Page 58 of Elusion

I brush my lips over the exposed skin on her shoulder. “Not unless you want to come bang chicks with me.”

She reaches up and tugs at the back of my hair. I’ve missed that too.

“I have another idea,” she says.

Hopefully, her suggestion involves the two of us not leaving what is soon to be an empty house for the next several days, except maybe to eat at some point.

“Go on.”

“How do you feel about road trips?” She spins around and rests her hands on my arms. “I have to go home for the weekend and want you to come with me.” The apprehension must read on my face because her gaze lowers. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“I’ll go.” The words fly out of my mouth, and her eyes dart to mine, a surprised look in them.

Most people would question the decision to travel across the state with the girl who broke my heart and bailed without an explanation. But after finally getting her back, there’s no way in hell I’m ready to let her go again.

Plus … I’m already packed.

I scan over the bags hanging in front of me at the gas station.Teriyaki or hot? Teriyaki or hot?I grab both types of beef jerky and return to the counter, tossing them on top of the obscene amount of candy already assembled. I forgot sour gummy worms. I return to the candy aisle and retrieve them, adding them to my collection. Oh. We need those peach things.

Callie tugs on my arm when I turn. “Three hours, Jordan. The trip is three hours, not three days.”

“Fine.” I take out my wallet. “But if we have to stop again, it’s on you.”

On our way to Callie’s car, I dig through the bag to find the licorice. She pulls out on the highway as I chew on a piece and hook up her phone to the aux cord.

“Help me pick appropriate background music.”

She raises her eyebrows and glances over. “We need a soundtrack for my life story?”

“Well, I don’t want to have our music contradicting the tone. I mean, we can’t have you divulging information about a traumatic life event with NSYNC playing. What about a happy story with Nine Inch Nails? That would be pure lunacy, Callie.”

She rolls her eyes, probably regretting the invite to her mother’s house.

Without any guidance from her, I start a playlist full of pop punk bands everyone forgot about years ago. The first song makes her smile, so I must have chosen well. I pass her some licorice before turning the volume down to barely audible. The enigma of Callie Henders is about to unravel in front of me. I don’t want any distractions.

She bites off a piece. “Are you ready now?”

More than ready, I sink back into the seat and nod.

“So, I’ve never had a stable or healthy relationship with my parents,” she says. “Graham and Lauren were sixteen when they had me and got married. It only took me until age five to realize they hated each other, and by the time I was seven, Graham made it clear I was to blame for everything wrong in his life. Around then, they started daily screaming matches and throwing things. Those escalated until I was sixteen. She finally filed for divorce after he threatened to lock her in the house and set it on fire.”

Whoa. A lot to process. I shift in my seat and ask the first question that pops into my head, “How do you know he blames you?”

Her lips press together as she hesitates. “His exact words were, ‘I should have just left you in a dumpster to die so I wouldn’t have ended up stuck with this cheap bitch.’”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Callie. What did your mom say?”

A wry smile forms. “She slapped him for calling her cheap.”

“You were seven?” I hardly get the words out, an ache clenching in my chest. At that age, I worried about my parents buying me the right scooter, not whether they regretted my existence.

“Pretty great parenting, huh?” She glances over when I don’t answer. “Trust me; they’ve only gotten better with time. Lauren’s borderline neglectful now, and Graham … well, we’ll get back to him.”

She sounds so removed from her account, the facts of her life tiresome. I’ve been an idiot, thinking one happy photo in her dorm room told me anything about her family. If anything, unstable and unhealthy are understatements.

“When Lauren got pregnant with Cate, I couldn’t wrap my head around them bringing another child into their volatile relationship, if you can even call it that. I had so much pent-up resentment toward them. I was miserable and shut everyone out other than Connor, Trey, and Pete.”

“First boyfriend Pete?”

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