CHAPTER FOUR
It was just before seven when Dex pulled the Highlander down a coastal lane past the beach town of Manzanita. Uncle Al’s property took up a large chunk of land that I was sure the state was eager to own. There were pastures and an abandoned barn where an old dairy farm used to be, a couple of miles of beachfront, as well as a small forest that dipped into the shores of Nehalem Bay. And, of course, somewhere on the bluffs, the charred remains of a lighthouse that may or may not have blown up on our behalf.
“God, this is weird,” Dex said under his breath as we parked at the end of Uncle Al’s driveway. The house, a large rancher, looked the same, and my twin cousins, Matt and Tony, had their two cars parked outside. I remembered Matt’s truck well—Dex and I had to share the backseat together rather awkwardly.
“Oh, it wasn’t awkward for me,” Dex said with a knowing smirk as he jammed the Highlander in park.
I flushed at the unexpected intrusion. “Could you hear me think that?”
He slid his hand across the steering wheel. “First time in a while, but it was so worth it.”
“You heard her thoughts?” Rebecca asked, leaning forward. “Lucky duck. I never hear anything.”
I gave her a look. “You know you’re not missing out.”
“Well now I want to know what wasn’t awkward.”
Dex turned to her. “Perry and I were squeezed in the back of that old truck there while we went down the road. Her boobs were banging around from the potholes and I was trying to keep my massive erection hidden.”
She wrinkled her face. “Ugh. Nevermind, you guys keep your thoughts to yourself.”
I frowned, both turned on and strangely flattered. “You had an erection from that?”
Rebecca’s manicured nails fluttered in my face. “I said, keep your bloody thoughts to yourself. I don’t want to hear about anyone’s erections. Boobs, maybe.”
Dex sighed. “Rebecca, you’re missing out on so many beautiful wonders about the male body.” He gave me a sly look. “And yes, I had a hard-on most of the time I was around you. Why do you think I was so fidgety? It wasn’t always the meds, baby. It was your tits and ass and face and everything else I thought I could never have.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that, at finding out what he first thought of me. And now I wanted to prod him for more. God, I was such a doofus.
Fortunately Rebecca was spared from further tidbits because the front door to the house swung open and Uncle Al appeared in the doorway, eyeing us suspiciously like we were lost tourists or trespassers.
I took in a deep breath. “We better get out and say hello before he pulls a Clint Eastwood on us.”
We climbed out of the car, the scent of the dunes and meats grilling on the BBQ bringing me back again.
I’d last seen my uncle and cousins in December, so there wasn’t much difference to them over the last six months. But oh, wait. Behind the jovial grin of Uncle Al and his thinning slicked back hair was the look of a man in peace, a man in love. Before I had a chance to wonder if he was still with the woman he had been seeing, I saw her appear behind him: a tiny woman with vivid eyes and a long, delicate face. Marda, I think her name was.
I quickly tugged down the sleeve of my shirt, planning to keep my tattoo hidden from him until my parents had a chance to see it.
“Perry!” my uncle exclaimed, throwing his arms open. As if I were a little girl again, I ran over to him with a shy smile on my lips and threw myself into his embrace. He smelled like this strong cologne he always wore but I inhaled the scent anyway.
“Hey, Uncle Al,” I said as I pulled away, looking up at him. “You’re looking great.” A little bit tubbier but I wasn’t one to talk. Looks like we’d both put on the “love pounds.”
“Perry, bella,” he said, giving me another quick hug. “You’re still blind, I see.” He winked at me and then turned to his lady friend. “You remember Marda, of course?”
“Of course,” I said, offering my hand to her but she pulled me into a hug instead. I felt like I was crushing her bones. “Nice to see you again.”
I looked behind me at Dex and Rebecca who were hovering between us and the car. Dex was trying to smile but I could tell he was nervous; he’d taken off his hat and was holding it anxiously in his hands. You’d think he was about to meet the President or something. It was actually damn endearing.
