Page 43 of Avenged

Travis sighed.

I got up and started cleaning. Travis joined me. We worked silently together, like we had at Mandy’s after brunch on Sunday. “I don’t think he’s a screwup,” he said almost to himself.

“If he thinks it of himself, he has to assume everyone else thinks it, too,” I offered.

He looked at me for a moment and then started drying the pans I’d just put on the counter.

“You’re probably right. He knows I think he made some pretty stupid choices, but it was really his dad who made him feel like he was a screwup from start to finish.”

“So, Dawson’s dad isn’t your dad?” I asked before I could stop myself.

He shook his head. “Nope. Mom got married to him when she got pregnant. I was seven when she had Dawson. But after he came along, Mr. Dick?”

“Wait, your stepdad’s name is Mr. Dick?”

He laughed. “No. His name is Richard. But he is a dick, and so it just fits.”

“You and your nicknames.” I shook my head. “But please, finish. After Dawson came along…”

“Richard realized he couldn’t change Mom into the perfect socialite wife he wanted to help his campaign and dropped her like a hot potato.”

“He’s a politician?”

“County sheriff,” he said.

I took that in for a minute, thinking of Dawson and the trouble he seemed to be running from. I had a lot more questions, but again, it really wasn’t my business.

“I can see your wheels are turning,” he said, lips quirking.

The kitchen was clean, but I was scrubbing at the stovetop because I was enjoying the conversation too much to have it end.

“It’s not my business.”

“You’re my wife—kind of makes everything your business.”

That halted me. I put the sponge down and made my way into the main room, knowing I was heading toward Travis’s room which he’d given up for me—his wife—and my sister. My heart was pounding so hard I was sure he could hear it.

“Why do you do that?” he asked, and I froze where I was, but I didn’t turn to him. I was afraid of what I’d see there.

“Do what?”

“Run away.”

My belly filled with anger. At him. At me. At him calling me out on it instead of letting me go back to the corner of the house I’d let myself reside in.

Truck

EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED

“And all I feel

In my stomach, is butterflies

The beautiful kind.”

Performed by Taylor Swift w/ Ed Sheeran

Written by Sheeran / Swift

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