Kate was drunk. Now was the perfect time.

I downed my beer. I emptied the entire bottle before handing it to Channing. Without a word, another beer was handed to me. I cursed before downing that one, too.

“I know what you’re going to do,” Channing said.

I waited. The judgment would come. I was already preparing myself for Sam’s reaction.

“He’s going to hurt her.”

That was the point. “She hurt Sam.”

Channing nodded. He didn’t say anything more, but he understood. He’d do something similar if it’d been him and his girl. When I went back, Kate was in the center of the area, dancing around the barrels. Her shirt was off and she was only wearing a bra with her tight jeans. When she swung around, I saw the bottoms were ripped to show the bottom of her underwear.

Giggling some more, she tipped her head back and drank out of a Jack Daniels bottle. Her friends danced with her. Everyone was watching her. Then they saw me. They were waiting now. A group of people moved back for me. A girl lifted her beer to drink from, and as I went past, I swiped the bottle from her.

“Hey. Oh …”

She was ignored, but before Kate saw me, I glanced over my shoulder. Channing had followed me but he headed to the Roussou side of the party. He went to Heather’s side. It was then when our gazes collided. Her eyes burned bright with condemnation. Channing hadn’t judged me, but she was. Sam’s best friend hated me.

Kate gasped, swaying on her feet, “Mason! You’re here!”

I hated myself, too.

I smirked at Kate as she came over to me. She was trying to be seductive. She looked like a drunken idiot and reeked of booze. Then she looped her arms around my neck, pressed her br**sts against me before sliding them up my chest as she moved into me. Then her fingers curled into my neck and she drew my mouth down. As my lips stopped above hers, she whispered, “Are you going to f**k me tonight?”

I didn’t think. I couldn’t.

I slammed my lips onto hers.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

It wasn’t home.

That was my first thought when I walked inside. David unlocked the door, but waved me through first. Nothing felt familiar about my old home anymore. It was cold. It was dark, and there was a musky smell in the room.

“Oh, sorry.” David rushed around me, and the door slammed shut in his wake. “I meant to drop by earlier and turn the heat up. I knew you were coming, but things happened at school and …” he trailed off as he stared at me.

“What?”

“Nothing.” A quick shake of the head. “It’s … you’re here. You’re staying.”

“Yeah?”

“I just thought …” He shook his head again. The corners of his mouth darted up and down as he cleared his throat. “I just never thought you’d be back.”

There was so much emotion in his gaze, and they were too visible to me. He hadn’t turned the light on, but the moonlight lit the room up. A sudden lump formed in my throat, and I looked away.

“Oh, right.” He finished with the heat and flipped the light switch. The room was flooded with new light, and I was struck with the same emotions.

This wasn’t home. Not anymore.

The kitchen counter was covered with empty pizza boxes. There must’ve been thirty of them, and the floor had empty cases of beer scattered around. The kitchen table had mail all over it. Not an inch of the tablecloth could be seen. When I spotted a television in the corner of the room, I gestured to it. “That’s new.”

“Oh.” He sighed, flushing at the same time. “Yes. Before Malinda, I watched a lot of the game tapes here.”

“Not in the basement? You used to watch them down there.”

“Yeah. I, um, got into a habit of staying up here in case …” His glanced at me, but turned away. Bumping into the pizza boxes, the pile fell to the floor. “Oh no.” He dropped down and began picking them up with rushed movements. “I’m sorry. This place is a mess. I haven’t cleaned since—” He stopped himself and took a deep breath.

I sensed a change as he straightened. I waited for whatever he was going to say next, and my heart began pounding in my chest.

“I don’t know why I’m lying to you. You’ve been through enough. You deserve me to tell it to you straight.”

My stomach tightened.

“I would sit up here,” he gestured around the kitchen, “in case you ever came back. It sounds stupid, but I wanted to be here if you ever came back. You never did. Well, you did, but it was the day after you moved.”

“Yeah.” My voice was hoarse. “She forgot something and asked me to get it. I did …” And he had come home. A stabbing pain pierced me. If only I had realized how final it was going to be. If I had known he wasn’t my real father then, but no. It wouldn’t have changed anything. She still would have forced me to go with her.

“Like I said before, it became a habit. Sitting here. Eating here. Watching the games here. I did everything here. Even months later when I knew you weren’t coming back, I couldn’t stop. It made no sense to me.”

I nodded, but I didn’t know what to say. When I saw the broom in the back, I asked, “Do you want me to clean up?”

“What? No. Oh no, Samantha. This is my mess. I’ll clean it up. You can go upstairs if you’d like to get changed or get comfortable. Maybe email or check your Twitter. Mark’s always talking about that with Malinda, but I never understand what they’re talking about. I’m not big on technology.”

“I know.” Neither was I. I thought I had inherited that from him.

“You know what?” With a garbage bag in one hand, he began stuffing the pizza boxes inside. “I bet you’re hungry. Malinda asked if she should make us something, but I told her that I’d take you to dinner. Do you want to go out to eat?”

“That’s okay. We can eat in.”

“Oh.” He frowned. “Um … I could go and pick something up. Chinese? You used to like Chinese.”

“That’s fine.”

“Or there’s that new noodle place. You want to go there?” His eyes lit up.

I gestured to my face. The bruises had started to fade, but I had another two weeks until they’d be completely gone. “I’m not feeling like going out yet.”