Page 60 of Decoded
I unlock the door and before I barely pull it open, he’s shoving himself into the small space.
“Pack your things, Anna Laura. We’re going home.”
Going home? He drove all this way to tell me to come home? My stomach sinks. Why is my mom not here with him?
“Is Mom okay?”
“She’s fine, but clearly you’ve lost your ever-loving mind.”
Shit.“Daniel told you.”
He’s been darting around the sweet but small room, picking up the dirty clothes I threw on the floor and piling them up on the bed. But he stops his movements, and when he turns to face me, I think I may crumble under his look of utter disappointment.
“Yes, Daniel told me,” his voice is sharp, tight. “Because apparently my daughter was either too ashamed or just too damn selfish to let her parents know that she married her boss the second she moved to this town.”
“Technically I was married to him before I moved here,” I say softly.
His eyes narrow in disgust.
Way to go, Anna. Just make things worse.
“What did you say?” His voice is like sandpaper, scraping against every raw part of me.
I don’t want to tell him. I really,reallydon’t want to. But I’ve already stuck my foot so far in my mouth it’s gonna take a crowbar to extract it, so I might as well go ahead and take the plunge. “Remember my trip to Las Vegas with the girls?” I wait for his response, but when he doesn’t so much as offer a head nod, I continue. “Well, I met this man on the plane. And we hit it off. And then we went out for drinks. And then we kinda, sorta, got married a little bit.”
“How the hell do you get married a little bit?”
“Well, I guess we didn’t get married just a little bit. We got married a lot a bit. I mean, the marriage is legal and binding,” My words come out rushed.
“And that’s why you moved to Cheatham? He is why you left home?”
I shake my head. “No, I left because,” my words trail off. I left because his best friend is a bastard who violated me. But I’m not ready to tell him that. I may never be ready to tell him that. “I left because there was a great job opportunity, and I’d have been crazy not to take it up. Keaton being the owner was just a strange coincidence.”
“Do you have any idea how insane all of this is, Anna Laura?”
I flinch at his cruel tone.
“And I’m supposed to believe that life is so great for you here? That you love your job and your husband and that everything is just so much better here in Cheatham than life was back in the city?”
I bite my lip. Until Daniel showed up, everything truly was better here. But now, I’m not sure anymore.
“So tell me, why is it that when I got to this small town and popped in and asked people about you, they told me I’d find you here at a bed and breakfast instead of at the home you were supposed to be renting? Why aren’t you with this so-called husband of yours?”
Damn. News in a small town really does travel fast.
Since I haven’t withheld the truth from him yet, I give my dad another dose of honesty. “Because he’s pretty mad at me about something right now.”
My dad snorts, “Well that makes two of us.”
“He expects me to get my things and be at their house in the morning. I’ll go over to Keaton’s place while he’s at work today.” A part of me breaks to know that the final memory between Keaton and me is our relationship breaking because of a sick man’s lies.
“I’ll go with you.” Shortly after my dad left, Skyla came to my door demanding to eat at my favorite place in town. She reaches over to grab my hand as we sit at Crumb and Get It. I’m really gonna miss this place. And their pickles.
“No, Sky. I think,” I choke back a sob. “I think I need to do this on my own. I won’t be great company.”
“Anna, I am so sorry everything sucks right now. But I came to be here for you. I’ll do whatever you need.”
“I appreciate it, Sky. I just think I need that moment to myself.” I look at my sweet friend with her red fiery curls framing her beautiful face covered in freckles.
