Hidden Falls Read Free Page B

completely
turned off by my charm.  Katy was one of those girls that, while beautiful, she
was subtle.  She didn’t flaunt her beauty and most of the time she had no idea
how delicious she actually looked.  Like today.
    I made my way back into
the barn, my eyes wandering to the office.  The door was closed again, but
seeing it this time was like a punch to the gut.  She was shutting me out in
more than one way.  In that moment I wanted to put my fist through a wall.  I
wanted to mangle something, or someone.  I thought back to Skylar’s smug face
and felt my blood boil again.  He was the one I was really mad at, but if I
wanted any kind of future with Katy I had to keep my hands to myself. 
    I pulled out my phone and
dialed the all too familiar number.  One I had promised myself I wouldn’t call
again.  She answered on the first ring, her sweet southern twang like music to
my ears.
    “Whatcha’ doing tonight? I
feel like blowing off some steam.”
    “I knew you would end up
crawling back,” she paused, drawing in a breath, “come over when you get done
with work.  I’ll be waiting.” She hung up, not waiting for a response.  I
looked down at the screen of my phone and stared at Jenn’s face.  A part of me
was screaming about how stupid I was, but another was doing a happy jig as it
remembered past nights spent with her.  I shook my head, trying to clear the
internal battle that raged between my heart and my body, and then put my phone
back in my pocket. 
    Getting back to work, my
eyes kept searching the barn, desperate to catch a glimpse of Katy.  She was
either still holed up in the office or she was avoiding me.  Either way, it was
for the best.  I doubt that I could have watched her all day and kept my sanity
intact.  Remembering my plans for the night, I smiled to myself.  At least
there would be something good to come out of this mess.
     

 
     
    Chapter Five
    Katy
     
    “Hey Momma, I’m home!” I
yelled up the stairs as I dropped my purse by the front door.  I didn’t expect
a response since she was probably already three sheets to the wind.  Her
drinking had become a routine in our house.  When my grandmother died ten years
earlier, my mother had taken to drinking.  She would be great in the mornings,
long enough to get me and my brother ready for school and onto the bus, but by
the time we got home, there was no helping her.  She would have gone through
two bottles of Smirnoff by that point, leaving her pretty useless for the rest
of the night.
    My dad had put up with it
at first, even encouraging her at times, but after a few months he started
losing his ability to deal with her.  He would stay at work for longer periods
of time, sometimes not coming home at all.  I still remember one of their
bigger fights when my mother had accused him of cheating on her.  They spent the
rest of the night throwing trinkets at each other and calling each other some
of the nastiest names they could think of.  It had been miserable.
    After a year of this
behavior, my dad just gave up.  He stopped fighting her, choosing to ignore her
instead.  I had never blamed him for giving up, but it hurt to think back to
those days when I was younger, when neither of them was truly there.  It was as
if I had raised myself all those years, which I probably had.  To the outside
world, everything was great in our home.  No one, except for Betty, had known
what my home life was like.  The only reason she knew was because of Chase.  He
had been scared of my parents and afraid of what they would do to me. 
    After that, I spent more
time at Betty’s than I did at home.  Dan hadn’t been interested in Betty and
what she offered, but he spent most of our childhood ignoring our mother.  If
it hadn’t been for her I don’t know who I would be today, or where I would have
ended up.  Those thoughts made me pause, my keys dangling from my blistered
fingers.  Life had been better since Betty had been