“This is Dex and Rebecca,” I said, though I knew he knew who Dex was. He knew very well. Not just because of the ruckus we caused in his lighthouse, but because he saw how in love with Dex I had been. He was the one who told me that my infatuation for him was creating a hole in my heart and that I’d get hurt and be stronger for it. Well, he was kind of right about all that.
“Hello, Dex,”my uncle said, walking toward him to shake his hand. Dex smiled sincerely and I could tell he was giving him one hell of a handshake. It was a lot different than the first time they met. Dex was really trying to make a better impression.
“Thanks for having us over,” Dex said. “Really appreciate it.”
Oh boy, was he ever trying.
Even Uncle Al seemed a bit taken aback, raising his brows before shrugging. “It’s no problem at all. When Perry said she was coming for a visit, I was overjoyed. We all were. We never get to see her anymore.” I detected a bit of strain in his voice when he said that, probably thinking about his brother. I wondered how often he talked to my parents and if they talked about me. I guess I’d have to pry him for info after he had a few glasses of wine.
The rest of the introductions to Rebecca and Marda were quickly made before we made our way into Uncle Al’s cozy living room to have a drink. The twins were nowhere to be seen; apparently they were at the beach trying to impress some neighborhood girls, much to Uncle Al’s dismay. He said Tony and Matt were still a bunch of troublemakers, and when you added women to the mix, it usually ended in disaster.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Dex joked as he sat down on the loveseat. He looked up at me with an expectant expression, wanting me to sit with him. To tell you the truth, I hesitated. With Rebecca taking an armchair and my uncle and Marda on the couch, there wasn’t anywhere else for me to go, but I didn’t want to immediately announce to Uncle Al that Dex and I were a couple. I mean, I figured he knew since I was living in Seattle, but then again, I had no idea how much my uncle knew about the falling out.
Dex didn’t let me hesitate for long. He reached up and pulled me down by the arm until I was sitting back in the loveseat and his arm was placed snuggly around me. I dared to meet Uncle Al’s eyes. He was staring at us with judgement. Figures. But before I could feel uncomfortable about it, he wiped the expression off his face, as if he realized he was doing it, and got off the couch.
He pointed at me and Dex. “What do you two want? Beer? Wine?”
We both took a beer while Rebecca went for a small glass of wine. The wine would be better on my figure but beer was easier.
We lapsed into easy chit-chat, most of the attention on Rebecca since she was from England, and Uncle Al waxed poetic about his time living there when he was a “young lad.” Rebecca wasn’t always the most talkative person but she certainly was tonight, maybe because she felt awkward, maybe because the whole situation was still a teeny bit awkward in general. Yeah, the whole elephant in the room? It was languidly parked behind Uncle Al’s couch and no one would dare to look at it.
Finally Matt and Tony came home to alleviate some of the tension. Like, straight up. >
“So you two are shacking up now,” Tony said as he nodded to Dex. “Cool.”
I rolled my eyes. “I live with Dex, if that’s what you mean.” I quickly eyed Uncle Al who just clucked his tongue and excused himself to go check on the grill. Marda followed after him, the screen door swinging shut.
“I had a feeling this would happen,” Matt said as he grabbed a beer from the fridge. Though they were under twenty-one, the rules were always lax for them.
“You did?” I asked.
He grabbed an extra can of beer for Dex and threw it at him. Dex caught it without looking, also eager to hear what Matt had to say.
“Totally,” Matt went on, leaning against the counter and cracking the beer open with a loud snap. “Don’t you guys ever see those movies where the girl and the guy are, like, under duress,” he said duress like he just learned it from his Word of the Day toilet paper, “and they totally hit it off after? Like Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Meet on a bus. Bus gets a bomb on it. They make out. Awesome flick, even today.”
