Page 15 of Salace

“Right,” I reply evenly. Taking a deep breath, I shift my eyes toward the window, chewing the inside of my mouth thoughtfully. “Eden, I’ve been thinking–”

“Me too, Kasey. I have to ask you something,” she states, cutting me off like she loves to do.

I grunt in response and wait.

“I heard a rumor that you’ve been hanging out with that Aimee girl. Atourice cream shop. Is it true?”

I bite my tongue to keep from laughing at the outrage that’s suddenly crept into her tone. Leave it to Eden to not notice me until someone else does.Barely, anyway,I think as I swallow a sigh. Aimee doesn’t seem to want anything to do with me, though I like to think that I’m slowly making progress.

Even as minute as it happens to be.

“Yeah, she was having a bad day, and I was in the mood for ice cream,” I reply breezily. “Is that a problem? Am I not allowed to have female friends?”

“I didn’t say that,” she replies testily. “You can have your little girl friends just like I have my boy friends.”

I bet.

“Speaking ofboyfriend, that’s kind of why I was calling,” I begin, desperately trying to keep the tremor out of my tone. I’m not afraid of Eden by any means–I just hate hurting people’s feelings, is all.

“‘Kay.”

I hear her fumble on the other end, then the sound of a wrapper, before she starts smacking on a piece of gum in her mouth. She’s checked out of the conversation before I even have a chance to have it with her, which means it would be moot to even try at this point.

“Were you busy? When I called just now, I mean?” I ask, changing the subject.

While I can’t put this off for too long, she’s reverted back into her “little-girl-love-and-protect-me” routine, so she won’t take me seriously until she snaps out of it.

Pop!

“Uh-uh,” she replies, after she inhales the bubble she made of her gum and goes back to smacking on it.

“Then… why didn’t you answer the phone?”

“I don’t know. I guess I didn’t really want to talk right now,” she states with a sigh.

“Alright. Well, call me back when you do. There’s some important stuff we need to talk about, okay?”

“‘Kay.”

Click.

It’s almost like she knows it’s coming and wants to avoid it. Eden seems to be content with having me help her with her homework and cram for tests and other things, and thinks that I should be content with it too.

I’m not.

I haven’t been for a while.

I guess I just didn’t realize how much until I started paying attention to Aimee… and her mother.

Maybe things will work out,I think, as I shove my phone back into my pocket.Maybe Eden will finally admit this isn’t working out before I have to, then we can go our separate ways and I can see if the Huntingtons need a man in their lives.

I’m sure I can handle both of them.

My eyes flit toward Julia again as I swallow the lump in my throat.

Or at least, I’ll give it a hell of a try.

JULIA

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