Page 101 of Kings Don't Break

“I sure wish my baby would tell me when something’s wrong.”

“Mama, we’ve been over this.”

“‘Cuz if there were something wrong, you could.”

“I’d prefer you focus on your health.”

“It’s sure been a while since Blake has come around,” she muses, shuffling over to the table. She takes her seat and peers at me from where I am by the stove. “I may be old and I may be senile, but one thing I’ve never been a day in my life is stupid. What happened the other night when you ran out so late? Is Blake in some sort of trouble?”

I pause from stirring the sauce in the pot. “You know I left?”

Mama lets out a single cackle. “Of course I do. I’m your mother, Korine baby. You think you can sneak out without me knowing? I knew when you were seventeen and I know now.”

“Then why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“’Cuz you were headed over to Blake’s… and I knew that boy would never let anything bad happen to my baby.”

“I always thought I covered my tracks well.”

She scoffs with a wave of her hand. “You’re kidding, right? You expected me to believe that lumpy pillow under the covers was really you? That’s not even touching on how I usually saw your little behind sneaking off the lawn.”

“Mama,” I say, laughing despite how heavy my shoulders feel. Once the sound dies out and silence reminds us of the core issue at hand, I exhale a sigh and come clean. “If you must know. Blake was arrested the other night. Some traffic stop made by Ken. The charges are serious.”

“Let me take a guess,” she says. “That no good abuser is threatening you?”

“How did you?—”

“Baby, I’ve got the years and experience to predict these things. Have you told Blake?”

Why does everyone want me to get him deeper into my shit?!

I shake my head. “I’m not making the situation worse than it already is.”

“Would it be making it worse, or would it be keeping you on the same page?”

Mama’s question sticks with me to the point it’s on my mind the next time I’m showing up to Blake’s trailer. I’ve arrived certain of what I need to do—or so I think ’til Mama words return and plant a seed of doubt.

The second our gazes connect only intensifies that doubt. Golden hair and stubbled jaw framing his face, his boundless blue eyes make me feel like I’m going for a swim in the ocean. It weakens any resolve I had coming over.

Even with the bruises still marring his face, he’s the handsomest man in town. If anything, it gives him an edge, makes him even sexier. Can you blame me if I find him damn near impossible to resist?

Blake curls an arm around me to guide me inside. His scent floats around me, addictive and comforting, making matters worse. How am I supposed to do this when he’s touching me? When the warm, clean scent of him makes me want to be held in his arms all night long? When I can’t even look him in the eye without my heart fluttering?

“Thirsty?” he asks. He heads into the kitchen to grab two glasses regardless of my answer.

I’ve sat down on his sofa, my stomach a rippling mess. “I think we need to talk.”

“You mentioned that.” He returns clutching some iced tea that he sets down on the coffee table, and then joins me on the sofa. “Judging by the tone of your voice, it can’t be anything good.”

“A lot’s happened this week.”

“If this is about the charges, I already told you I was framed. I was never driving under the influence. Kori, I wouldn’t lie about that.”

“I believe you,” I say, and I mean it.

I do believe Blake. He wasn’t driving drunk. I’m not sure I even believe he assaulted Ken and his partner, at least not without extreme provocation and abuse of their authority. Everything about that night feels like it’s some horrible nightmare that neither of us will wake from.

It won’t go away unless…