Page 4 of Let Me
And then someone grabs me from behind, strong hands on my shoulders. They spin me around, pushing my back against the wall, gripping my shirt in their fist.
“You don’t get to do this,” Caden growls, his face inches from mine, his breath hot against my cheek. “You don’t get to mourn him. You don’t get to come into this house and act likeyourlife has changed.” His hand goes to my throat and his eyes darken and I think, really, I deserve whatever is about to come next but then he lets me go, as if I’ve burned him. He backs away, shaking his head, his blue eyes full of some torment I can probably never understand.
“Get the fuck out of here,” he spits at me, “andnevercome back here.Ever.”
THREE
May, 3 Years Ago
JACK OPENS the door and pulls me inside, slamming the door closed behind me.
“Where the fuck were you?” he asks, angry, his arms crossed over his chest. His brown eyes narrow on mine. His arms are slick with sweat and he’s still wearing his basketball jersey, silver and teal.
“Did you win?” I ask with a small smile, slipping off my boots. One has a hole in the toe, but it’s warming up outside, so I won’t need to replace them. An expense I can deal with next year, when Mom and I have more money. If I get a scholarship like Jack has already gotten, maybe I won’t even have to be with Mom anymore. Maybe I’ll be able to actuallysavemoney.
Jack scoffs and throws up his hands. “Seriously, Riley? Answer the question.” He runs a hand through his curly brown hair, and his brows are narrowed in anger.
I feel my cheeks burn as I straighten, after placing my boots neatly on the shoe rack for that purpose in the Virani’s foyer. The fact that rich people have racks for shoes blows my mind.
“Look Jack, I’m sorry I missed the game, but I don’t really want to talk about it—”
He grabs my arm, pulling me toward him, his lip curling. “This is the second game you’ve missed. That’s embarrassing, Riley. Fucking embarrassing. I don’t want to ask you again. What.Happened.”
I yank my arm from his grip. “Mom almost burned the whole fucking house down again, that’s what happened.” I clench my fists, anger making my eyes blur. “She fell asleep with a cigarette in her hand. I had to…had to put out the fire.” I don’t want Jack picturing me looking like a dumbass with the fire extinguisher, which is exactly what happened. Too late for that now.
Jack’s eyes soften, but only for a second. Then he turns on his heel and stalks down the hallway toward the kitchen. “There’s leftovers in here, since you missed dinner, too.”
I take a breath, my shoulders sagging. I didn’t want to come here. I shouldn’t have come here. But Jack was blowing up my phone, and I knew if I didn’t come, he’d come to me. The last thing I wanted him to see was the burn in the living room chair, smell the smoke in the house. See my mom,stillpassed out in the living room, as if I didn’t save her ass, once again.
In the year Jack and I have been together, he’s become accustomed to my mother’s bullshit. But lately, his patience for it has been growing thinner and thinner. I can’t really blame him. He’s dealt with her for one year. I’ve lived with her for eighteen. I know she’s a pain in the ass. Especially compared to Jack’s own family, living in this fucking mansion with luxury cars and a goddamn butler. Husband and wife, two kids, white picket fence with an in-ground pool in the backyard. Their house is worth more money than most people make in a lifetime.
Not for the first time, I wonder what he sees in me.
But not for the first time, I remind myself that I can’t do better than this.
I make to follow him down the hall, but I hear a click behind me. I turn, frozen, as the door opens.
As Caden Virani walks in, I’m holding my breath. At home, someone walking through the apartment door could mean the difference between a decent night and a hellish night. As Caden’s glacier eyes meet mine, I realize it’s the same thing here.
Especially as a tall, skinny blonde comes tumbling in through the door after him, clutching his arm and giggling. She’s wearing a tight, white dress, and he’s in a white crisp shirt and blazer; what he usually wears when he comes home from law school. Considering it’s a fifteen-minute drive from his parents’ house, that’s often.
Too often.
The girl straightens, fling off her heels, missing the shoe rack completely. She bats her lashes my way. “Oh,” she squeals, “you must be Riley.”
I feel my face grow hot. How the hell does she know that? I’ve seen Caden with many women. Never the same one twice. And I’ve definitely never seen this woman.
Caden rolls his eyes and shuts the door behind him. “Go on, Zoe,” he says, nodding toward the stairs. “I’ll meet you on the bed.”
She giggles and winks at me, then starts up the stairs, pulling herself along by the railing. Clearly, she’s very drunk. “Be naked when I get up there,” Caden calls after her. But his eyes are still on mine as he says the words.
Caden pockets his keys; keys to his black Infiniti parked in the driveway now. I turn around without saying a word to him, to find Jack. Right on time, I hear Jack bellow from the kitchen, “What the fuck are you doing now?”
Caden laughs under his breath. I want to glare at him, but I don’t trust myself to turn around. Every time I’m near him, I feel dizzy. Faint. It’s not just his eyes, or his thick blonde hair or those lean muscles that are visible beneath the white shirts and blazers he always wears. It’s something else, too. Maybe that he’s older, unattainable, off limits. Maybe it’s that I’ve heard him listening to death metal in the room his parents keep for him here, when all Jack wants to listen to is hip-hop.
Either way, it doesn’t matter. Caden isn’t for me. Caden would never be interested in someone like me.
“Do you always jump when he calls for you?” he asks quietly behind me. “Like a dog?” His voice is smooth and low. Where Jack is loud and obnoxious, boisterous and boyish, Caden is quiet. It makes him seem all the more intimidating, for some reason.
