When I'm with You (Hope Town #3)(16)

Her lips thin for just a second before she catches herself. Right when she’s about to open her mouth, I assume to give me another line of bullshit, my mom interrupts her. “You can use my bathroom, honey. Ember, the makeup remover is in the second drawer on the left.”

I raise one of my eyebrows at Ember, daring her to f*cking say no now. Panic briefly crosses her face, so fleeting I question if that’s what I saw, before she stands from the table and starts to walk up the deck stairs and into the house. Not even saying a word.

“Come here, little prince,” my sister coos and takes her youngest from my arms. “Be nice,” she whispers at me when I move to stand. I look at her with confusion, but she just gives me a sad smile.

What in the f*cking hell? I swear all the women in my life are insane.

I unsnap the tutu I had made for myself when Molly told me she wished I had one just like hers as I walk up the deck stairs, dropping it on the couch when I enter the house. The silence around me is so thick I want to knock something off the wall just to ease the trepidation it’s creating. Shaking off the ridiculous feelings, I walk through the house, up the stairs, and into my parents’ bedroom at the end of the hall. I find Ember in their bathroom pulling out some girly shit, and I stop in the doorway to wait for her to acknowledge that I’m there.

“How long are you planning to stand there?” she asks a minute later, not looking away from what she’s doing.

“Depends. How long are you planning to ignore me, babe?” I shoot back, my confusion growing when her shoulders pull tight.

“Don’t call me that,” she seethes, only pausing briefly in her task.

“What the f*ck, Em?”

“Just don’t. Do not call me babe. I’m not your f*cking babe,” she says with so much hate in that one word I’m struck dumb.

“Right,” I stutter, finding my feet and walking into the room. Maybe it’s her lady time? I sit on the chair in front of my mom’s vanity and look up at her. Her eyes are pinched tight and her chest is moving rapidly with her rushed breaths. “It’s just a word, Em. I didn’t realize it was offensive.”

Her eyes snap open, and she looks down at me, the pain not even masked in the slightest.

“What’s going on here?” I cluelessly question.

She picks up one of the square cotton looking things in one hand and a bottle in the other, back to ignoring me, but her face is saying enough. I search my mind trying to figure out what’s happening right now, but f*ck if I have a single light bulb going off.

I close my eyes out of instinct when she moves toward my face with that shit, her movements angry as she roughly wipes my face.

“Keep your head still,” she snaps.

“Kind of hard to do that when you’re dead set on removing a layer of skin, babe.”

She stops instantly, and I curse myself.

“Do not call me that!” she screams.

I open my eyes, blinking when whatever the f*ck she had been wiping on me gets in my eyes and burns. I stand quickly, knocking over the chair and stick my head down, turning on the water in the sink and grabbing the towel off the hook. I scrub quickly before standing and looking down at her. She hasn’t moved an inch, but now, her hands are gripping the counter so hard, it’s as if it’s the only thing keeping her standing.

The water falling from my face is soaking my shirt, but I turn and look in the mirror to make sure I got all that damn makeup off, and frown at the clips still in my hair. I pull at them angrily, throwing them down onto the floor. When my hair is free, I pull it up in a knot on the top of my head and bring my attention back to Ember.

“Tell me what is going on, Em. What have I done?”

She’s silent but turns to look at me.

“What did I do to get this kind of reaction from you?” I continue.

Still nothing.

“Fucking tell me, Emberlyn! What made you look at me with hate in those beautiful eyes? I can’t stand it anymore.”

She jerks back with so much force that I know there is no way she didn’t feel the snap all the way down her spine.

“What did you do?” she weakly questions.

I nod. “Yeah, what did I do because, for the f*cking life of me, I can’t figure it out.”

“What did you do?” she repeats, her tone getting harsh.

I don’t say a damn thing. Growing up with a sister, I know when a woman is on the edge of crazy.

“You really have no f*cking clue, do you?”

I shake my head, but clearly, even that was the wrong move because she again jerks but this time with her whole body.

“You’re unbelievable, Nate.”

The silence continues after that, more because I’m afraid if I so much as breathe, she is going to stab me with my mom’s cuticle scissors.

Just when I think it’s safe, her eyes narrow and she leans up. Because I have a foot plus on her, that doesn’t do much, but still, I don’t move. Even pissed as hell, she’s still beautiful.

“What’s your name, babe?” she oddly asks, before walking around me and slamming the bathroom door in her wake.

I look around the large bathroom, trying to figure out what just happened before looking at my reflection. “What in the f*ck just happened in here?” I ask my reflection, stupidly wishing it could throw me a bone here.