I understood. I still shuddered when I remembered what she’d been like after my dad had died. But ignoring all of Hunter’s dangerous faults wasn’t any better. I hoped she realized that before he sent her to the hospital.
As if sensing all the words I wasn’t saying, my mom sighed. “Everything will be better once we’re together. I promise.”
“Nina!” Hunter shouted from the living room. “More beer!”
“I gotta go, hon. See you soon. Love you.” She hung up before I could say it back.
I lowered the phone onto the bed, feeling drained.
“What happened?” Charlie looked up at my new bed canopy as if he didn’t really care to hear the answer.
How was he not picking up on the freakin’ horror show that just happened?
“My mom’s coming into town the day after tomorrow. With Hunter.” When he didn’t react, I added, “She wants to meet my new boyfriend.”
Finally, his gaze slid down to meet mine. “I thought you said you didn’t have a boyfriend.”
I blinked at him for a second, trying to figure out why he looked so guarded all of a sudden. I sputtered out a laugh when it hit me.
“You think I’m ashamed of you?” I took his shirt in both hands and pulled until we were nose to nose again. “I adore you, Charles Campbell. I didn’t tell my mom about us because I was trying to protect you. She likes to talk. A lot. Five minutes with her and you’ll be so exhausted you’ll pass the eff out.”
He relaxed against me. “You think so?”
“I know so.” I planted a kiss on his lips just as they started to curl. “Plus, she’d ask a million questions about Jasmine and your uncle, and I know how much you hate talking about them with strangers. I figured it would be in everyone’s best interest if I avoided introducing you to my mom for as long as possible.”
“Makes sense.”
“More sense than your crazy theory about me being ashamed of you, right?”
He wisely chose not to answer. “Guess our meeting’s inevitable now.”
“Yeah, well...” I released his shirt and tried to flatten out all the wrinkles I’d made. “Aunt Dinah’s convinced her you’re a good boy so my mom’s already given us her blessing.”
“People have to stop saying that about me,” Charlie muttered, “otherwise the word’ll spread and people at school might actually try talking to me.”
“Oh, don’t pretend like you ain’t freaking out about this as much as I am.” At his arched eyebrow, I huffed. “We’ve only been together for, like, a day and you’re already going to meet my mom and stepdad? This relationship is moving way too fast.”
“What’re you saying?”
The way he carefully smoothed away the emotion from his face made me think he was coming up with another crazy theory.
My hands slid around his waist. “I’m saying I wanted to enjoy being with you for at least a few months before you met my messed-up family and decided to run.” With each word, I came a tiny bit closer until my lips were a breath away from his. Then I started to lean away. “Unless you’d rather not deal with the drama and just break up now—”
His hands came up to capture my face, to stop me from putting any more distance between us. There was a fierce look in his eye, one that promised to rain down hell over whoever tried to come between us. “You think I’m looking for a way out?”
I grinned. “No, but you obviously think I am. You’ve braced yourself for a goodbye twice in the last five seconds.”
Some of the fire retreated from his eyes. His hands grew slack around my face. “Good things don’t generally happen to me, Esmer. And this…this is a really good thing. Too good almost.”
Staring deep into those fake brown contacts, I willed him to hear me. To believe. “I ain’t going nowhere, Charlie boy.” I kissed him hard.
Just when we were about to fall back into the mattress and pick up where we’d left off, Charlie’s phone started buzzing. I felt it vibrating against my thigh.
Grumbling curses, he climbed off of me and out of bed to wrestle it out of his pocket. He dropped the agitated scowl once he realized who was calling him. He shut his eyes, as if praying for patience, and then answered.
“Hey, Uncle Vic.” He nodded. “Yeah, I’m all right. I’m at Esmer’s. I know it’s a school night. I was just—” He rubbed his fingertips against his forehead. “I was going to text you but I forgot. Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” His eyes snapped open. “I tried to tell you before I left, but you were kind of busy with—” He lost his nerve at the last minute and stumbled over the next few words. “The coffee maker. Don’t worry. I’m on my way back. Yeah. Bye.” Charlie mashed the hang up button before falling backward, over my bed.
“It’s the night for tough phone calls, apparently.”
“No kidding.” He scrubbed his face. “Uncle Vic’s going to want to talk about what happened with Vanessa.” Then he chuckled. “For the first time ever, I don’t want to go home.”
“Just tell him the truth. You want him to be happy, right?”
He bobbed his head in a reluctant nod.
“It’ll turn out fine. You’ll see.” I leaned over to comb my fingers through his hair. “You’ll come by tomorrow?”
He smirked. “Course. If I don’t bring you your homework, who will?”
“Bring the Switch too.” I flicked his temple. “I can’t wait to kick your ass at Super Smash again.”
“Keep dreaming, red.”
We shared one more long, breathtaking kiss. Then he gathered his things, climbed out my window, and slipped down the drainpipe.
Chapter 30
Jasmine
Anthony was reviewing this week’s reading for my government class but I wasn’t paying much attention.
I’d stayed up all night, reading Angela Smith’s journal. I swear I saw the words written in