Dex grinned and then took a large swig of beer. “Thanks, man. I think Keanu Reeves is a fine actor if you put him on mute. Otherwise, it’s…”
And then Dex launched into his repertoire of Keanu impersonations. They weren’t half bad, and I’d heard a lot of them before, but when the twins encouraged him to try talking like Jeff Goldblum, I had to draw the line.
Luckily Uncle Al came back in with the grilled chicken and everyone gathered around the table before Dex could continue talking about Chaos Theory.
“So, Perry,” Tony said as we all dug into the food. The chicken was grilled perfectly—no surprise there. Uncle Al took the barbeque to a new art. Summer was almost here, but I knew he’d been using the grill all winter long.
“So, Tony,” I said to him, pointing my fork at him with a smile.
He looked to me, Dex, and Rebecca. “Tell me again why you’re here. I mean, in Oregon. On the coast. It’s another episode, right?”
I felt defensive for one second before I remembered that both Matt and Tony watched the show and totally believed in what we were seeing—and doing.
My shoulders relaxed. “Yeah, it’s a haunted school.”
“No way,” said Matt. “Not the one in Gary that used to house the sick kids.”
“The very one,” Rebecca said. It was the first thing she’d really said to them other than, “Hi, I’m Rebecca,” and the twins eyes flew to her and her cherry-print dress.
“And you’re the new partner,” Tony said, trying not to drool. “You know, I used to watch you on Wine Babes all the time.”
I groaned internally. I felt like I was about to have f*cking déjà vu.
“Were you ever in Maxim like Jennifer was?” Tony asked.
Yup. Déjà vu. My upper lip involuntarily curled. Dex put his hand on my knee. Uncle Al looked at me with a dry expression.
Rebecca let out a laugh. “Me, in Maxim? Oh mercy, I’m not a bloody whore, you know. My tits and arse aren’t for the world to see.”
And Rebecca saved the day.
“That’s a shame,” Tony supplied.
“Anthony!” Uncle Al warned. “Eat your damn food and shut up.”
“Back to the ghosts,” Matt said, always the smarter one. He eyed me closely. “Have you been there before? It’s really f*cking creepy.”
“Language, Matthew,” Uncle Al said.
Matt took a long gulp of his beer, staring at his dad over it before saying, “Whatever, Dad.”
“No, I haven’t,” I said. I haven’t been to Oregon for months, I wanted to say. “But apparently all the hauntings started recently.”
“Don’t you think that’s odd?” he asked, leaning forward like it was a conspiracy theory.
“Why?”
He took a lazy bite of chicken. “I don’t know. We always knew about that place…our friends live in Gary and they’d go there at night, way before it was a school. They said they’d see soccer balls going down the dark hallways by themselves and shit. They’d hear, like, the wheels of a gurney being pushed. Children crying. It’s just funny that the school has been operating for a while and only now they think there are ghosts.”
I thought back to the teacher, Brenna McSomething, who reported the hauntings. I had to wonder if she was anything like Dex and I, if her very presence caused things to happen. And if her being there caused the hauntings to increase…what would it be like for Dex and I?
“Perry?” Dex asked gently, his hand pressing down on my leg.
I looked up at him and his deep, dark eyes, and realized that everyone else was staring at me. “Sorry,” I said. “Must have zoned out.”
“Matthew, please stop with this ghost talk,” Uncle Al chided him. “It’s not appropriate for dinner.”
Matt mumbled an insincere sorry and Marda quickly took over the conversation by asking us if we were hooked on any TV shows. Rebecca, her, and Tony got in an argument over Breaking Bad for a bit until it was time for dessert.
Dex leaned into me, his breath hot on my neck. “I really hope they’re serving pie,” he murmured.
I flushed from my head to my toes and bit my lip. I shot him a sly glance, glad my hair was shielding my red cheeks from everyone else. “You remember that, do you?”
His gaze intensified, mouth parting open. “You have no idea. Of course, you were the one who was baking it.”
