Read Dylan for Free Online Page B

thoughts
as she climbs out of the car.
    I huff out an exaggerated sigh as I follow
her out. I open Harper’s door and unbuckle her just in time for her
to shove past me in her rush toward the front door as Uncle Jim
steps outside. He holds his arms out to take the impact as her tiny
body crashes against his.
    “Unfel Jim!” Harper’s happy squeal carries
through the suburban neighborhood, and causes Trisha and Uncle Jim
to laugh at her enthusiasm.
    “I’ve missed you too, sweet pea.” Uncle Jim
coos into Harper’s hair as he turns to head into the house leaving
Trisha and I to follow in behind them.
    “I’m taking Raven upstairs. Can you hang out
with Harper for a bit, Daddy?” Trisha grabs my hand and starts
pulling me up the winding staircase before he has even responded.
Let’s face it though, he isn’t going to say no to Harper.
    “We’re fine. You girls go on. Let’s get some
cookies, Harper.” They disappear from my sight as we round the
corner at the top of the stairs.
    Trisha leads me down the hall to the bedroom
on the far right. I say bedroom, but this one room is as big as my
mother’s whole apartment. A king-sized bed covered in designer
throw pillows sits in the center of the room. One side of the room
is set up like as a seating area, complete with a full-sized
wrap-around sofa and flat screen television. The other side is what
could pass as a full salon
with a
360 degree mirror and vanity.
    I’m tugged down onto the sofa and
immediately the inquisition I hadn’t been expecting begins. “Do you
want to tell me what that mark on your cheek is from?”
    I can feel my eyes bulge as if they are
about to come rolling out of my skull. “What . . . what are you
talking about?” My hand instantly goes to the spot where my face
was stinging only a short time ago. How had I forgotten about that? God, Raven!
    Trisha narrows her eyes and tilts her head
watching me rub at my face. I drop my hand away automatically.
“Uh-huh. I think you know exactly what I’m talking about. Is Aunt
Lisa on drugs again?”
    She never stopped! I want to shout at
her, but I press my lips tightly together, and shake my head. “No .
. . no, of course not. I just forgot I tripped getting out of the
shower this morning. Hit my cheek on the corner of the shower. I
didn’t even realize it left a mark.”
    Trisha breathes an audible sigh of relief.
“Oh, okay. God, I was worried there for a minute. I know Daddy said
she never hit you when she was on drugs, but he said she used to
get really violent with him. I was hoping I was wrong.”
    This is news to me, and I wonder why nobody
ever warned me. I guess they assumed it wasn’t something I needed
to know. As far as Uncle Jim knows, Mom has been clean since I was
eight. They are never around to see all of the evidence to the
contrary, and I can’t blame them. Even without the drugs, my mother
is too much to handle.
    I paste a smile on my face and hope it is
enough to hide the sudden panic assaulting me. “No worries.”
    “Good, but we really should cover that up.
Ethan will be by later, and I don’t want him asking questions that
will make you uncomfortable.”
    I hadn’t even thought about that, and as I
look in the mirror that hangs on the wall across the room from me,
I’m thankful that it is just a small red mark. I nod, and Trisha
instantly moves to the vanity unit. She grabs a bottle of skin
colored goo and moves back to me looking relaxed as she starts
dabbing the goo onto my face. “So . . . about Dylan?”
    This snaps me out of my mental anguish, and
I shake my head no. There is absolutely no way I am allowing Trisha
to play matchmaker. It would only end poorly and embarrass us both.
I don’t at all feel confident enough in my own abilities to keep
what’s happening to me under wraps if there is another man
involved. A man who would expect certain things I am not capable of
giving him.
    “Oh, why? Dylan has his faults, but it’s not
like you have to