Page 104 of Honeysuckle
“She likes those fancy daisies, the bright colored ones and that sushi place down the block from Hillys,” I suggested. “Maybe you can bring her lunch this week.”
“You want me to bribe my therapist?” Josh questioned.
“Oh no,” I laughed quietly. "I want you to apologize to her because there’s no doubt in my mind that you pissed her off with the first sentence you spoke,” I teased.
“Fuck you, Tuck,” he said but a soft laugh tumbled from him as he shut his eyes. After a beat of silence, his eye crack opened and his brows furrowed as he asked. "Wait, why do you know that about her?”
TUCKER
“HeyDoc.”Islidinto the chair across from Silas.
“Hand,” he said, rifling through his drawer and pulling out his glasses. He looked so much older with them on, but he never wore them outside his office. I set my bruised hand on the table and looked around his office. The walls were bare as always except for his degree and a photo of him and Mrs. Shore.
“Did you ice it yesterday?” He asked me and I nodded, I did for a bit, but I got a little distracted by the whole Josh-in-my-lap moment. “Are you lying to me?” He looked up from my hand and narrowed his grey on me.
“Not for long,” I admitted. “Areyoulying tome?” I asked after a beat of silence.
Silas looked up from my hand again, this time his expression was puzzled but defensive. “About what, Tucker?” he challenged with his eyebrow raised. It was apparent that he didn’t have the patience to deal with my shit today but I was going to lay it out anyways.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone you and Josh were brothers?” I asked, not cutting corners.
“He told you,” Silas said as he set my hand down, he rose from his chair and wandered across his office to the cupboards. He pulled out a box and brought disinfectant, and a wrap back to the desk.
“Everything,” I said as Silas popped the cap on the bottle, pressing the opening to a cloth with a tight jaw.
“You did it,” Silas smiled when he looked up at me, but that only led to further confusion. “You figured out what he needed.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I chuckled, but it felt good to have the effort recognized.
“He threatened to burn down my house when I suggested we tell my mother that we know, I told her anyway, you should have seen that fight,” Silas said, swallowing tightly. “If he told you out of his own free will… It's a step in the right direction.
“It wasn’t necessarily out of his own free will,” I sighed.
“What does that mean?” He asked.
“It means we went to Lorette, his mom called him, and he needed a ride, so I took him. She’s…” I trailed off, the pit in my stomach growing with every passing moment, thinking about that lock on his room.
“A monster,” Silas finished for me. “She’s sick. I know that much. I remember the day I showed up there to help him, she thought I was there for her. She gave me a list of prices before the door had even fully opened.”
“Have you been inside?” I asked him.
“Josh stopped me before I could get inside,” Silas sighed, the grey hair was more prominent in his exhausted state, like he had aged ten years from the mention of her.
“There’s a lock…locks…” I said, counting them in my head. “On the outside of his old bedroom door. And scratch marks,” I said, my voice getting quiet. “She locked him in there.”
“Are you sure?” He asked me and I nodded.
“She really messed him up.” I looked up from the table and met Silas’ grey stare.
“He’s good at hiding it with his anger, but he’s…”
“Yeah, I only know the pieces I was able to string together through my father’s transactions,” Silas said.
“She still loves him, you know, your father. It seems like that’s why she resents Josh so much, because she thinks he ruined it for her.” My voice cracked at the thought of anyone treating Josh in such a disgusting way.
“She was sick, Dean. Really sick. She still is. I can’t change the mistakes my father made. I can’t rewrite the past to save him from what he is today, but I’ll work harder to give him the life he was meant to have,” Silas said, and I believed him. “Bringing him here was a fight. He would have rather gone anywhere else.”
“But after Ian,” I said with a sigh.
