“Aww, Aunt Betty, do I have to?” he sighed, and set his lips into a heavy pout, hanging his head.
“Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to read to you.” She crossed her arms. “But only if you brought the adventures of the amazing boy wizard.”
He nodded, and grabbed his book bag, digging around. “Yup. But I want Mr. Gerard to read to me.”
“Non!” Gerard sliced his hand through the air. “I don’t read.”
“Aww, come on,” Briley shoved the massive tome into Gerard’s hand. He pointed midway in the center of the page with his chubby finger. “Chapter 14. I did a lot…,” he stressed the word with a roll of his eyes, “of reading last night. 10 whole pages!”
Betty clapped, but she was no longer smiling. Gerard was staring at the page with a look akin to horror. Even his breathing seemed rapid and hard. He’d done this the other night when she’d shoved her book into his hands.
Briley sighed. “I’ll start then. The friends...” Briley tasted the word, pronouncing each slowly and precisely, stuttering over particularly hard ones.
“Pha… pha--tom…”
Betty peeked. “Phantom.”
“Phantom.” Briley nodded and took a deep breath, half parts relief and half exasperation. “Your turn, Mr. Gerard.” He thrust the book back onto Gerard’s lap.
Briley had taken five minutes to read the first paragraph. In that time a white ring had spread around Gerard’s mouth, and the instant Briley turned the reigns over, the vein in the side of his neck jumped.
Betty chewed on her lip. He couldn’t read. Why hadn’t she picked up on that before? Maybe because the man was plenty smart. She didn’t want to humiliate him, and opened her mouth to tell Briley he must do it, but Briley spoke up first.
He looked at Gerard with a thoughtful look. “You can’t read, can you, Mr. Gerard?”
The muscle in Gerard’s cheek ticked. Betty held her breath, gazing at him, hoping he’d look at her. But he refused to acknowledge her.
Briley’s smile was huge. “I can’t read real good neither. Tell you what, Mr. Gerard, how ‘bout we try my favoritest book ever.” Gently he took the book from Gerard’s tense hands.
Gerard sat silent as stone, blinking and licking his incisors, still refusing to look at her.
Briley pulled another book out and sat it on Gerard’s lap. He opened to the first page and pointed to the word. “My teacher says you gotta taste the sounds.” He puckered his lips. “A little steam engine,” he began, “had a long train of cars to pull.” Briley paused. “It don’t work if you don’t say it with me, Mr. Gerard.”
Swallowing hard, Gerard finally looked down at Briley and repeated his words-- slowly, methodically. His mouth forming the letters with hands visibly shaking.
“I think I can,” Briley said.
“I think I can,” Gerard repeated.
“I know you can,” Betty whispered, heart trapped in a throat burning with tears.
Chapter 13
Her soft body wrapped around his like a warm hug. Gerard hadn’t wanted her in his bed tonight, hadn’t wanted to remember the humiliation of revealing he couldn’t read. Of knowing she viewed him as less than, just like Belle had.
Her breaths were soft on his bare chest, tickling the hairs, and he rubbed her back. He’d not talked the rest of the day and she’d not forced him. After they’d dropped Briley off he’d gutted the trout they’d caught and prepared their dinner in silence. Once they’d eaten, he’d cleared the dishes, and she’d walked off. Betty hadn’t asked him to watch yet another one of her awful Manga cartoons, and he’d left for his room, knowing this night she’d not join him. An hour later he was almost asleep when she crept into his room, pulled the sheets back, and snuggled up to him. That’d been three hours ago.
Why would she come? He was beneath her, intellectually inferior. His chest ached.
“I’m not stupid, Cherie.”
She rolled over. Wide guileless eyes stared at him. “I never thought you were.”
“You’re awake?” he sighed, sitting up when she disentangled herself. He propped his head against the pillow, and stared out the window at the full moon that lit the room in its silvery glow.
She brushed her fingertips against the corner of his lips, forcing him to look back at her. Betty smiled, full lips curving into a sexy tilt, and he clenched his jaw, not wanting to want her. Not wanting to know her anymore.
“I know you’re not stupid,” she said softly.
He shook her hand off. “I never needed to learn. Where I’m from, where I live, it’s not expected and generally frowned upon. A man is to be out hunting, providing for his family. One who sits and reads is considered vain and lazy.”
She shook her head. “Gerard, I’m not judging.”
“She did!” He snapped, shoving his face into hers. In some way wanting to see her eyes fill with fear, wanting her to leave, to run off, to forget he existed. That all the humiliations, one heaped upon another, would cease when she forgot him.