“You know you can have pie any time you want,” I teased him.
“Are we talking p-ssy or pie right now?”
I giggled, hoping no one could hear him. “Take your pick.”
Alas, it wasn’t pie but plain old ice cream with chocolate syrup. I opted out of it, relishing another beer instead. As soon as we were all finished, Rebecca and her impeccable manners started taking all the plates over to the sink to do the dishes, and naturally I had to help her.
Meanwhile, Dex took that moment to pour Uncle Al another glass of wine and ask him if he could speak with him, in private.
Rebecca and I exchanged a look as my uncle agreed, looking as surprised as we were, and the two of them walked out of the kitchen and into the backyard that overlooked the beach. I could barely make them out through the window above the sink.
“What’s going on?” I asked Rebecca. “I know he hates doing the dishes but…”
She glanced out the window, watching as their shapes disappeared into the darkening sky, then busied herself with the scrubber brush. “Oh, I don’t know. I guess Dex just wants to make a good impression, that’s all.”
“Did he tell you that?”
She paused for a moment before scrubbing at a tough stain. “Not in so many words. But he’s here for you, Perry. He just wants everything to be okay. And he wants your family to accept him. He knows it’s an uphill battle but you know Dex. He’s determined once he puts his mind to something.”
I know I doubted Dex every now and then but hearing that really made me feel good inside. Solid. I could only hope that whatever he was saying to Uncle Al, that my uncle was being nice about it all.
They were only out there for five minutes before they came back inside. Uncle Al came in first, his face red, but whether it was from wine or anger, I didn’t know. Dex followed shortly after, his beer almost empty and dangling loosely from his fingers. While my uncle disappeared into the living room where the twins were watching a movie with Marda, Dex loitered in the kitchen for a moment. He didn’t meet my eyes, and instead pulled out a chair and sat down.
I glanced at Rebecca, who gave Dex a strangely sympathetic glance before she turned back to the dishes.
“Dex,” I said quietly.
He looked up. His face was open, expression blasé, but there was something troubling about his eyes. They looked haunted.
“Are you okay?”
He smiled but it failed to make his eyes crinkle. “Yeah, I’m fine. Bit of heartburn though.”
“Maybe it’s the beer,” Rebecca suggested.
He answered that by finishing it off and getting back up. He headed for the front door. I hastily put down the plate I was drying and ran after him, stopping him just as he put his hand on the knob.
“Where are you going?” I asked, feeling suddenly uneasy about his change in mood.
“Got a bit of a chill,” he explained, looking over my shoulder toward the living room. “Summer’s not here yet. I have my jacket in the car. I’ll be back.” He leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the cheek before stepping out into the night.
I went back to helping with the dishes but wasn’t the least bit surprised to see that Dex didn’t come back in until we were done and watching some lame ass Ben Stiller movie with everyone else. There was no room beside me on the couch, so he sat on the ground, his legs stretched out in front of him. He wasn’t even watching the movie; instead, he was staring blankly at a spot on the carpet.
I felt a pair of eyes on me and looked over to see Uncle Al staring from across the room. It took everything I had to keep from glaring at him in return. I came here hoping to make amends with at least part of my family. I had no idea what the hell my uncle was thinking, but whatever he heard about me from my parents, it was obvious that it was affecting him in some way. If he said something upsetting to Dex, I could damn well count on him feeling the same way about me.
I waited until the movie was over before I decided to confront him.
“I really hope you don’t mind sleeping on the couch,” Marda said to Rebecca as she started to pull the bed from it.
“Perry and I would be happy to take the couch if Rebecca wants the guest bedroom instead,” Dex said. To hell with that, I wanted privacy to talk with Dex about what was going on. But while the three of them were having a debate over it, I took the moment to ask Uncle Al if he had any Sleepytime tea.
