Page 44 of Wait For It

At the time, I’d believed our situations were nothing alike. Killian wasn’t some neighbor I’d secretly been in love with for years, and I hadn’t been sold to the man who’d made my childhood a living hell.

Things were different now, and I had to make a decision—give up and follow a path that would only lead to more misery, or venture out into the unknown, without a safety net to break my fall. Killian was an uncertainty, but one I’d gradually found myself looking forward to. Brad, however, was a sadist.

Both were chaos, but if it was between giving myself to a stranger or living out my days as Brad’s abused hostage, I’d choose Killian.

Now, I just needed to figure out how.

“So, I said to Georgia, ‘No, you cannot join us for cards.’ She seemed pretty upset, but she knew that Margaret was sweet on Arthur.” The older woman stuffed a spoon full of food into her mouth before starting up again.

When Helen had initially asked to sit with me at lunch, I’d accepted, grateful for the company. I’d imagined we’d enjoy a quiet meal before retiring to our rooms for the requisite afternoon nap.

It was a decision I’d come to regret.

Mashed potatoes clung to the side of her mouth, but she carried on as if it didn’t bother her. “You remember Arthur, don’t you? I pointed him out earlier. Such a looker. So, as I was saying, there we were…”

For someone who’d only been atTrue Northfor a week, Helen had wasted no time in making enemies. There was Georgia, the boyfriend stealer, Ida, the card shark, and Sue, the sister she’d never seen eye to eye with. I could have filled the pages of my notebook with the names of people who’d wronged her.

A pat on the hand brought me back to the conversation. “You are such a good listener. Youths today are just the worst. Noses stuck to glass screens—never interacting with anyone around them. They’ve become obsessed with capturing the perfect moment that they end up missing it. My granddaughter, April, doesn’t even know how to have an actual conversation. You ask her a question, and she just grunts in response. It’s like visiting with a damn caveman.”

I raised a brow, but Helen was already off to the next topic. “There’s no hope for the future. It’s just going to be a bunch of precious snowflakes, glued to their buzzing boxes while the world goes to hell. You know what we need? More churches. The youths need to be involved in planting churches all over. That’s how you fix the world—”

“Hello ladies, is this seat taken?”

My mouth curved into a relieved smile as I lifted my eyes to Killian’s, secretly pleased when his icy blue stare warmed as it moved across my face.

He was wearing a gray t-shirt with two bats crossed into an x. A baseball was superimposed over them, along with the logo for theHouston Hurricanes.

I only knew about the baseball team because it had been Ashlynn’s dream to see a sporting event when she turned eighteen. She hadn’t attended a game, but thanks to Matt, she’d come home with a small Hurricanes towel hidden among her belongings.

After her death, I’d smuggled it into my room to join the other secret treasures beneath my bed. Everything else was either sold off or burned, making it the only piece of her I had left.

“Oh, my—h-hello,” Helen stammered, before lifting her hand. “It’s you!”

Her reaction was… unexpected, to say the least.

Given her dislike of almost everything, I’d been positive she was going to find fault with him.

His expression dimmed somewhat as he extended a hand. “Killian. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She snatched it with both of hers like it was the last drumstick at a cookout, tilting her head toward the empty chair between us. “Helen. Please, sit down.”

He lowered himself onto the chair before turning to me with a smirk. “Hi, I’m Killian. I don’t believe I ever got your name.”

I slipped my hand into his, struck by the same weird, floaty feeling I got when I rode an elevator. My body might have been sitting perfectly still, but my stomach was in free fall.

“Ari,” I breathed, clinging to him like a lifeline. His palms were rough and callused against mine. I considered what he did for a living to have earned them. Was it physical labor, the kind that left him sweaty at the end of every day? My cheeks warmed as I imagined how he’d look without a shirt on.

He cocked his head, and I inhaled sharply, before realizing it wasn’t because he’d read my mind.

I’d whispered my name.

Just as I was beginning to think it was lost to me forever, my voice had returned.

“Ari,” Killian repeated softly, his voice filled with reverence. There was something right in hearing my name on his lips, like ending a prayer with amen.

“I think she might be deaf and dumb. I’ve been sitting here doing most of the talking, and she hasn’t had the decency to chime in even once,” Helen interjected with a shake of her head.

My nose crinkled at her brittle assessment of my character. Perhaps I was a little quieter than most, but it should have been apparent to everyone at the table I was neither deaf nor dumb.

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