Page 57 of Before I Tell You

“It’s good to see you too, Jason.” I pull hard on the blanket, fighting for my half.

“You better not snore,” he says before drifting back to sleep.

“Good night, Jason.”

Eighteen

NATHAN

“NATHAN, WAIT!” I HEAR a woman’s voice call just as the elevator doors are about to close. Holding them open with my arm, I step out and recognize the woman as Natalie’s mom.

“Mrs. Spencer. Hi.” I put my hand out awkwardly toward her for a handshake.

“Oh, come here.” She pulls me in for a hug. “I haven’t seen you in ages. I barely recognized you.” She unwraps her slender arms from around me and takes a step back. Her eyes widen when she sees my black eye, but thankfully, she decides not to mention it. “Your mom told me you were all grown up, but she didn’t tell me how tall you’ve become.” Mrs. Spencer and my mom hit it off a few years ago at some book club in town, which resulted in frequent coffee dates between the two. “Thank you for bringing Natalie to us so quickly.”

“Of course,” I state. “I’m so sorry about your husband. How is he doing?” Her grey eyes, similar to Natalie’s, look away pensively before she answers.

“He’s going to be ok. Just needs to rest for a bit.” She assures me with a slight smile, but I can’t help feeling like she is really just trying to reassure herself. “I don’t think he is going to be very happy with me, though, when I tell him he can’t have bacon anymore,” she says with amusement.

“Ah, no, taking bacon away from a man should be illegal,” I joke, trying to erase any tension in the air. But I notice the slight quiver in her hand as it pushes her shoulder-length blonde hair behind her ear, which makes me ask, “And how are you doing?”

“Me? Oh, I’m … well, I’ve been better.” She maintains her smile, but I recognize something in her eyes that I used to see all the time as a kid. Fear. Mrs. Spencer feared losing her husband, while my mom feared being abused by hers. So, it was something that, as a child, I became quite used to seeing. So much so that I became pretty good at knowing from the moment I walked through the front door of our house after school whether it was going to be a good night or a night where I would need to hide under my bed with pillows covering my ears to drown out the insistent yelling and loud bangs. Of course, at the time, I had no idea those loud bangs were my father hurting my mom.

“It was scary, that’s for sure. Probably left me a little shaken up, but seeing Natalie walk through that door just now certainly helped put my mind a little more at ease,” Mrs. Spencer says, releasing me from my thoughts.

“Yeah, she definitely has a way of doing that,” I admit.

“Your mother mentioned you had recently transferred to a school in Boston, but I guess I didn’t connect the dots. Do you attend Linrey University too?” She looks at me curiously.

“Yeah, actually, Natalie and I take a class together,” I say, unsure how much more I should tell her.

“Oh, what a small world.” A genuinely warm smile appears on her face but then instantly falls. She tips her head to the side, eyeing the car keys in my hand. “You’re not going all the way back to campus tonight, are you?”

“Umm, actually, Natalie suggested I use the guest room at your house.” I decide to leave out the part about me sleeping in her daughter’s bed. “If that’s ok with you, of course?”

“Of course! There’s a spare house key under the blue planter, and there’s plenty of food in the fridge. We probably won’t be back until tomorrow afternoon. Well, I guess more like later today, and please ignore the mess in the kitchen. I’ll get to that at some point.” She stares into space, deep in thought. “It happened while we were making dinner …” Her voice trails off.

“Mrs. Spencer,” I interject, knowing what she needs to hear, “everything is going to be ok.”

She instantly puts a smile back on her face to show she’s fine, but her glossy eyes convince me otherwise. “I couldn’t agree with you more. And please, call me Nancy.” She turns around and makes her way back through the empty hall.

I press the button for the elevator and wait for the doors to open. Once they do, I step inside and lean back against the wall, closing my eyes as exhaustion takes over from everything that’s occurred these past few days.

“Nate?”

I open my eyes and see Mrs. Spencer standing in front of the elevator.

“Thank you for making my daughter happy again.”

* * *

After easily locating the house key under the blue planter where Natalie and her mom had both told me to find it, I enter their home.

It doesn’t matter how many times I walk through this front door, I will never get over how enormous the house is.

No, not just enormous, but insane.

There is a grand staircase that can’t be missed when you walk inside, the flooring is marble, pieces of artwork, which look like they belong in a museum, line the walls, the ceilings reside high up in the heavens, and I’m pretty sure my hand is holding onto a solid gold doorknob.Holy fuck.

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