He gave me a curious look but walked into the kitchen where I followed him. He pulled open a cupboard and started riffling through tea boxes. “Marda is the tea drinker in the house now. Are you sure you don’t want a glass of wine? Always helps me.”
“Nah,” I told him, leaning against the counter. “Wine only makes my body sleepy but it doesn’t quiet the mind.”
“Having trouble sleeping?”
“Can you blame me?” I asked directly.
He paused, box of chamomile tea in hand before placing it in front of me. “I’m afraid this is the most relaxing tea we have. I can ask Marda if we have anything else.”
I quickly reached out and grabbed his arm. “No, don’t bug her about it, it’s no bother. Chamomile is just fine.” I glanced at the living room where I could still hear them arguing over the couch. Rebecca seemed to be whining, given the rising pitch of her voice. “Look, I was hoping I could talk to you. You know, niece to uncle.”
He sighed quietly. “Right. I thought you might want to. Well, I want to talk to you too.”
Interesting. I nodded. “Okay then. Shoot.”
He lips twisted wryly, an expression that made him look a lot like my dad when he was getting into scholarly mode. “You asked me first. The table is all yours.” He gestured to it, and while I sat down, he put the kettle on and pushed a box of ladyfingers in front of me. “Eat. You could use it.”
I tried not to laugh. What was it with Italians thinking everyone but the most obese person was severely underfed? Still, I picked one up and nibbled at the chocolate coating while I tried to think of the best way to ask.
“I was just wondering,” I began slowly, keeping my voice low so that the rest of the house wouldn’t hear me, “what my parents have said to you. You know, if anything. If you know what happened.”
He sat down across from me and rubbed at the lines in his forehead. “I know what happened.”
“And? What was that? What did they say?”
“I talked to your father, mainly. Your mom didn’t have much to say to me. She never really does, to be honest with you, Perry.”
“Well, you and me both.”
“They love you very much. You do know that, don’t you?”
I felt a sting of tears behind my eyes. “I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “I guess they do, like every parent has to.”
“No parent has to love their kids, Perry. It’s a conscious decision. They love you because they do, not just because you’re their daughter. They just don’t understand you. They worry. They’re afraid for you, that you’re making all the wrong choices.”
I felt myself stiffen. “I’m not making wrong choices. I’m making the only choice.”
He let out a breath. “The way they see it, the way your father told me, was that you were very ill…mentally ill. It was enough for them to really worry.”
That was putting it mildly. I was f*cking possessed!
“And then when you were doing better, just as you got back and were recovering, you decided to leave and go live with the very man who put you in that terrible position.”
“They don’t know Dex,” I said, the anger rising in me. I struggled to keep my voice down. “They don’t know him, but if they did, they’d see he’s the only one who loves me unconditionally. He’s always been there for me.”
“Except when he wasn’t.”
I opened my mouth, ready to spew venom, but he raised his hand in a manner that made me shut up, like he was some mob boss.
“Perry, you can’t pretend what happened to you didn’t happen. You can’t pretend he didn’t break your heart like I told you he would.” >
I shook my head. “He did. I know, but people make mistakes. They deserve second chances.”
“You’re right. And I agree with you,” he said, giving me a hard, steady look like he was trying to freeze me in place. “But not when you’re not well.”
“I am well. I’ve never been happier.”
“I can see that,” he said simply.
“Perry?” I heard Dex’s voice from the other room and spun around in the chair. He came out of the living room and poked his head in the kitchen while Uncle Al got up and poured me my tea. “I’m going to bed now. Becs won the great couch debate. You going to be long?” His eyes went to Uncle Al and back to me, that strange haunted look coming back into them.
I shook my head. “I’m just getting tea. I’ll come to bed soon.”
He stared at me for a few moments.
Don’t worry about me, I thought hard, trying to project it on him. I don’t know if it worked or not. He just nodded sharply and said goodnight to both of us.
Once I heard the door to the spare room close, Uncle Al put the tea down across from me. “Careful, it’s hot.”
