Page 52 of Psycho

Helen let out a sigh that sounded…almost flirty? “A man who likes to cook. Almost unheard of where we’re from.” The table was silent as everyone started to shove mountains of food onto their plates. Turkey, gravy, bread rolls, stuffing, all that good stuff.

No chicken nuggets, unfortunately.

“I’m surprised you’re not married,” my mom said, joking.

“My wife…passed almost a decade ago,” Dean Briggs spoke, reaching for his wine glass. Everyone under the age of twenty-one, basically me and Declan, had their own glasses. We had water. Yummy. “I’ve done my best for these boys, just as you’ve done your best for Ashley.”

I really hated how he called me Ashley and not Ash, but it wasn’t something I would correct.

Helen threw me a smile. “She is something, isn’t she?”

“Willful, strong, intelligent,” Dean Briggs rattled off, causing both Will and Declan to look at me. “Hillcrest could use more students like her. Next year, with Hillcrest officially accepting female students, I hope there will be.”

Declan’s shoe touched me under the table, and I almost jerked away—but then I wondered: is he trying to play footsie with me? Was that something people did these days? I was so out of touch with everything, I didn’t even know. Ray had swallowed my life completely.

“Your daughter is also very kind,” Dean Briggs went on, causing my mom to glance at me. “She helped William out when he was in dire straits. She’s a good friend to have, and I’m glad my boys have her.”

William shot a look at Dean Briggs, though it was a look I couldn’t read, a look I didn’t know if I wanted to read. I mean, that was kind of a weird thing to say, wasn’t it?

God, he wasn’t going to tell her about the whole car incident, was he? For all he knew, I’d already told my mom. There was no reason whatsoever to bring that incident up…mostly because it made me think of other related incidents. Namely Ray, and Will getting stabbed. Oh, and me being attacked in that basement.

Helen said nothing as she reached for my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I did the best I could with this one,” she whispered, mostly to me. Thank God, she turned the tables on the Dean and started asking questions while we ate. “So Hillcrest is officially accepting other girls next year, huh? The trial run with Ash must be going good.”

They then got into a long and boring talk about money and how Hillcrest would be more financially stable if it had a bigger student body. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at that, mostly because Hillcrest was doing just fine. It had plenty of money. I did hear Dean Briggs say they were going to rezone some buildings and do more construction over the next eight months to build more dorm buildings.

Boring, boring, boring. Especially boring since my mind started to wander to the two brothers across from me. Declan’s foot still rested against mine, and I lifted my leg, drawing my foot along his calf. His cheeks immediately grew flushed, and I held back a chuckle.

Man, those two looked amazing cleaned up. Travis would look drop-dead gorgeous in a shirt like that, too. And Sawyer, with his wide, muscular frame, would look sexy as sin, too. Sawyer was not who I should be thinking about, though.

Once we’d eaten, once we were all leaning back in our chairs, our bellies full, Dean Briggs asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to stay tonight? We have plenty of room. It isn’t like you’ll be putting us out. I know it’s a few hours’ drive.”

“No, but thank you. I have a shoot with some clients at nine tomorrow morning, and I’d rather make the drive tonight than early tomorrow,” Helen spoke, getting to her feet. She helped clean the table, which let me, Declan, and Will move into the living room, plopping on the same couch and turning on whatever football game was on.

Their voices carried, and I heard Dean Briggs mention pie. My mom hated pie; pie wouldn’t make her stay.

“That wasn’t too bad,” Will whispered, shooting me a look. He had his legs crossed, the nicely pressed pants making him seem even taller than he was, even while sitting. He was a damn fine specimen of a man, with his light brown hair combed to the side.

What I really wanted to do was cuddle with him or Declan, but I held back. It was super hard, but I managed. No setting off any alarms in either parent’s head. We were just friends. Nothing more. Maybe we could break it to Dean Briggs once Declan wasn’t my roommate? Eh, that was a problem for future Ash.

Helen peeked her head around the banister, landing her eyes on us on the couch. “Hey, honey. I’m going to run. You want to walk me out?” I knew what that meant: walk me out. I’m not asking even though it sounds like I am. I knew my mom too well.

I tossed the guys a smile before getting up, taking my mom to the giant front door. A house this large, this extravagant, I didn’t think I could ever live in one like it. It was nice, but weird. Too weird. So weird I couldn’t get past it. I mean, why did you need such expensive furniture? And who the hell needed a house with all this extra space?

The air outside was cool, the sun setting in the horizon. My mom’s old van was parked near the front steps, and I held back a laugh. It wasn’t as rusted as Kelsey’s car was, but it still looked beat up and out of place sitting before a mansion like this.

“They seem like good people,” Helen spoke, giving me a side hug as we walked down the steps. “I’m glad they’re nice. I was worried for a while that you were going to room with a dick on two legs who was going to try to take advantage of you.”

Trust me, I remembered. My mom had also been kind enough to buy me a rape whistle, which I didn’t even have on me—ever. Call it intuition, but I didn’t think Batman would’ve stopped if I would’ve blown a whistle in his face. Travis had saved me that night; a whistle wouldn’t have worked at all.

“Mom,” I whined, not wanting to ever hear her say the word dick again. There were just some words you didn’t want to hear come from your mom’s mouth. Dick and all of its variants were a few of them.

“It’s okay, I trust you.” She gave me a smile as we stood in front of her van. Helen said nothing else before enveloping me in a hug. “I’ve always trusted you. You’ve made better decisions in your life than I did, and it’ll pay off for you. I know it,” she whispered into my hair. “You’ll land a big-wig job, a good man who’ll stick by you—”

Good man, or good men? It was probably too much to hope that more than one of them would stick around, and also too early in the relationship. I remained quiet.

Helen’s arms squeezed me one last time before letting go. She tucked some of her blonde hair behind her ear. “Hillcrest is a stepping stone, and I’m so proud of you. You do know that, right?”

Oh, Jesus. This was…not a conversation I wanted to have with her right now. Her trusting me, her being proud…if my mom knew the truth, if she knew about Ray, she’d take it all back. I’d be the greatest, most heartbreaking disappointment of her entire life.

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