Page 89 of Heart Strings & Hotlines
For fuck’s sake. Fine. What the hell is Lottie giving Kara that she didn’t have before? How the hell am I supposed to know?
“What do they do together? Think about the library, the Scuttlebutts, and Sharky.”
A blinding headache is growing in the center of my forehead.
What do Lottie and Kara do together?
“They talk. All the time, they talk.”
“That’s right. And does Lottie listen to speak, or listen to hear?”
Of all the idiotic questions.
“Hear what I’m asking, Thane. Does Lottie listen so she has her response prepared for something she wants to talk about, or is she listening to hear what Kara is saying, thinking, and then responding to what Kara has said?”
“Obviously she’s putting Kara’s needs first. Lottie is attentive and kind. She cares about what people say.”
“And you don’t?”
Sweat forms at the back of my neck. “I didn’t say that. If I didn’t care about Kara, I wouldn’t be here. But it’s different with Lottie. She knows how to talk to Kara, while Kara and I butt heads every time one of us opens our mouths.”
“Okay, I want to go back to right before you removed Kara’s door. What did Kara do or say in the days leading up to that happening?”
I tug on the back of my neck and wipe away the perspiration. “Why don’t you just tell me so we can get this over with.”
“I can’t. I wasn’t there, remember? Tell me about Kara’s day-to-day. What was she doing or saying? How was she acting?”
“I have no idea. She was acting like a sulky teenager, normal, I guess.”
“Sulky, how?”
“She’d sit in the family room until I came home, wait until I found her there, then she wouldn’t say anything, so I’d return to whatever I was doing, and she’d stomp away.”
“What else?”
What else? Jesus. I hate digging into the past. It’s much more productive to focus on the future.
“She’d stand outside my office but never come in. She would glare at me, and even though I could tell she had been crying, wouldn’t tell me why.”
“Did you ask?”
“Yes, I asked.” I stand and grab a bottle of water from the fridge.
“Does she do any of that here?”
I know he’s leading me somewhere, but I can’t connect the dots, and there’s nothing I hate more than feeling like the idiot my father believed me to be.
“Haveyouseen her do it?” I snarl.
“I haven’t. Why do you think that is? What does she have here that she didn’t have in New York?”
“Lottie.”
“And what is Lottie providing that you didn’t?”
It slams into me with the force of a tornado touching down. Her expressions. The flash cards. How Kara and Lottie get along.
“Someone to ask her questions and listen toher, not just the words that are spoken.” The words cut my throat with their jagged edges.Fucking tone.At least my narrator and I can agree on this one.
