Chapter 57
His words, said so quietly, echoed off the high walls. I stared at him. "What?"
"You heard me."
I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs. "You can't mean it."
"Why not?"
"Aside from you telling me to leave?"
He didn't answer.
"Okay." I pushed a hand through my hair. "How about the fact I've been here for less than two days?"
"You're forgetting," he said, "I'veknownyou for years."
And for too many of those years, I had longed for him. I'd adored him. And yes, maybe I had even loved him in my own childish way. But all this time, he had never shown the slightest bit of interest.
"But you never even noticed me," I said. "Even when I wasn't a kid anymore."
His was voice just above a whisper. "I noticed."
"So what was the problem?" I asked. "Was it because I was underage?" I summoned up a hollow laugh. "You know, jailbait?"
"Jail never scared me."
"So what was it?" I said.
"For one thing," he said, "I was twenty-some years old. You were in high school." He glanced away. "I've always been an asshole, but even I have my limits."
"But I'd have been eighteen in a few months," I pointed out.
"Yeah? And on your eighteenth birthday, wanna guess where I was?"
"Where?"
"In jail."
"For what?" I asked.
"The usual stuff, some fight at the house. The point is, it wasn't just the numbers. Not then. And not now. The other night, you asked me a question. Remember what it was?"
I had asked too many questions to count, not that I'd gotten any answers. "You'll need to narrow it down more than that," I told him.
A single word fell from his lips. "Debbie."
Oh yeah. Her. The girl Bishop had mentioned. "Forget it," I said, suddenly fearful of what he might say. "I don't need to know."
"That's where you're wrong," he said. "Debbie? She was my dad's–" He gave a hard laugh. "—I guess you'd call her his girlfriend."
My stomach clenched. "So it's true. You—"
"No. Not quite."
Not quite? What didthatmean? "But somehow, she ended up naked in your bed?"
"Not 'somehow,'" Jake said. "I invited her."