I blew on it for a long time before taking a scalding sip.
My uncle leaned back in his chair. “So what else do you want to know?”
I felt frustrated at the conversation and fidgeted in my seat. “I don’t know. That, I guess. I wanted to know what they said. I guess they think I went off with Dex because I’m crazy.”
“Perry, they just want you to come home, that’s all.”
“I’m twenty-three. My mom wanted me out of the house for the longest time, how could they want me back?”
“They don’t think you know what’s best for yourself at the moment.”
I nearly smacked my hand down on the table but refrained myself. “I know what’s best for me more than anyone else. I’m not crazy. I had a moment or two there but that’s over.”
“Is it?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you mean? Of course it is.”
“And yet you keep putting yourself in these positions.”
“What positions?”
He folded his hands on the table. “My brother told me what you and your sister were saying, that it was possession. Demonic possession. You know Daniel discounted that off the bat, because of his beliefs. But you know my beliefs. You knew what I felt about that lighthouse. I have no doubt that if you keep opening yourself up to this…this job of yours, that you’re just putting yourself more at risk.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. “You believe that I was possessed?” I asked quietly. I wasn’t sure that I could trust Uncle Al with the truth. We all played it off like I was delirious with a fever, all so my parents wouldn’t fear I was following in Pippa’s footsteps and have me committed. What if Uncle Al was baiting me? What if he’d tell my parents what I really thought, what I knew, happened?
I cleared my throat and continued before he could answer. “Well I wasn’t possessed. I was just delirious. My parents made a bigger deal about all of it than they should have. And I didn’t want to live in that. Living with Dex made perfect sense and I don’t regret a minute of it. I just wish they could see that I know what I’m doing.”
He stared at me for a few moments before shrugging, as if all the world had been on his shoulders. I knew he didn’t believe the act but I was giving him no choice. “When you see them, you can tell them that yourself.”
I took another sip of my tea, the liquid burning my tongue and doing the opposite of making me sleepy. When my mouth recovered, I asked him, “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“I think we’ve already covered part of it,” he said. His eyes drifted over my shoulder to the empty hallway. “Perry, I’m your uncle. I’m not your father. I know that doesn’t stop me from giving you advice though so I’m just going to talk. You can listen or you won’t listen, it’s all the same. I want you to be happy. But I also want you to stay happy. To think about your future.”
“Okay,” I drew out, thinking he sounded like he was going into a pitch for a high-interest savings account.
He sighed and reached for a cookie, weighing it in his hands. “I just don’t want you to do anything foolish.”
I raised my brows. “That’s kind of vague.”
“Dex is foolish,” he said quickly, his words sharp like needles. “You may think you’re in love with him, and I believe you are, and I also believe the man is in love with you, but…come on, bella, you have to step back from the situation for just one second and try and see it all from someone else’s perspective.”
I swallowed hard, a ball of fire expanding painfully in my chest. “Someone else like my parents?”
“They’re older, they’ve been there, we’ve all been there. You’re living with this man that you barely even know, a man who just broke your heart and ruined you.”
“Barely even know?” I managed to say. “I know Dex, okay? I know him more than anyone in this world.”
“Perry,” he said, his voice tinged with impatience. “When was the last time you were here? Think about it.”
I blinked stupidly. “Uh, September?”
“Right. September. You came here with Dex in September. What month is it now?”
“May,” I said, my throat tightening.
“And how many months is that?”
I stared at him, unwilling to count. “I don’t know.”
“It’s eight months. You’ve known this guy for eight months.”
Holy f*cking shit. Was that true? I’d only met Dex eight months ago? It felt like I’d known him for years, ages, eternity. After everything we’d been through…every episode, every experience, it fused our souls together, time be damned.
“It feels longer than that,” I said feebly. But I wouldn’t let him, my parents, win this argument. I straightened up in my seat and looked my uncle in the eye. “But so what? Lots of couples move in together when the moment is right. It’s different for every relationship. It doesn’t have to be a big deal.”
