Page 11 of The Young & the Sinner

It felt like forever as I sat there, waiting for Max to call me back, though I knew it had only been a few minutes. When my phone rang again, I quickly answered. “Max?”

“Ah, Olivia. It’s okay. You can come out of your room.”

“But the man…”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t know my brother was back from his trip to New York. He came over to celebrate my birthday with me.”

“Your brother?” I asked, shocked, but I shouldn’t have been. I knew Max had a little brother. Though from what I saw, there was nothing little about the man. And I had never met him before. At least, I didn’t think I had. He was four years younger than Max, which meant he was five years younger than my mom. I doubt he was close to my mom when they were little.

“Yes, my brother Mason. He’s downstairs in the kitchen now. I’ll be home soon, sweetheart. But you don’t have to be scared of him. He looks a little scary, but underneath all that hard exterior is a big softy, I promise.”

“Okay.” There was nothing soft about the man I saw, even though I only caught a glimpse of him before I ran off. “You’ll really be home soon?”

There was a smile in voice when he said, “Yes. I got everything done ahead of schedule, so I caught an earlier flight. I just landed and am heading to my car right now. If we’re lucky, I won’t run into any traffic. I’ll be home soon, and we’ll go out for dinner. How about it?”

I wiped away the tears that had fallen and let out a stuttering breath. “That’s sound nice. I’ll see you soon.”

I hung up and got out of the closet. My window was still open, and the insect screen was probably somewhere on the lawn. And my hands were shaking, even though I knew I was relatively safe.

I walked over to my window and looked out, but the insect screen wasn’t lying on the ground like I thought. Instead, they were in Mr. Jenkins’s hands, and he had a frown on his face.

“Are you alright, little darling? I don’t know what happened, but this just popped out and landed on your front lawn.”

It wasn’t popped out without reason, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “I’m alright, Mr. Jenkins. Thank you.”

“Do you want me to come in and fix this for you?”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. Max will fix it once he gets home.”

“Okay. When is our boy coming home?”

I smiled. I liked that the Jenkinses looked at Max like their son. Even if Max was the farthest thing from a boy. “Soon. His plane just landed.”

“Good, good. Tell him to come by soon. I’ll just leave this by your front door.”

“I will. Thank you.”

I quickly closed the window and walked to my vanity to brush my long brown hair, trying to make myself look presentable. My eyes were rimmed red, and the brown irises of my eyes looked bigger than usual. I didn’t wear any makeup today, and being scared half to death didn’t help my fair complexion one bit. I looked too pale.

This was as good as I would look, I guessed. Letting out a sigh, I walked out of my bedroom and took the stairs. I couldn’t hear any movement from downstairs, but I knew Mason was still here. And now that I knew who he was, I was kind of embarrassed about my reaction to him earlier.

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