Page 13 of Free to Run
That means he pays for his mistakes, just like everyone else.
In this family, you show expressions of pleasure, love, and joy over other people’s fortune, even when your heart might be dying a little inside. You curb the need to rage your off-the-charts anger when a man messes with someone you love. It means saving your temper tantrum for a time when you’re not in a room full of people.
Keene’s sister taught me that.
Tears of frustration blur my vision. My temper continues to edge out of control, but I don’t let Cassidy see. She pulls me to her side and squeezes me against her for the first time in forever, likely misinterpreting my tears for emotion over the babies. I relish the closeness, savoring it.
Burying my head in my sister’s neck, I make a promise to protect those babies from anything that might hurt them, including an uncle who apparently has an issue with them. Over Cassidy’s shoulder, I see Keene’s face twist into something painful.
I turn my back. I can’t care.
I won’t.
7
Keene
Why is Mommy bleeding? It’s staining the tile as I walk in, clutching my bear to my chest.
She’s sitting on the floor of her bathroom, holding her rounded stomach, her face pale. Her long brown hair is matted to her head like she’s been running. Her green eyes have so many tears in them.
“Mommy, what’s wrong?” I walk to her, my feet squishy in the goo as I get closer.
“Keene, you shouldn’t be here, sweetheart,” she rasps, her tears falling harder. Her face is so warm when I reach out to touch it. “Where’s Daddy?” she asks me.
I shake my head. I don’t know. Even so young, I recognize the agony crossing her face.
“What about Mrs. Tilly or Dawson?” she questions. I shake my head again. I don’t know where our housekeeper and the driver are.
“Okay, my brave boy. I need you to do something for Mommy. You have to get the phone from my side of the bed. Can you go do that?”
I nod. I can. She runs her hand over my hair and face. It’s so warm and sticky. I touch her where she’s touching me. Why does Mommy feel so…wrong?
“Okay, baby. Get the phone and come back here with it. We need it to help the babies.” She and I both look down at her stomach, where I know the babies are sleeping.
“Okay, Mommy.” I turn to her bedroom but first hand her my bear. “Hold on to this until I get back. It will make you stronger and help the babies, Mommy.”
Tears run down her cheeks as I duck out of the bathroom, slipping a bit, before I grab the phone.
I shake myself away from the memory. Standing outside the farm, I gaze at the star-studded sky over the lake. Cassidy’s announcement has everyone inside celebrating with loud music and laughter. All I want to do is curse the heavens for putting her in such danger. Her body is just like our mother’s was—too petite to handle two babies in it at one time. I can’t imagine the sick hell she and Caleb will feel when she loses them. My fists are clenched tightly in my pockets, and my shoulders are rigid beneath my shirt. Haven’t they been through enough to last three lifetimes? I’m so lost in my dark past colliding with the present, that I don’t hear the door open behind me.
Until her voice berates me, crashing me back to this reality.
“I somehow knew you were selfish, standoffish, and a general prick about our family, but not congratulating your sister and best friend on their joy? That takes a special kind of resentment, doesn’t it, Keene?”
I don’t bother turning around. Her words are like a knife slowly piercing the layers of my skin.
“What? Nothing to say? Why am I not surprised? Any man who can sneak away without even bothering to put on his pants is one hell of a coward after all.”
My jaw tightens and my fists open and close inside my pockets.
Alison continues. “At least she has the rest of us who love her and those babies unconditionally.”
My temper is about to boil over. I wish Alison would walk away and leave me alone. I remain silent, not engaging the blonde warrior behind me. But I feel her. I feel the emotions she can’t hide. And what I feel is nothing but crashing waves of disappointment and fury.
“I’m grateful Cassidy still has the illusion that her brother gives a damn about her. I hope you can keep up the façade for the rest of her pregnancy before you break.” She steps up behind me, so close I can feel her breath through the back of my shirt. Turning slowly to face her, it’s her next words that snap my control.
“Because if you can’t, if Cassidy feels one ounce of your repulsion for the lives she and Caleb created, know that all of the Freemans will create a barrier around her so tight, you’ll never get close to her again. No one will ever make her feel that kind of pain again.”
