Read Compulsive (Liar #1) for Free Online Page B

head bowed toward her plate. “No. She
said she works later, so she told me I had to go get another key made.”
    “Well…at least it will get done.” I smiled, but she
wasn’t looking. I watched her as she ate in a trance, knowing she was
disappointed in her mother, her exuberance over her cooking accomplishment
dissipated. I felt for her, but I couldn’t bash her mother. It wouldn’t help.
And at least she was working so she and Alyssa could stay in Sonoma. Our
apartments were far from wine country estates, but they weren’t dumps either. “How
about if I go with you? We could stop at the duck pond on the way. I’ve got
some old bread in the cupboard.” School would be back in session soon, and
these were moments to be cherished.
    As if someone had plugged her in, her head popped up,
and she lit up like a Christmas tree. “Really?”
    “Sure. After breakfast, you go home and change, and
I’ll be ready in about an hour.”
    Alyssa inhaled her pancakes and agreed with ease to my
offer to do the dishes. After she left, I began tidying up the kitchen,
wondering when I could squeeze in a run to burn off the calories I’d ingested. I’d
put on a few pounds over the last couple of weeks, and even though I probably
needed them, the scale still taunted me. Drinking less would have helped if I
hadn’t made up for it with food.
    My phone rang as I filled the dishwasher. Evyn calling
on a weekend was not a positive sign, but I couldn’t avoid her much longer.
    “Hello.”
    “Gray, we need to talk. Do you have a sec?”
    “I’m good…and you?”
    “Sorry, hon, but I’m not the one avoiding my calls.”
    “I wasn’t avoiding you, boss. I’ve been up to my
eyeballs in this new therapist ordeal. Calls, research, interviews. It all takes
time. I have to be thorough this time. That Dr. Wallace was something out of
the Salem Witch Trials.”
     “Uh, huh.” She paused. “Well…I’d like to get together
for coffee this afternoon if you’re free. I have some things I want to talk to
you about.”
    My phone beeped as she finished her sentence. I
quickly glanced at the screen and didn’t recognize the number, so I ignored it.
“This afternoon? Damn, that’s going to be tough. I need to pick up my neighbor
at the hospital.”
    A sigh came through the receiver. “Gray.”
    “Seriously…I was just there yesterday visiting her,
and she’s coming home today but doesn’t have a ride.” I held my breath. At
least I really had been at the hospital.
    “I saw your dad at church last Sunday, Gray.”
    “Was he in a casket?”
    “Oh my God.”
    “What? What do you want me to say? So you saw my dad.
Great.”
    “He looked good. Clean…probably. He asked about you.”
    I shook my head as my throat closed up.
    “Gray?”
    I swallowed and shoved his image from my brain,
attempting to focus on anything else. The sink, the dishes, the blanket from
Alyssa still on the couch. And then, Clark Kent popped into my head. I hadn’t
seen that one coming. I pictured him sitting across from me, sipping his
coffee, smirking as he’d turned his head to the side. I took a breath. “Cut to
the chase, Evyn. Do I still have a job or what?”
    “Of course, you do…especially since you’ve been
working so hard to find a new therapist.” Her emphasis on the words ‘so
hard’ was strong enough to vibrate the phone, but then she softened. “I just
think it’s better for you to have this time away until you work out this new
adjustment.”
    I never asked Evyn to be my surrogate mother. We were
the same age, for Christ’s sake. And I didn’t need a guardian angel forcing me
to right the wrongs of my life. But I put up with her crap demands because I
needed the job, and she was one of the few who had stuck with me since high
school. “I’m working on it…honestly.” I went back to the vision of Dr. Harrison,
and it became abundantly clear what I had to do. “And I think we should get
together soon. The truth is…Alyssa