Crushed (16 page)

Reece’s face was
a curious blend of fury and disbelief
as
they
walked toward his vehicle
. “Did that old
guy keep
grab
bing your ass?” he asked
her
in a hard voice.

“Um
, yeah,”
she
admit
ted as
she
hoisted
her
self up into the passenger seat
.
“He did it a few times
.”

Reece clenched his jaw
.
She
knew with certainty that if the man wasn’t nearly a century old
,
he wouldn’t be taking it quite so well.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s okay,”
she
said.

He scrunched his face into something unpleasant. “It’s
okay
?”

She
had
to laugh because Reece
was
taking this way too seriously
. T
he guy
was
harmless. Well unless he decide
d
to use his cane as a weapon, he might not be so harmless then. “No, it’s not actually
okay. It’s just not worth getting all worked up over. Besides, he k
ept
telling me not
to trust the Germans
. A
nd he call
ed
me Lucille. I’m not so sure he even knows what
century
it is let alone whose ass he’s grabbing.”

Reece’s frown twist
ed
around in the other direction until he
was
almost smiling. Almost. Without meaning to,
her
hand float
ed
up to his arm
. H
is smile br
oke
out all t
he way.

“Don’t worry about it. ’
Kay?”
she
asked, trying to keep the mood light.

He grabbed
her
hand, holding it in place where it was resting on his elbow. “Not possible,” he said.
“When it comes to you, I’ll always worry.”

Chapter
1
0

Mia
had been
furious that Reece had driven Cleo to their
assignment.
He had
tried calling her a few times
the night before
to let her know
. S
he never answered
her phone
. H
e had finally given up and sent her a text
. It wasn’t like
he
was keeping it from her
.
A lot
of the other people rode with their partners as well. But
yes, he understood
why she
might have a reason to be
mad. Still, that didn’t mean it was okay for her to go off on a verbal tirade over
Cleo
after
they had
got
ten
back. She
had
said things to
Cleo
that
she had no business saying before she
had
stormed away.

Reece had
spent the rest of th
e day
avoiding Mia and
trying to put
the confrontation
out of his
mind.

The house smelled amazing when
he
walked
inside. He
could hear
his mom
working in the kitchen.
He
figured she must be making something Italian.

“Reece?” she called.

“What?” 
he asked as he
gav
e up hope of sneaking downstairs.
Instead, he headed toward the kitchen.

“How
is the first week of school going
?”
she asked as she looked up from her chopping.

“
Fine
,”
he
admitted noncommittally.

She
raised her eyebrows in question. She was
waiting for an elaboration that
he
wasn’t interested in giving.

“I didn’t think you’d be
home so early
,” she noted. She
was
arranging vegetables over the top of a pile of spinach to make her salad look like
a piece of art. One thing
he could
say about
his mom
was that she was
a great cook. And like with
much of the rest of her life, a lot of it was
about
the
presentation.

“
I have a lot of homework.” That was always a good answer.

“I thought maybe you’d go over to Mia’s,”
Beth
said as she took a break from her vegetable masterpiece
.
“You’ve been spending a lot of time with her. You must be getting pretty serious.”

He had
been to her house twice this week
.
He
shrugged
.
It wasn’t good enough. She
was
looking at
him
with raised eyebrows, her palm full of sliced up radishes.

“Sure,”
he finally said as he
tried to give her an answer.

“Good. I’m so glad to hear that,” she said, smiling to prove it.

“Why?”
he
asked.
He
was
suddenly defensive without meaning to be.
He
was sure her smile about
his
status with Mia ha
d
something to do with Cleo.

He
was right.

“Because you were so miserable at the start of the summer,” she carefully answered.
“I’m glad to see you’re finally moving on.”

He
nodded.
Right
. That’s what
he thought. She was
glad
he was
putting Cleo in the past.
Three months and counting….

“I’d really like to meet Mia. Maybe you could invite her over for din
ner this weekend. Sunday night?
”
his mom hopefully
suggested.

“No,”
he
said
without even thinking about it.
He turned to leave.

“Reece,” his mom’s tone was meant to stop him. It worked and he turned around. She
sighed. “Why not? Are you that embarrassed by us?”

He
didn
’t know for sure if she
was
joking. Or maybe
trying
to be sarcastic?
But she
was
looking at
him like she was
serious. “No, why would I be embarrassed by you?”
he
asked, not sure what to make of her question.

She shrugged. “First you wouldn’t bring Cleo here and now you won’t bring Mia here.
All that time you were with Cleo and I only got to meet her…what? Three, four times?
And I’ve yet to meet Mia. What am I supposed to think?”

“I wasn’t
allowed
to bring Cleo here,”
he
bitterly reminded her.

Beth
walked the salad over to the fridge and popped it in. Then sh
e made her way over to where
he
was
leaning against the counter and looked right at
him
. Confusion
was
etched
across her face.

“What do you mean by that?” she demanded.

He stared at her because he wasn’t sure what she wanted him
to say.
It seemed
pretty self- explanatory to
him
.  She stare
d
right back, still waiting. “Cleo wasn’t allowed here,”
he
repeated. Was
he
not clear the first time?

Beth shook her head and looked at him
like
he
’d suddenly learned French. “Says who?”

“You and Dad!”
he
almost shouted at her.
He
managed to tone it down a bit. Jus
t thinking about it, even now, he go
t pissed off all over again.
And after the day he’d had, he was already on edge before this conversation even
started.

She stood there, studying
his
face like she
didn’t
understand what
he
was
saying.

“What would ever give you that idea?” she finally asked.

“Are you kidding me?”
he
shot back.

“Reece,” she said calmly, “I want you to change your tone. But I do think you need
to tell me what you’re talking about because I really have no idea.”

“Dad told me I wasn’t allo
wed to bring Cleo here,”
he
said. It was a struggle
to keep
his
tone in check
.
He
wasn’t
sure he
was succeeding.

Beth
sh
ook her head. L
ike she couldn’t have heard him
right
. Or like she didn’t believe
him.
W
hich kind of
set
him
off all over again
.

“When?”

He
just stood there, looking at her for a minute thinking she’d remember on her own.
Reece wondered
,
H
ow could she forget
? “Pretty much right after we started dating. Don’t pretend you don’t know how much
Dad disliked her.”

“Reece,” she said in a reprimanding tone, “I think you’re exaggerating.”

A sarcastic laugh bolted out of
his
mouth. “Exaggerating?”

A memory of one night in particular dump
ed
itself into
his
head. That was the last night Cleo
had come to his
house. At le
ast, while
his
parents were home. A
nd even then, when they would leave for the weekend to visit one of
his
sisters,
he
could still tell she didn’t feel comfortable being here. “I’m not exaggerating.”

“Then maybe you misunderstood.”
Beth was
frowning
.

Reece was
already shaking
his
head in disagreement.

“No. I didn’t. He was pretty point-blank.”

“Come on, let’s sit down,” she said as she made her way to the table.
They took their
usual dinner seats so
Reece was
sitting right across from her.

“Tell me exactly what your father said about Cleo.”

So
he
did.
He
told her everything. H
ow Landon was on his
case about Cleo all the time.
For the most part, he tried to ignore it. B
ut there was one night, one awful night, when he made a scene specifically so that
Cleo would hear.
Reece still go
t a little sick when
he thought
about
it.
But
he told his mom
about it, holding nothing back.

Landon had
also accused Cleo of ruining
Reece’s
social life. It was hardly ruined, it was just different
, Reece explained
. Like it was a bad thing that
he
chose to spend time at Cleo’s and not out partying.
Like it was embarrassing to
Landon
that
Reece
didn’t make
him
self part of the party crowd.