“It will turn into a big deal when you commit to someone you realize you don’t know at all. I’m divorced for a reason. Don’t think I didn’t think like you at one point.”
I gave him a funny look. “I live with Dex, Uncle Al. That’s it. We’re not getting married. We’ve barely discussed the future at all. Calm down.”
His eyes widened for a split second. “He’s thirty-two. You’re twenty-three.”
“Age doesn’t matter.”
“It does sometimes. It does when you assume that just because you’re not thinking of the future doesn’t mean he isn’t.”
I nearly laughed. Uncle Al clearly didn’t know Dex at all. “He just got out of a long-term relationship. He’s not thinking about that shit.”
“And are you?”
I stared at the wisps of steam coming off the mug of tea. Christ, I didn’t know what I was thinking half the time. I wasn’t about to tell him about my white picket fence idea, the conversation we had about doing something after EIT, about houses in Seaside, Boston, or wherever I said. I wasn’t going to tell him about the maternal instinct that started kicking about when I saw him being a fur baby daddy to Fat Rabbit.
“I…”I started. “I’m just playing it by ear.”
He shook his head slightly. “You’re in love, Perry. You’re head over heels. You’re playing it by heart, not ear. Like you always do.”
“Well what the hell do you want me to say? If I say I think about a future with him, you’ll get mad, and if I say I don’t, you’ll call me a liar.”
His eyes softened and reached out for my hand across the table. “Bella, please. I’m not mad. I just want to pull you out of it for just a moment, just so you can look at it from a different angle. There are so many things in life that make us happy in the short term. These cookies, for example,” he said, picking up the tray. “But in the long term, they can hurt you.”
“Maybe I’m tired of everyone always worrying about me getting hurt,” I said snidely, crossing my arms.
“Maybe we’re worried because you are always getting hurt,” he said, “and a person can only get hurt so many times before it really starts to ruin them.”
“Alberto, are you coming to bed?” Marda asked, appearing at the doorway in a silk night robe, a sleep mask smeared on her face.
“Just a minute, darling,” he said, flashing her his smile.
“No more cookies,” she said, wagging her finger at him. “You have to watch your heart.”
When she left, he looked at me and sighed. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m just looking out for you as I always do. Wasn’t I right about Seattle? About you going to stay with him and his girlfriend?”
I mumbled that he was. “But it doesn’t mean you’re right about this. I love Dex. I know him inside and out.”
“You know him as much as you can know someone for eight months,” he said. “Just don’t forget that. And don’t forget that most of that time, he was with someone else.” He eased himself out of the chair, leaving me with that extremely sobering thought.
He kissed me on the head goodnight and then shuffled off toward his room. I sat there at the table, drinking my hot tea until it was gone, apprehensive now about going to see Dex. I hated that my uncle—and by extension, my parents—were able to instill this doubt in me.
Had I really only known Dex, my Dex, my Declan Foray, for less than a year? The last two months of us living together, that was the only time we were actually together as a couple. Plus we started up hot on the heels of his last relationship, one that lasted three f*cking years. No wonder my parents were so against the whole thing. No wonder my uncle was. Aside from the people who knew us best like Rebecca, Dean, and Ada, our relationship must look batshit crazy to the rest of the world.
Then again, what else was new?
I took in a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves, then placed the cup of tea in the sink. I wondered if Rebecca was up and ready for a chat, but the lights in the living room were out. I reluctantly made my way to the bathroom and then finally the guest bedroom.
I carefully slipped into bed, not knowing if Dex was asleep. I wanted to talk to him—I wanted to know what he talked to Uncle Al about and if it was anywhere near as brutal as it was for me. But I heard him snoring lightly, brought on by all the beers, and decided to leave it for another day. I turned my back to him, our asses touching each other but our upper bodies far apart.