Page 19 of Freak Show

Eyes wide, I stared at him in shock. “You were in high school?”

He nodded.

“What did you do?” I continued.

“What I did was convince her to have the baby.” I shrugged. “I’m not exactly sure why, to be honest. I just felt like this missing puzzle piece finally slid into place, and I knew that Briley would change my life. The only problem was, Abilene wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. From the moment she had the baby, she let me know in no uncertain terms that she wanted absolutely zero to do with her. Not even her brother could convince her otherwise.”

“Wow,” I said, the gears in my mind spinning. “How did you do it?”

He smiled then, the ferocious look on his face giving way to pure happiness.

“My mom,” he answered. “She’s the best person in the world. When I found out, I went to her, and my mom switched to nights so that she could help. She’s an anesthesiologist. Or was. She doesn’t work anymore. I made more than enough in the first year to buy her a house and give her enough money that she could live life comfortably doing whatever she wanted to do. So she chose to live life on the ocean.”

“As in, cruising? Or sailing?” I wondered.

“Cruising,” he replied as he pulled up to a stop outside our bus. “Your phone’s ringing.”

I looked at the phone that was sitting in the cup holder.

My brother’s name flashed across the screen.

Yeah, he felt bad.

“I’ll answer later,” I said as I got out and gestured for him to follow me.

Once I inputted the code to get in, I invited him to have a seat while I finished grabbing all of my things.

“I’m not saying that I’m going to head wherever you are going…” I said. “But I will take that ride to the airport after you’re done at Banner’s place.”

His eyes twinkled as he took me in.

I’d changed into jeans and a t-shirt.

They were simple, yet I didn’t miss the look of interest that flared in his eyes when he took a good long look at my body.

I knew what he saw.

I was curvy—though not in a true curvy girl way—an “I have large hips and round tits” kind of way. There was no extra meat on my bones at all. Then there was the long, curly black hair that I’d allowed to fall down to dry around my back and shoulders.

“Has anyone told you that you look exactly like Pocahontas?” he wondered.

“Yes,” I smirked at him as I shouldered my bag. “Ready?”

“Yep,” he answered. “Why do you not look surprised by my question?”

I allowed him to close the door to the bus and lock it as I trudged down the stairs toward his truck.

We were in the truck before I answered him. “Because I think I get that at least once a night from one random stranger or another. It’s definitely not original anymore.”

“Your eyes are different than hers,” he said as he put it in reverse and backed out of the field where our bus was sitting. “Pale blue eyes…Pocahontas had brown.”

I felt the corners of my lips go up at the thought of him knowing Pocahontas so well that he could remember the color of her eyes.

“You watch Disney movies that much that you remember that insignificant of a detail?” I wondered.

“I have a young daughter. Let’s just say, it would be sacrilegious if I didn’t know some details about the movies we watched over and over again,” he replied in answer.

“So how does one get caught up in the circus when she doesn’t like it?” he asked curiously.

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