ever…hate him?'
He'd voiced his question so low I almost missed it, but I
didn't lean closer to hear better. I pushed back, instead,
