Page 23 of True Honey
“Do you think it’s that bad?” Josh asked, I could hear the concern beneath his typical stoic tone.
“I know it is,” I said, finally looking over at him. “Just trust me?”
“I don’t know,” he smirked arrogantly, “of all the rumors about the Shores, everyone is adamant about never trusting one.”
“Shut up,” I said, shaking my head with a soft laugh. In moments like these it’s nice because it’s a small reminder that through all of the drama and all of gossip, I had gained a vital piece of family and repaired a relationship I never thought I would get to have.
I was grateful for Josh and our shared love of silence.
“I promised Dean that I’d help him study so…” Josh cleared his throat.
“Yeah of course, go,” I said. “Hey,” I called out to him. “When Nick breaks the news to you about Reyes starting, give him hell.”
Josh smiled again. “I think I can manage that.”
In his absence the stress of holding together our newly stitched together family seeped back in and gripped my bones too tightly to breathe. Drew hadn’t called or showed up to the stadium and it was time I started to think of a Plan B of how to get my shares in the company from my Grandfather.
I’d come on too strong and scared her away, trying to fix everything without realizing some things just can’t be fixed. I was trying to shove a square peg in a round hole and broke the toy in the process.
I waited a few more minutes, soaking in the quiet before the brooms started to sweep across the concrete and echo down onto the field. I wandered through the busy stadium and collected a few things, and my laptop in my backpack before making my way out to the parking lot. Pushing out in the open air, a chuckle left my lips at the sight of her leaning against her car in a pair of washed out jeans and a zip-up gray hoodie. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bundle at the top of her head and she looked tired but… pretty.
“I was starting to think I scared you off,” I said, adjusting the strap on my bag.
“There’s still time,” Drew answered. The tension stretched between us and for a moment I thought she might still bail. Her body language was timid, closed off—it was clear she was terrified.
“Did you decide?” I asked her. She had to have come to give me an answer, I braced for the worst and waited until she mustered up the courage to speak again.
“Did you get it in writing?” she asked me as I moved closer and I nodded. It was brutal on my nervous system, having so much hope that she might actually be going along with the deal. “Auggie can’t know,” she repeated it from the day before.
“Our little secret,” I said to her, stopping with a foot of space between us.
She stared at me, her massive green eyes a little watery but she stuck her hand out in front of her.
“Husband,” she said.
The word rolled off her tongue and for a second I was almost the one to back away from the arrangement. It had taken a lot for her to make the decision. I could see it on her face, the way she squared her shoulders to meet my gaze and how she exhaled a slow, careful breath to steady herself.
I looked down at her hand, taking in how it trembled a little as I closed mine around hers. “Wife.”
COURTNEY
August rolled over and cracked one eye open, catching me already staring at him. I was nervous to tell him, and I wasn’t exactly sure how. He eyed me suspiciously before sitting up in the squeaky hotel bed.
“Why are you watching me sleep?” He asked me.
“Is a mother not allowed to lovingly watch her son?” I argued.
“Maybe when I was six it was endearing. Now it’s kinda Norman Bates-coded,” he said,the Psycho reference not lost on me.
Silas had told me that he could be available whenever to help us move into the apartment and he had written the address down in my notes app. He had been insistent about us doing it as soon as possible. Part of me felt bad because there was a good chance he was offering the rush service because he thought we were still sleeping in my car.
He’d written up the contract clearly, and we both signed it after I’d read it over.
We were never to be legally wed, just in show. I wasn’t privy to any of his financials but if I needed anything he would provide. He had snuck in a condition that forbade me from paying rent which felt wrong until I remembered that I had a whole fifteen dollars in my wallet.
Lying to my thirteen-year-old made me feel sick, but it was to protect him, to give him a life he deserved and if I could just spend the next few weeks saving money when this was all over I could get us a real apartment and prove to him, tomyselfthat I was capable of being a decent mother.
“Do you want to skip school today?” I blurted, sitting up in my own bed and chewing on my lip.
