Page 25 of Salace

I tap my fingers over the screen.

How about you come over to my Mom’s at ten for some fun?

I hit send and take a long sip of my wine, feeling the warmth spreading through my body. Kasey responds almost immediately.

Perfect.He replies.

I chuckle to myself, feeling thrilled at the prospect of my little game. I glance over at my reflection in the kitchen window and smirk. I tuck Aimee’s phone in my pocket and get to work. I’ve got some quick redecorating to do in the half-finished room in the basement and not a lot of time to work with.

I break, sweating from vigor, when the doorbell rings. Aimee’s dad waltzes in like he still owns the place. Which, technically, I suppose he does. Aimee stomps downstairs from her room—eyes puffy and red from crying.

“What’s going on, Julia?” he demands.

I pull Aimee’s phone from my pocket, powered off now, and hand it directly to him. “She’s just mad that I took her phone away because of the attitude she was giving me.” I turn slightly so that I’m facing Aimee and dare her to say differently.

She doesn’t.

As soon as they’re out the door, I head back to the basement to finish what I started.

KASEY

Aimee told me to meet her at her house, and while I’m so fucking eager to see her and tell her that I’m free for the taking now, I kind of want to make her wait a little bit.

I don’t want her to know justhoweager I am, because I think that was the mistake I made with Eden.

There’s something here—there has to be. I don’t know how to explain it, but I can feel it in the marrow of my fucking bones.

I watch the people walking on the streets. The ones that are laughing and joking, clearly enjoying each other’s company and I wonder if I’ll ever have that someday.

Mom doesn’t have a backbone.

Dad doesn’t give a fuck.

Eden is a combination of both.

The phone buzzes in my pocket again and I smile. Her eagerness to hang out alone tells me that this will be a totally different experience, but it kind of piques my curiosity too. Aimee’s never been one to go out of her way to talk to me, so why the sudden interest in me?

Don’t start making up scenarios or else you’ll mess this up before you give it a chance to happen.

I run a hand back through my hair as I keep cruising through the city streets.

Love would be nice.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt what that’s like.

I know Mom has tried her best, but not being loved by Dad has made her a little worse for wear in that department.Heis a total clusterfuck that only cares about his whores at work and any new ones he meets when he goes to hisconferences, so I’ve never looked to him for that.

Aimee doesn’t seem to have known much love in her lifetime either. Mrs. H seems to be constantly intoxicated and I think when it comes to taking care of things around the house, that falls on her.

It sucks.

She should have a chance to be a kid and it seems like it got swiped away from her.

My thoughts trail to the older man that I saw her with and I can feel my lips turning downward into an angry frown.

“He doesn’t matter,” I mutter quietly, as I take a left on the next block. “Only we do.”

A shocked huff of breath escapes me as my eyes widen slightly. The shiver that went through me when I said those words….Holy shit. Maybethisis what love feels like.

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