Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33298 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33298 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Still, I got to spend the day with Blade. He took me all over town and introduced me to a lot of people and some really cool businesses. Part of me wants to pack up everything I own and move here. It’s probably silly, but this town and the people in it feel like home.
When we returned from our adventures, Alvin had caused chaos. He scratched Blade’s leather couch and destroyed his curtains. He played with the tissue in the bathroom, pulling all of it off the roll. He splashed in the toilet bowl too.
I offered to pay for all the damages but Blade just waved it off. For a guy that lives alone with no pets or kids, he seemed pretty relaxed about the whole thing. I would have thought he’d be more upset.
My phone dings again as I sit here on the couch, and my belly flutters. I can’t help hoping that this is finally the message from Landon. Maybe he’s been trying to work up the nerve to contact me all day. My excitement dies quickly when I see my mom’s name on the screen.
There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to answer. But I’m afraid that if I don’t, then she’ll worry. At least, I hope she’ll worry. That would be a nice change.
“Hey, mom,” I answer, noting how soft my tone has gone. I don’t know what it is about talking to my parents that makes me feel like a little kid desperate for their approval again.
I still remember their disappointment when in first grade I couldn’t read. I was at the bottom of my class, barely able to understand even tiny words. They set me up with a tutor but not before telling me that Hughes are smart, accomplished people.
“You’re still making your little videos and telling people you’re going to California,” she snaps without bothering to greet me.
“They’re just podcasts, and yeah, Mom, I’m still going to be on TV.” I rub at my temple. I don’t want to have this discussion with her again. I know I embarrass my parents. I know they’re ashamed to be these amazing, cerebral professors while their daughter writes “those scandalous sex stories”.
“You should cancel the TV appearance. Wait until you’ve lost fifty pounds,” Mom says. “The camera adds ten pounds, and I can only tell my friends you have thyroid disease for so long.”
I blink at the unexpected moisture behind my eyelids. Normally, I don’t let her barbs get to me. But between her call and not hearing from Landon, my heart is feeling raw tonight. “I do have thyroid disease, Mom.”
“That’s nonsense. My daughter is perfectly healthy. You’re just not trying hard enough,” she counters. She and my dad don’t have an ounce of fat on their bodies.
“I still have tickets for you and Daddy, if you want to come to the taping.” I hate the pleading note in my tone, the way I’m begging her to care about me. If she could just show me even a fraction of the fascination she has with her teaching.
She scoffs. “It’s bad enough that you write those books of yours, but going on TV to talk about them—”
“Is my choice, and I’m proud of what I do.” I sniff as quietly as I can, hoping she doesn’t hear me. “I have to go. I’ll talk with you later.”
Without waiting for her to say goodbye, I end the call and blow out a frustrated breath. Just once, I wish they could support me. I wish they could be at least a little bit proud of me.
“Want to talk about it?”
I look up at Blade. I didn’t even hear him come in. My cheeks flush at the thought he heard my conversation. He knows I’m a disappointment to my parents now. “Parents are hard, you know?”
As soon as the words leave my lips, I feel like an idiot. He told me he was in foster care and never knew his family. “I’m sorry. I bet you think I should be grateful, and I am glad to have them.”
“You don’t have to justify your strained relationship,” he says quietly.
I shake my head, not wanting him to think poorly of my parents. “I never went without anything. I always had a roof over my head and food to eat and—”
“That doesn’t mean they were good parents,” Blade counters and moves across the room. He hesitates for a moment before taking a seat on the couch. He’s pressed up against me, his jean-clad thigh next to my bare one. I can feel the heat coming from his body and more than anything, I want to curl up in his lap just like Alvin does mine. “They’re supposed to do that stuff. That’s the basics right there.”
I blink back tears again for the second time tonight. “When I was little, I couldn’t read. I was falling behind in classes. There was nothing wrong. I didn’t have a learning disorder or anything. It just took a while to click in my head. Longer than the other kids.”