Page 33 of Painted

A year and a half ago, Raina would have told him exactly what he was doing and what she thought about it. Now, Rhys got nothing but silence in answer to his desperate question.

Life didn’t get easier once you had more experience with it, and losing the people who mattered most in your life didn’t make you a better person. It just made you more lost, because you knew everything you were missing and everything you didn’t know.

Rhys sucked in a breath and lowered his head, staring out at the misty landscape he knew so well. The urge to share his life lessons with Early was as ridiculous as it was strong. Early didn’t need him sweeping in and messing up their life even more. He had zero wisdom to impart, that was for sure. Early was so much better off without him.

At the same time, as mad as it was, the one thing that would have made Rhys feel better just then was to have Early sitting there with him. He wanted to wrap Early in his arms and cuddle with them until he felt better. Not because Early could replace Raina. Early was someone else entirely. The affection Rhys felt for them came from an entirely different place in his heart.

Not that it mattered. He’d well and truly fucked things up with Early. He had no idea how to fix anything, he just knew he had to.

TEN

Icarus.That’s who they were. Just like Icarus, they’d flown too close to the sun and been burned for it.

Early battled against the urge to cry as they walked away from Rhys and whatever conversation he was having with Robert and Nick. They unbuttoned the cardigan they’d found upstairs and instantly fallen in love with as they went. What had they been thinking to recklessly pick out clothes to adopt without checking to see if they had belonged to Raina first?

They were so stupid, and not just where clothes were concerned. Who the fuck did they think they were to believe they could seduce someone like Rhys? Did they think Rhys would fall at their feet and declare his undying love and ask them to marry him after one clumsy night? No wonder Rhys was so angry with them.

“Good Lord, are you alright?” Rebecca asked, blinking at Early like they’d returned to the office covered in blood.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Early answered too quickly. “I just?—”

They twisted to glance over their shoulder into the front hall, terrified in case Rhys had decided to pursue them to yell at them even more for making a fool of themself last night.

“You don’t look alright,” Rebecca said, narrowing her eyes to study them as she came out from behind the desk. “Did something happen? Did someone insult you or something?”

“No, I swear, I’m fine,” Early lied. They even tried to smile to prove it. “Um, I just remembered that I have an errand I have to run,” they said in a rush, inching toward the door. “Are you going to be okay manning the office for a bit without me?”

“Yeah, sure,” Rebecca said, still eyeing them suspiciously.

“Thanks.”

Early hurried out of the office, then, since they didn’t know where to go, headed down the hallway into the west wing, where the classrooms and offices were. They could still hear the vague sound of a conversation from the front of the east wing, and they wanted to get as far away from any possibility of running into Rhys again as possible.

The trouble was that the hallway where the classrooms stood was already busy with people heading to morning classes. A bus had just arrived with students from the local primary school. Kids were the very last people Early wanted to run into with their heart and their bum still a little sore from the night before.

They were lucky to hear the sound of Robbie’s voice heading toward the open door of his ceramics studio with enough warning to jump into the nearest office so that they could avoid him. Robbie was kind and felt like a brother, but Early didn’t want to have to explain themself to anyone just then.

Not so lucky was the fact that they’d ducked into Robert and Janice’s office to hide. The office was a crowded mishmash of desks and furniture, none of which matched, with sculptures and equipment on every surface and tucked into every corner. The walls were thick with paintings and drawings in every medium done by every member of the extended family. The room was almost unbearably loud without a single sound in it.

Early’s plan was to wait until they were certain Robbie wouldn’t catch them before heading back into the hall and on to…they had no idea where. They just needed to get away for a few minutes so they could breathe again and lick their wounds.

The flashing light on the half-buried phone on Robert’s desk served as a last-minute warning before Robert himself stepped into the room. Early stood in the far corner, looking a little too much like the ancient sewing mannequin, which was covered in silk and feathers. Robert seemed lost in his thoughts and wore a frown as entered the room, but as soon as he realized Early was there, they both flinched and stared at each other.

“Early,” Robert said, immediately relaxing into a smile, whereas Early stayed tense and shaky. “You don’t look well,” he said, moving closer. He noticed the blinking light on his phone then and said, “Give me just one second to deal with this.”

“It’s one of the center’s distributors,” Early said in a small voice as Robert reached for the phone.

“Hello?” Robert answered the call. “Hey, Chuck. Yeah. Hey, listen, can I call you back in about ten minutes? I have something that needs my attention immediately right now. Sure. Sure. Talk to you in a few.”

He hung up the phone, then turned to Early.

A beat after that, he jerked slightly, held up a finger, then walked back to shut his office door.

Early’s stomach sank. He suddenly felt exactly the way he had every time he’d been called into the headmaster’s office to confront the boys who had called him “Girly Early” in the lunchroom so that he could give evidence against them. He had refused to say a peep either for himself or against those boys then, and he fully intended to keep his mouth shut and not rat Rhys out for anything now.

“Come here, Early,” Robert said, overflowing with paternal concern and opening his arms as he stepped away from the door.

Early broke without putting up even a hint of a fight. They let out a tight, miserable sob and rushed into Robert’s embrace like he was their own father. He was definitely the dad they had always wanted and a far cry from the one they’d ended up with.

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