Page 31 of Lies Like Love

“There’s not much to tell.” I shrug. “Where we grew up, things were pretty uneventful.”

At least, on the outside they were. But I’m not going to get into the messy parts with a girl I’ve just met. Echo might be friendly, but I’m not as trusting as I used to be.

“You’re no fun.” Echo hops off the counter and leans her hip against the display case. “Just give me a little bit of dirt I can throw at him when he’s being a grumpy asshole.”

I can’t help but laugh and shake my head. “He’s always being a grumpy asshole it seems. Besides, there’s no dirt to share. He was athletic, smart. Teenage Jude only cared about three things: school, sports, and his friends.”

“I get it, gotta protect family.”

“We aren’t family.” It comes out snappier than I intend. “I mean, not anymore. It was just a couple of years.”

“Hmm,” she hums, but I don’t know her well enough to read what she’s thinking. All I can do is hope she didn’t sense anything I don’t want her to in my comment.

I place a few more barbells in the case and close it.

“Well I get it.” Echo is looking over my shoulder, focusing on something hanging on the far wall. “Not the stepbrother thing exactly, but thecomplicatedpart. Blood or not, family can be messy.”

She might avoid my stare, but I don’t miss the darkness coating her expression. A void unlike her upbeat self, making me wonder what Echo hides beneath the surface. Behind her eyes something plays out that sends a shiver through me.

Maybe we’re all running from ghosts in our pasts, hoping the skeletons don’t find a way to catch up with us.

“Anyway.” She shakes her head so hard her ponytail whips around. She breaks her focus on the wall, clicking her gum between her teeth and gnawing on it again. “Has it really been eleven years since you’ve seen him? And you just walked in here randomly?”

“Coincidences, right?”

One I didn’t think possible. And even if I’m able to force a smile for Echo’s sake, I’m not sure how I feel about the universe throwing me once more in Jude’s path. Part of me wishes I’d never seen him again. And the other part doesn’t want to walk away now that I have.

“A random run-in after eleven years is a pretty big coincidence.”

“I guess. I hadn’t seen Jude since my mom’s funeral.”

“I’m sorry.” Echo frowns.

Pressing my lips together, I’m not sure what to say. Sorry doesn’t capture how deep the pain of certain losses travels. Mom wasn’t warm or comforting, and she cared more about our survival in a world of money than my feelings, but she was still my mother. When she died, a part of me was buried with her, and I still feel the suffocation of the dirt thrown over those memories.

At the time, I wasn’t sure who I hated more—Jude for pushing us all over the ledge or her slitting her wrists because she’d had enough. Either way, they both found their own unique way to leave me.

Her funeral was the last time I faced either of them. Mom in her casket and Jude standing at the edge of the graveyard by a large tree.

I didn’t expect him to actually show up. But as the priest started to speak, my gaze lifted to find him at a distance in front of me. He didn’t join the group, like he knew he wasn’t welcome, but he didn’t leave when I spotted him either.

While the priest spoke, I searched Jude’s eyes for remorse or regret. Anything that would make the reality of the moment hurt less. All I found was the cold, painful truth that he was no longer the boy I met in the library.

“Echo, can I—” Jude comes around the corner and stops when he sees me standing in the lobby. His jaw clenches, and that simple reaction is enough to piss me off.

I’m the one who hates him, yet he acts like he has any right to be annoyed by my presence in his tattoo parlor.

Echo looks from me to Jude, not saying anything, but no doubt sensing the tension. It’s radiating between us. So thick there might as well be a current sweeping the air in warning.

“Didn’t know you were here.” He scratches the back of his neck, tipping his chin down just enough that a longer strand of hair falls over his eye.

“I was just leaving.” I wasn’t, but there’s no point staying now.

It’s easier to be here when I avoid Jude. At least then I can catch up with Echo and ignore the fact that all these visits do is bring out years of tension between him and me.

“Already?” Echo frowns. “If you go, I’ll be stuck alone with these assholes all day.”

“I’m standing right here,” Jude reminds her.

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