Crushed (17 page)

Reece was sure that
, in some twisted way
, Landon
was a
lmost disappointed that
Reece
hadn’
t been at
Justin Miller
’s
New Year’s Eve party last year. T
he party that
had
got
ten
busted and
had
landed a record number of
his
classmates with minor consumptions on their records.
He
didn’t happen to be one of them. Why?
Because d
espite her protests that
he
should go to the party,
he
was hanging out at Cleo’s instead. Ironic because
he
kn
e
w without a doubt that had
he
been there and been caught,
he
would’ve lost
his
vehicle
.

What
he
did
n’t
bother to point out wa
s that while
Landon
had the nerve to call Cleo a gold digger, it
was actually Mia that “let
”
him
pay for every single date. She had
never even so much as offered
a single time
. And
more than
once
s
h
e’
d
had
Reece
put gas in her car. True,
he had his d
ad’s gas card
. B
ut that should be beside the point. And it
wasn’
t like Mia c
ouldn’t
afford it. Her parents
were
loaded. But
he didn’t
want to talk about Mia.

So
he
ke
pt
the conversation strictly on Cleo.

“I just…”
Beth
trailed off. “I don’t know what to say. I know that for a while, your dad was having
problems with Paul at work. Well, there were other problems too. W
ith the economy the way it is, w
e had a few big contracts fall through. Then with Paul stirring up problems, that
just made it worse. Your dad went through a bit of a rough time. I think he felt like
he was losing control at the factory. For a while, we thought we’d have to lay quite
a few people off. Luckily, it didn’t come to that
. B
ut your dad didn’t take it well. He didn’t want to be responsible for taking away
people’s livelihoods. I’m not saying that excuses him, it doesn’t,” she pointed out.
“But…well, for a while, it made him incredibly difficult to be around.”
Reece
k
new what she was referring to. Landon had
gotten so ‘difficult’ that she’d needed three months worth of space from him.
Reece had
heard the expression “midlife crisis” tossed around on a regular basis.
“I’m sure he didn’t mean what he said,” she finally tacked on.

“Mom,”
Reece
started.
He
was
annoyed and his
tone didn’t hide it. “H
e said he didn’t want Cleo in his house. His message was loud—emphasis on loud—and
clear. She heard it. I heard it. ‘I don’t want that girl in
my
house’ is a little hard to misunderstand.”

“Excuse me?”
Beth
said, her tone sharpening.

Reece
hesitat
ed for a minute. Beth was looking at him like he had
just cussed
.
He
ha
d
to think back real quick.
Had
he
let something slip? No.
He
was
pretty sure
he
hadn’t.

“His house?
His
house?” she repeat
ed
again
as she shook her head
. “Is he forgetting which one of us worked their bu
tt
off at two jobs for
years
to support him and help pay his way through grad school? Is he forgetting which one
of us
continued
to work their bu
tt
off because
someone
couldn’t find a job right away? Is he forgetting who put in just as much overtime
as he did those first few years when the factory was on shaky ground and we didn’t
know if we were going to make it?”

She was looking at Reece
like she really expect
ed
him
to have an answer. “Maybe?”
he
tried.

“He had no right to say she couldn’t be here. I don’t know what got into him. I just
can’t believe he’d go that far.” She let out a weary sigh as she
pinched the bridge of her nose
. “Reece, I’m so sorry. I had no idea things had gotten so bad with
you and your dad.
I mean, I know the two of you were struggling with the football situation. But that
had been going on for a while. And I know how disappointed he is that you aren’t interested
in the
business.
But still…I just can’t believe things got that bad. He should’ve left Cleo out of
it.”

Reece
just shrugg
ed.
He p
robably
should’ve said more.
But he
hadn’t been sure what else to say.
He had
thought she’d side with him.
He and his dad had
never really gotten along the best
. A
fter that night,
they
got along even worse.
In fact, Reece had started to go out of his way to avoid him altogether.

“I don’t believe it was Cleo that he had a problem with.
But h
e
did put her
in the middle of something that she had nothing to do with.”
Reece realized his mom hadn’t
looked th
at
mad since
he
backed her Escalade into the garage door. “Does this…” she carefully began, “does
it have anything to do with why you two broke up?”

