Page 153 of Whirlwind

Feign distress.“For God’s sake, I can’t talk about this anymore. I really can’t. My parents just split up, and things are really fucking shitty all around.”Heavy groan for effect.

He sighed. “Fine.”

I ended the call, my hands shaking.

“Everything okay?” Beck’s voice behind me on the veranda had me spinning around to face him. He stood before me, studying me, holding two glasses of whiskey.

“It was Ladd.”

An eyebrow cocked up, a smirk cut his lips. “Did he see the photo?”

“No. He just found out that his mother and my father hooked up, and he’s freaking out.”

“Ah.” He handed me a glass, his teeth raking over his beautiful lower lip.

I drank, grateful for the sting and warmth of the booze and its buzz, grateful for the seconds to collect myself and my words. I wiped at my lips. “He’s got mommy issues, mostly because she holds the purse strings to all the cash his daddy left behind. This whole thing is a shitty situation. Our moms were friends.”

“That’s terrible for your mom.”

“It is. My dad insists it was a one time mistake, but Ladd’s mom seems to think that they’re having a grand affair.”

“Hmm.” Beck drank from his glass, his eyes glued on me, their unique blue deeper now and gleaming in the subdued lights of the veranda. He didn’t believe me. He could see right through my colorful retelling of the soap opera.

I straightened my shoulders. “It’s a terrible mindfuck when you’re faced with the reality that a parent is flawed, weak, selfish—”

“Troubled. Vulnerable.”

“I guess."

“My dad’s been cheating on his wife, with someone younger than me, this singer I know.” He let out an exhale. “He and Pam haven’t been getting along and he threw in the towel with a little fun on the side.”

“Oh. Wow.” I raised my glass. “Here’s to our dads.”

He twisted his lips and drank. The two of us taking in the sparkling city below, the brightly lit Constitution Square with the grand Parliament building, the former royal palace, at its center, the dramatic Acropolis in the distance.

The loud drone of the cars and motorbikes swirling through the square was a fitting soundtrack for the suddenly uneasy, tense silence between us.

59

Beck

I swirledthe last of the whiskey in my glass as we took in Athens by night, Violet remarking about how unique the city seemed to her. Her words slid off me. All I could think about was her and Ladd. I hadn’t overheard much of their conversation, but from her tone of voice, they were at odds. And I didn’t think the drama with their parents was the whole story.

My instinct told me there was more. Much more.

One thing I was certain of was that when she went back to Meager, I’d lose her, and I didn’t want to lose her. I couldn’t. There was no way.

We had something special between us that I’d never had with anyone else. It was more than an attraction. More than great chemistry. More than friendship.

We believed in each other. Trusted each other. And the attraction, chemistry and friendship made all that more intense. More necessary. I ached in a good way, a way that told me I felt, I needed. And I ached in a painful way that echoed of loss. I longed for her right now, right this very moment.

“I want you in my life, Violet.”

A weight lifted off me with my words, but that familiar slab of concrete settled back in and deeper at her stunned silence. Her careful silence.

“Beck, we had a great time this week—”

“We always have a great time together.”

---