Page 58 of Between

But within seconds, any secrecies of the person’s identity vanished.

“Celeste?”

The man’s voice broke through the fog and found its way to me.

I knew that voice.

Shit.

I know who that is.

Shit shit shit shit.

I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to somehow avoid the conversation I knew was about to happen.

“Celeste, is that you?”

Gripping the steering wheel, I kept my lips tight, hoping he would magically forget it was me in the car in front of him.

But the darkened figure walked toward me and my car, and as he filtered his way through the fog, I could see him clearly.

“Hi, Uncle Lucas.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked, leaning on my open window frame.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I looked up to him with lost eyes, knowing that he didn’tneedmy answer.

“Celeste,damn it.”Uncle Lucas wiped a hand down his face. “Your dad is gonna kill me.”

I shook my head. “No. It’s fine. It’s fine, right?”

Uncle Lucas gave no verbal response as he stared down at the pavement below, unable to make eye contact with me.

“It’s fine,” I repeated.

More silence swirled between us as Uncle Lucas refused to leave my car. His hands remained planted on the frame, gripping tight as his decisions were left in the tension.

“What are you doing here?” he asked again in a heavy whisper. “This isn’t…” his voice trailed off, then picked back up. “This isn’t a place you should be.”

“I know,” I admitted. He was right, but wrong at the same time. He didn’t know what my mind had been through recently, and he didn’t know where I stood with all the information I had.

I could tell him that I was only here to visit Uncle Russ, but we both knew it was a lie. Not only has it been weeks, maybe even months, since I’ve visited my uncle’s mausoleum, but we also saw each other at the Open House party. It’s not even worth it to pretend like there was any other reason to be here, other than the truth.

He knew it. I knew it.

“I came here to tell him I’m no longer interested,” Uncle Lucas stated, as if he was following the same mind track as me. “I couldn’t call or anything, obviously, so I had to drive my ass up here and do it myself.”

My eyes met his in a nervous glare. This was the first time either one of us gave up the façade, admitting to the truth of the situation out loud.

No vague words, no insinuation, no alluding.

Only truthfulness.

“I hope you’re doing the same, Celeste. Whatever it is you have going on here…”

Unable to finish his sentence, he turned his head to the side, squinting his eyes as he tried to look up the hill.

“You’re a big girl, Cel, and I can’t tell you what to do. No matter what, you’ll always have a good head on your shoulders. Don’t fuck that up because of this.”

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