Page 107 of Broken Skulls

“I invited Brody to stay for supper when he drops off Lex. You don’t mind do you?”

I sit down at the table. “Of course I don’t mind who you invite to your house.”

“Our house,” he corrects, crouching down in front of me. He balances himself with his hands on my knees.

“Well, even with Brody, there is no way we’ll eat all that.”

He laughs. “You’ve never seen him eat.”

Jacob seems happy. God, I feel like such a fool. The man needs time to himself, and obviously I need to learn how to be by myself. I feel like such an idiot for locking myself in the bathroom for half the day.

“What did you do today?” he asks.

My eyebrows rise in surprise. I didn’t know there was going to be a test. “Oh, oh I didn’t do much. I did a little cleaning.”

He groans out loud. “Elizabeth, you don’t have to clean. Why didn’t you just enjoy your day?”

I feel his disappointment. “I did enjoy my day. I don’t mind cleaning, Jacob. In fact, I like it.” My head falls, because I’m confused. He calls this our home, yet he seems unhappy when I try to take care of it.

“Fuck,” he whispers, taking his hand from my knee to run through his messy hair. “I’m sorry.”

“I know you want me to find what I love to do. Why can’t I love taking care of you andourhome?”

His brows pull together as he thinks about what I’ve said. His knees drop to the floor, and he lays his head in my lap, wrapping his arms around my waist.

“My mom lived to serve my dad. I guess it makes me a little uncomfortable when I see you doing the same,” he admits quietly.

He doesn’t have to tell me the pain this causes him.

I run my fingers through his hair, gently massaging his scalp with my nails. “There is a difference. I want to do these things. Your mother felt obligated to do them.”

“I hated it. She tried so hard to please him, and it never mattered. He always found something wrong. Day in and day out, she was never good enough for him. No matter how much she cleaned or cooked.” He pauses, his voice cracking.

“Was it the same for you?”

He laughs half-heartedly. “Yeah.”

I continue to let him rest on my lap. It feels so good to comfort him.

“Everything had to be fucking perfect with him, even though he was a complete shit show. When we left him, my mom threw the notion of a perfect house out the door.” He chuckles lightly. “Nothing matched in our new house.”

My gaze goes to the cupboard full of mismatched dishes.

“She started to spend her days how she wanted. I mean, our house was clean, but she no longer worried about it. Some nights we’d leave the dishes until the next day. She said they’d still be there in the morning, and you know what? They were.”

When he gets quiet, I decide it’s my turn to talk. “I’m sorry your dad treated you both that way.”

He closes his eyes.

“Jacob, you have been nothing but kind to me. I don’t feel pressured to perform a certain way for you. You aren’t your father. I clean because it makes me feel good. I cook because I love to try the new recipes Jesse gives me, and it’s a bonus to witness your appreciation when you take that first bite.”

This makes him chuckle.

“I promise you’ve never once made me feel like I wasn’t enough for you,” I whisper, tears pooling in my eyes for him and his mother.

His head lifts from my lap. “I’m …”

I press my finger over his mouth. “Don’t. You don’t have to apologize, Jacob. We’re both going to have reactions from our past. We will stand by each other when it happens.” I hold my pinky finger up to him. “Pinky swear.”

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