Page 72 of Somewhere Without You
I closed my eyes. “Kat, it’s me. I need you. Call me back.”
I hung up and started pacing, the phone still clenched in my hand. My eyes flicked between the folded letter and the mirror in front of me.
A bruise bloomed beneath my right eye, a swirl of violet and indigo. I reached up, touching it gently—and then I smiled.
Thisbruise didn’t make me feel small or powerless. It didn’t make me feel cheap or weak. But instead it reminded me that I was a woman worth loving. And that I too, deserved to be happy.
I re-dialed Katherine but again, it went straight to voicemail.
Damn it.
I needed to talk to someone—anyonewho wouldn’t look at me like I’d completely lost it.
Winston let out a sharp bark from the doorway.
“Hold on, I’m thinking,” I said, glancing up at him.
Then it clicked.
Danielle.A grin spread across my face. “Winston, you’re an absolute genius!”
Like Gran, she was weird, and wild, and more open-minded than anyone I knew. If I told her about the letters, about James and Logan, she’d listen. She might call me crazy but she’d do it with a smile and most importantly, not from a padded room.
I wrapped my arms around Winston, still lingering in the doorway. He stood perfectly still, ears perked, head tilted in that impossibly wise way only dogs could manage.
I pointed a finger at him. “No squirrels this time, got it?”
By the time we finally reached the shelter, I was drenched in sweat. The sun was blazing overhead, and the humidity was somehow even worse than yesterday.
A chorus of barking rose above the jingle of the front bell, and I heard Dani’s footsteps hurrying down the hallway.
“Sorry about that,” she said, suddenly appearing. “I was just—oh my god. What the hell happened to you?”
“We. . . it’s. . .” I panted. “Winston and I. . . we walked.”
Beside me, Winston collapsed onto the cool floor, his tongue lolling out in exhaustion.
“Youwalkedall the way here?” she asked, grabbing a bowl for Winston and handing me a water bottle from behind her desk.
I dumped some on my face before chugging the rest. Once my lungs stopped wheezing, I wiped the sweat from my forehead and managed a half-smile.
“Someone slashed my tires,” I said, waving my hand to fan myself. “Among other things.”
“Other things?” she echoed, refilling Winston’s bowl as he drained it. “What kind of other things?”
Once I was sure I could speak without gasping, I gave her a quick recap of the night before—including everything involving Logan.
“Damn,” she said. “People really don’t like you much, huh?”
“Yeah. . . not exactly,” I mumbled.
She gave a low whistle. “That bad?”
“If you think carving the word ‘SLUT’ into the side of my car is ‘bad,’ then yeah, I’d say it’s pretty awful.”
Dani leaned against the desk with her arms crossed, eyes narrowed like she was trying to solve a puzzle. “You gonna tell me who did it?”
I shrugged, though the movement felt like lifting a bag of wet cement. “I think. . . I think it was Jackson. I’m pretty sure he’s the one who threw that rock through my window, too.”