Reece shook his
head, somehow wishing
he could blame it on his
dad. But
they
’d worked through that. “No. She wanted to date other people,”
he said as he
started messing
with the edge of the place
mat. It was the first time he
’d admit
ted it out loud to anyone. I
n those words, anyway.
He couldn’t believe he
was admitting it to
his
mom
.

She sighed. “That’s
not a bad idea, honey. You two we
re awfully young to be so serious.”

“Well,”
he
ground out, “we’re not serious anymore. So you should be happy about that.”

“I’m not happy. I just think,” she paused, obviously trying to choose her words carefully,
“that maybe this is a good thing. If it’s meant to be,” she shrugged, “it’ll be. Your
dad and I were pretty young when we met. I mean, we knew each other in high school.
But we didn’t start dating until that following summer.”

He
g
ave her a look to cut her off. He
was never in the mood to hear about
his
parents’ romance. Least of all now.

She sighed. “I just wish I’d known about this.”

Reece
shrugged. “I thought you knew. The way he talked, I thought you felt the same way.
That she came from a bad family and that I shouldn’t be involved with her.
”

She shook her head, appalled. “No, Reece, I had no idea. I know I only met Cleo a
few times but she seemed like a very sweet girl.
What happened with her mother was a shame
. And her step-father,”
Beth
shook
her head again. “W
ell,
he’s a real piece of work
. But Cleo can’t be blamed for his actions.”

“Why didn’t you ever invite
her
over for dinner?”
he
wanted to know.

“Anytime I even tried to bring up Cleo, you
became
defensive. You never let me get out more than a few words. I thought you felt like
I was prying into your relationship or something. Knowing what Cleo ha
d
been through, I just let it go. I thought you were just being extra protective of
her.”

“I was,”
he
admitted. But that was only because
he
had thought
he
was facing the same onslaught from
his
mom as
he
always did from
his
dad.
He
knew exactly what she was talki
ng about. She’d bring up Cleo, he
’d cut her off, assuming she was going to say things
he
didn’t want to hear and
he
’d storm out of the room.

“Also,”
Beth
added on, “the first time I met Cleo she told me about Luci. I thought she needed
to be home all the time so Luci wasn’t alone. I thought that was why you spent all
of
your time there and not here.” Beth
g
ave
him
a bewildered look. “I wish I would’ve known. Things would’ve been a whole lot different.”

He
t
ried
to smile
.
He
was
grateful for her support. E
ven if it
was
late in coming. “Too late now,”
he
ha
d
to admit.

She shook her head. “I should’ve been paying more attention. I guess…I guess I was
just distracted by things going on in my own life,” she admitted.

Reece didn’t blame her for that one bit.

“Such a shame,”
Beth
sa
id
as she sadly sh
ook
her head. “I really did like that girl. I just had no idea that Landon
was so harsh. I mean, he did talk to me
about the troubles with Paul
. But he had to have known that wasn’t Cleo’s fault.”

Reece
scoffed. R
udely.
Beth
gave
him
a look but
he
ignored it.

“Dad
also
thinks it’s Cleo’s fault that I quit football.”
He didn’t
have to explain the reason to
his mom
again.
He had already discussed it with
her and she seemed to understand. But
his dad
?
Reece knew his dad would
never accept that
he
quit because of
him
. Spending time with Cleo had nothing to do with it. “I didn’t quit because of Cleo.”

“I know,”
Beth said. And Reece
knew she did.

“He also blames Cleo for
me not wanting to work at the mill
. He
also
thought it was her fault I didn’t want to go away to school.”

“Your dad told me about t
he
Northwestern
application,” she
said. “I wish you would’ve told us earlier.”

Reece
shrugged. “What would’ve been the point? The way I see it, it would’ve just given
him an extra year or two to shove it at me. As long as I let him think I was interested,
he left me alone about it.
When I tried telling him last spring, he blew up. He told me he wasn’t going to allow
me to throw my future away over some girl.
”

Beth
sighed. “We always thought you
wanted
to go to
Northwestern
. We thought you
wanted
to take over the business someday.”

“I didn’t. I still don’t,”
Reece
reaffirmed. “I just didn’t want to fight about it any sooner than I had to.
You remember how bad it was around here when Amanda said she had no i
nterest? And then Chelsey? I kne
w it would be ten times worse when it came to me. I didn’t want to deal with his tirade
s
. But I’ve had my mind made up for a long time. Before Cleo and I were together. I
told him that. He didn’t listen.” Not exactly a surprise.