Page 96 of Soulless Saint

“Hey, Dad. Ma,” Kaleb said as he entered the living room. “Any sign of—Becca.”

His hazel eyes stuck on me. “You’re here.”

“You sound surprised.”

“I wasn’t sure you’d make it.”

Hardin leaned against the door frame behind his brother, his hands pushed deep into his pockets. I was careful not to meet his eyes, once again mentally kicking myself for agreeing to this.

“You didn’t really give me much choice,” I replied curtly, taking another sip of my drink.

In the kitchen, which I’d briefly glimpsed opposite the main hallway, something chimed and Sloane tapped Damien’s thigh as she rose from the sofa. “Come give me a hand bringing everything to the table.”

They left and Kaleb came to sit next to me on the sofa, stealing the glass from my hand for a sip. He seemed on edge. But that wasn’t anything new. This week at the cafe he and Hardin could’ve tied for first place in the brooding Olympics.

Kaleb alternated between tapping angrily on his laptop and taking calls in nook number nine, thinking nobody could hear him hissing down the line at whoever was on the other end.

Hardin just sat there and brooded even more heavily than he usually did. Occasionally, someone would come in and whisper something to him or he would check messages on his phone.

One thing was clear, there was something going on.

I knew that sort of tension. I’d felt it when shit was going down back in Thorn Valley. Something was definitely up, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what.

“Your mom seems nice.”

Hardin snorted from where he still leaned nonchalantly across the room and Kaleb straight up laughed. “That’s because you don’t know her yet.”

Awesome.

“Dinner!” Damien called from the adjoining dining room, and the smell of melty cheese and tomato sauce filled my nose, making my mouth water. Between school and work and homework and attempting to have something of a social life, eating proper meals didn’t really fit into the schedule most days.

If Dad knew, he’d flip shit, but I wasn’t starving myself. It wasn’t like before. Not at all.

I swallowed, deciding I could wait until after I ate to attempt to excuse myself. And if I needed to leave in a rush, I’d taken note of the gas station and convenience store the Uber passed only a few blocks away from here. I could just go there and wait for an Uber. Piece of fucking pie.

I followed Kaleb into the dining room, finding Sloane at one end of the food-laden table and Damien at the other. My stomach flipped uneasily and I stole my glass back from Kaleb to take another small swallow of scotch to calm my nerves.

Kaleb sat down, and I went for the seat beside him, where there was another place setting.

Hardin got there first. I muttered an apology, thinking I’d been about to take his seat, but he dragged the chair from the table for me, waiting for me to sit down.

He inclined his head.

I swallowed. Sat down. He easily lifted and pushed the chair until I was snuggly against the table, Kaleb seated next to me.

I studiously ignored Hardin as he made his way around the table and sat down exactly opposite me, which would make ignoring him even harder. Fuck my life.

Surface level conversation went up around the table as we all filled our plates with homemade lasagna, Caesar salad, and breadsticks. Sloane asked some harmless questions about what classes I was taking at CalArts and alluded to her eldest son being something of an artist himself, if you counted illegal tagging an artform.

I was starting to wonder if this was the point of the meal. Was this a ‘get to know you’ thing? Did Kaleb, or worse, Hardin, tell their parents that I was dating them or something? Were they just trying to get to know their son’s girlfriend?

Which one of them had the brilliant idea to introduce me to ma and pop?

A clammy sweat coated my palms as I did my best to smile politely at the right times and answered their questions to the best of my ability, trying to keep the conversation light.

Hardin’s stare bored into me across the table the whole time, making me squirm as I took tiny bites of food. Suddenly, not very hungry anymore.

“Eat,” Kaleb whispered next to me while Sloane and Damien reminisced about their own college experiences.

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