Page 59 of Secrets That Bind Us
Dean and I stare at it with wide eyes, stepping away from the shards of glass, while I pant.
“Mommy?”
I look up to see Savannah and Noah standing by the table, Savannah with her hands on his shoulders. I blink rapidly at my son, who has tears in his eyes.
“Baby?”
I blink again. “D… did I do that?”
They all shake their heads solemnly in disbelief.
I kneel quickly and start cleaning it up, blinking back tears. “Nobody move! I have to– I have to… Ah! FUCK!” I scream, when a large shard goes straight into my thumb. I pull my hand back, watching the blood dripping seep into the floorboards, disappearing before my very eyes.I stare at it wildly.
I’m going out of my fucking mind. Bonkers.
I’m losing it. I need to get out of here.
I need to run. I can’t run. I have kids.
What the fuck. My lungs feel as though they’re collapsing.
I feel Dean at my back before I hear him, anchoring me back to my sanity, taking every tremble of mine for himself.
“Baby,” He crowds me, cupping my elbows to help me up.
“Why don't I get this? Savvy, Sunshine, grab the first aid kit. Go on, baby, wash your hand– let me just clear the glass and I’ll wrap it when I’m done.
” Savannah comes back quickly with the first aid kit.
“Noah, hand me the paper towels then get ready so we can go out and find Savvy’s camera before the sun goes down. C’mon. We all got a job.”
I run my hands under the warm water, grimacing at the blood going down the drain. “Dean,” I whisper, “I don't know what happened.”
He shakes his head at me as he kneels. “I don’t know either.” He repeats. “We'll talk about this later.”
I nod. “Yeah… okay. I'm sorry.” Not even talking about the goddamn glass anymore. I feel like I'm apologizing for everything. This house is turning me into something else. Some one else. I look up to see that smidge of mold is fucking gone. I let out a soft sob. “I don’t know what came over me. It’s so much. And the glass. I didn’t mean to yell.
Oh God, am I going fucking crazy? That smudge is gone.
I swear to God it was there, Dean. I swear.
” I sob. “I’m going fucking crazy, aren’t I? I’m fucking losing it.”
He shakes his head softly. “The glass wasn't you, baby, okay? You had a long day. Tiffany. Reverend Bishop…” he sighs. “That’s a lot to handle in the span of a few hours. For now, let’s focus on the good things. You’re fine. The kids are fine.”
And that's the scary part.
I feel like it was me.
And I’m definitely not fine .
We find Savannah’s camera in a snake pit like it was delicately placed inside- none of us willing to put our hands inside to grab it. Dean runs inside, and comes back out with a wire hanger, dipping it in until he’s able to hook it to the strap and pull it out.
A snake pit.
I dig my spoon into the pint of Bluebell, making sure I get a good scoop, scrape the top off my cup, and then shove it into my mouth.
The last sunflowers sway in the late October breeze as the sky begins to darken once again, bringing a new chill.
I can hear the door to the barn shut as Will and his crew begin to leave for the day, as well as the designers.
“Verity?”
“Yes, Dean?” I say around the bite of melting Cookies n’ Cream.
“Something weird is going on in this house.”
Appetite lost, I throw my spoon into the pint and frown.
A pit of fucking snakes . Blood-drinking floors.
Vanishing mold. A goddamn Preacher man for a father.
These nightmares. My stomach clenches. Bear whines beside my future husband, the father of my children, and I sigh.
How is someone supposed to keep it all in?
AND I STILL HAVE A MANUSCRIPT TO TURN IN .
When does this get easier?
Exhausted, I reply, “I know, Dean.”
How do I tell him I want to get the hell out of Adelaide so much sooner rather than later?
That even with our upcoming nuptials, the Bistro just a week away from opening, and finally getting in touch with my biological father, I want to leave .
Pronto. I want to run away from here again and never come back?
“Put the goddamn house on the market, babe. ASAP.”
Relief floods me. I turn to face him, and I can feel the tears springing into my eyes. I get into his lap and throw my arms over his shoulders. “I fucking love you.”
He kisses my cheek. “I was just thinking about something Mama said once, when she was between lucidity and losing it.”
“What’s that?”
“There ain’t ever been a fire on this land, Ver.
This land has seen more tragic deaths in the hundred and fifty years it’s been in your bloodline, and not once has it been purified by nature's most common element. It ain’t natural, Verity.
Every farm in this town has seen at least one fire.
Hell, Abernathy’s had a small one just six weeks before you got here. ”
I think about that for a minute. Think about how long it took for the sunflowers to fully bloom, only for them to whither in just the span of a few short weeks. Determined to die.
“In sixty-seven, there was a tornado.”
“The Waller.” He recalls.
I nod. “It hit every farm but this one.”
He shakes his head, putting one of his large hands on my thigh, the other on my back, always keeping me steady. “See what I’m saying? Baby, I’ve never even seen a bird on this farm that wasn’t dead on the ground, but fucking snakes ? They’re supposed to be hibernating right now.”
His words cling heavily to the air around us, but I don’t have the mental capacity to even gloss over that. I throw my arms over his shoulder and let my fingers run through the velvety shaved hairs there. “Let’s… just make the kids some dinner. I’ll put the house up in the morning.”
He pats my thigh. “Sounds good to me. And baby?”
“Yeah?”
“Might take me about a week, but I’m gonna gut the shit out of my house, and y’all are moving in until the school year’s over. Then we can get the fuck out of Adelaide.”
My lips lift in a smirk and I eye him up and down. “Yes sir.”
“Ahhh… fuck baby. You can’t say that to me when we have to make dinner for the kids.”
I give him a chaste kiss. “Can I say it later?”
“Christ. Absofuckinglutely you can.” He growls.