Still Waters Read Online Free Page A

so I can’t see her face.
    “He’s
not coming this time bro,” Jake says. I look over at him and raise my eyebrows.
Jake’s dad always comes with us.
    “He’s
visiting Mom in the hospital. She’s starting a new treatment tonight.”
    “I’m
sorry man,” I say, feeling like shit, because I’ve been sitting in the car for
ten minutes now, and I haven’t asked about his mom once. He shrugs and starts
fiddling with the radio again. We drive the rest of the way in silence and when
we get there, it’s still raining too hard to get out. I park the car in the
same space I always use and kill the engine.
    “It’s
too wet,” Jake says, scratching his knee through his jeans. “At least we came.
That’s what counts, I guess.”
    I
look out through the windscreen and the driving rain to the trees on the other
side of the clearing.
    “Fuck
it.”
    I
swing open my door and climb out, not even bothering to run through it. I’m
going to end up wet anyway. It’s only a short walk. Jake chose this spot
because it has a view of the ocean, and when she was alive there was no other
place she’d rather be.
    “Hey,”
Jake says as he comes up next to me. He bends down and wipes an old leaf off
the gravestone with his hand. “Crazy to think she would have been 26 next
month.”
    “She
loved her birthday,” I whisper, but I’m not sure he hears me because the rain
is coming down like bullets.
    “She
hated sharing it, though,” he laughs. “When we were kids she always made Mom
bake two birthday cakes. She said that just because she had a stinky twin
brother it didn’t mean she shouldn’t have her own cake with pink frosting.”
    I
smile sadly and shove my hands into the pockets of my jeans.
    “Eight
years is a long time man,” he says, looking at me. I know what he’s trying to
say, but I don’t want to hear it. I turn around and start walking back to the
Jeep.
    “Crew!”
Jake shouts through the rain. “Crew! Aren’t you going to visit him too?”
    I
pretend I don’t hear him and pick up my pace until I’m back at the Jeep,
fumbling in my pocket for the keys. When I get inside my whole body starts to
shake. My teeth are rattling in my head, and my fingers are trembling too hard
for me to get the key in the ignition. I sit on my hands and tell myself it’s just
the cold. Jake opens the car door a second later and jumps into his seat. We
sit in silence for a few moments, me because I don’t want to talk about her and
him because he’s giving me a chance to calm down before we drive. When my heart
slows to normal and the feeling returns to my fingers, I slide the key into the
ignition and start up the engine. Jake waits until we’re out of the car park
before saying, “She would want you to move on you know.”
    There’s
really nothing I can say to that because as much as I hate it, deep down I know
he’s right.

Chapter
Five
    Hartley

 
    After breakfast the following morning I’m
looking around my small kitchen to the picture window and the piles of shopping
bags and boxes on the floor. I didn’t have time to pack anything before I left
so I’ve been shopping like crazy since I arrived. The problem is, I’ve been
avoiding unpacking any of it, so now it looks like I’m holding a yard sale in
my kitchen. I resolve to deal with it, right after a bath.
    I
haven’t told Eleanor, but the bath is the main reason I chose this house. It’s
an old claw foot number painted flamingo pink, and I absolutely love it. This
is the kind of bath I’d love to put in my house in Jefferson; only I know
exactly what David’s face would look like if I suggested it. Even Eleanor
doesn’t understand why I’d want to live in a run down sea cottage like this
one. She’s always saying that if she had my money she’d want a house with
marble floors and solid gold tap ware. I don't tell her, but that's just the
type of thing someone without money would say.
    I
run a deep bubble bath and step in, sighing in pleasure at