Page 77 of Lights, Camera, Love

A jolt of surprise strikes his features. ‘What about him?’ he asks carefully.

I rest my chin on my knuckles. ‘I’ve been thinking about him a lot lately.’

‘You have?’

‘Yeah. I got a letter recently that said he’d been transferred close by, to Long Bay prison. So, I guess that got me thinking about him, and everything that’shappened, and the way we should have a relationship but we don’t.’

Mike nods slowly, realisation dawning in his gaze. ‘Hmm. You know I’m no psychologist,’ he says, ‘but if I were, I’d be connecting those dots, too … like, asking how your relationship with Jace has affected how you handle your friendship with Austin.’

This ongoing dissection of my mental wellbeing—or lack thereof—is becoming overwhelming, and Mike must sense it because he drops that line of questioning.

‘Have you thought about writing him a letter?’ he asks.

‘I tried that. Everything I wrote sounded stupid.Dear Jace, I’m sorry you have such a fuckwit for a brother, who did jack shit when you were thrown around from one abusive home to the next.’

‘Kye.’ Mike frowns at my self-hatred.

‘I think I’d rather just talk to him face-to-face,’ I mumble.

‘Have you thought about going to the prison and visiting him?’

Nerves spike in my stomach at that prospect, but I nod. ‘I have.’

‘I’d be happy to help you make a booking,’ he offers. ‘I’ve visited plenty of inmates in my time. You’ll need a visitor ID number, which is easy to get, and then you just call and book a time. I could walk you through it.’

‘Thanks.’God, am I really thinking of doing this?

Mike tilts his head, a caring expression warming his face. ‘If you do decide to go to the prison, I could comewith you if you like. I could wait outside just in case you need me for … well, for any reason.’

‘Thanks, Mike.’

For the first time since we sat down, I smile. But I know it comes out half-hearted.

CHAPTER 20

Evie

I hear the front door open and close, and I jump off my kitchen stool.Finally.I swipe my hand over my lips, wiping off any cereal remnants, and tap the volume down on the new Onefour album.

‘Where on earth have you been?’ I ask Mum as she clip-clops into the room on a slight angle, her six-inch heels clearly maiming her feet. She’s swathed in the same red scoop-neck dress she threw on yesterday as soon as she got home from work. I was ready to sit her down and confess to her about the lunch with Gabriel, but she’d already made plans for a date, so I had to wait until she got back. Only she never turned up.

‘Didn’t you get my text last night?’ she says. Her voice is all raspy, like she’s been smoking, and while the front of her hair looks vaguely brushed, the back is a bird’s nest.

‘You know I did.’ I watch her head straight for thefridge’s water dispenser. ‘But you said you were staying out late, not that you weren’t coming home at all. And you didn’t reply when I texted this morning.’

‘Sorry.’ She gulps back an entire glass of water. ‘Phone ran out of battery.’

No further explanation follows, such as where she was or who she was with. The man I glimpsed through the window when she left yesterday looked an awful lot like Jack, the one with hairy fingers from months ago. But that would be so unlike Mum.

It’s really not the best time for me to tell her this, butI’mtired, too—tired of waiting—so I take a deep, steadying breath while she turns to set her glass in the sink. ‘I had lunch with my father,’ I announce.

Mum swings back to face me, her lips falling open. She shakes her head. ‘No, you didn’t.’

‘I did.’

She flinches as if she’s been slapped, inhales what appears to be the entire volume of the Earth’s atmosphere in one breath, then trudges down the hallway. I trail her into the messy spare bedroom.

‘I wanted to … to meet him,’ I explain.

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