Sweet Liar (Candy #2)(60)

He nodded.

With our phones off and the batteries tucked inside my pocket, the rest of the ride was spent in silence, and although Jonah sat perfectly still, not even his hands moved on the steering wheel, I could feel the restlessness in him, the shock over what he’d done resonating. In an instant, he’d made a choice that changed everything. I doubted it was a choice he could ever come back from.

“What’s the address?” he asked just as the clock on his dashboard turned over to midnight.

I gave him a street address and he punched it into his GPS. Then I watched as the road narrowed and the woods on either side of the road thickened. My muscles tensed the closer we got to our destination. I turned to check on Pumpkin and found him curled up on the backseat asleep, oblivious to the situation. I envied him.

When the GPS announced that we’d arrived, Jonah turned down the long, narrow driveway. The small house looked the same as it had the first time I arrived with the lamppost flooding the front yard with light, and a white Jetta parked in the driveway.

“Who lives here?” he asked.

Nerves jumped beneath my skin. I didn’t want to tell him because I had no idea how he’d react. If he knew, would he refuse to go inside?

After sending a text to Lorraine telling her I was outside, a light came on in the house. My stomach lurched because I knew this moment was big, and I hoped I’d made the right decision by coming here.

“Candy?”

“You’ll see.”

Jonah noticed the light come on, and he opened his door and waited for me to do the same. I grabbed Pumpkin and came around to meet him. As always, Jonah waited for me to walk ahead of him. When I spotted Lorraine standing in the open doorway, wearing a pink terrycloth robe tied around her waist and a worried look, I slowed down and turned to Jonah behind me.

He walked a few more steps before stopping. Then he squinted at the doorway, motionless as it dawned on him who he was looking at. Rooted to the spot, he stared, his expression unchanging until his eyes shifted to me, and I saw a mixture of confusion, anger, and betrayal there.

My face warmed under his scrutiny, and so I looked away as I continued toward the door. “Sorry it’s so late,” I told Lorraine.

Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at her son. As far as I knew, it was the first time she’d seen him in seven years.

“Jonah.” I said his name softly because he still hadn’t moved. My voice seemed to wake him up, and he took slow, hesitant steps toward the doorway.

Lorraine’s gaze stayed fixed on him when he stopped in front of her, but his pained expression was still directed at me.

“Please come inside,” Lorraine said pleadingly to him.

Abruptly, he looked away and moved past her to walk through the doorway. Her hands reached out in his direction when he passed by, but she pulled them back because his stiff posture didn’t welcome her touch.

Silently, sending a look of apology to Lorraine, I followed Jonah inside. In the light of Lorraine’s living room, I could see the dried, crusted blood on the side of his face. Although his eyes were tired and bloodshot, they burned with emotion.

“Are you going to explain this?” he asked me.

I put Pumpkin down and turned to Lorraine. “I’m sorry to surprise you this way in the middle of the night. Something happened, and it felt like this was the right place to go.”

She looked at me in as much shock as Jonah seemed to be in. Even though she’d asked me not to tell Jonah about her, she didn’t seem upset that he was here. She only appeared worried for him.

“You’re hurt.” She reached out to him again, her expression stricken.

He absently rubbed his fingers against the side of his head, wincing slightly.

“You should let one of us take a look at that,” I said.

Jonah shot me an exasperated look. “You’d better start explaining how the hell you knew where my mother was, or I’m walking right back out that door.”

“Cooper, please.” Lorraine took a step toward him, and he moved back. With that one step, Lorraine’s face crumpled. She turned to me with pain etched in her eyes.

I could see Jonah’s hard expression slip for a moment at the sight of his mother in tears.

“I’m sorry I surprised you like this,” I said to Jonah. “But you’ve been wrong about your mother. Things aren’t the way you think.”

“Candy.” Lorraine shook her head as her eyes pleaded with me. After all this time, she still didn’t want him to know what happened.

“No more secrets, Lorraine. They only make things worse.” Her lips turned down as she looked at her son, hugging her arms around herself. “I suppose you’re right. Sit down,” she said to him after a moment. She added a soft “please” when he didn’t move.

His gaze swung to mine before he grudgingly walked over to her couch. His expression was uneasy and just as strained as it had been in the car during the drive here. The arrogant, wise-cracking Jonah I knew was nowhere to be found, and my heart went out to him.

Lorraine tightened the belt on her robe as she came around to sit beside him.

“I’ll go find something for your head,” I said, wanting to give them privacy.

“I have some bandages and ointment in the bathroom,” Lorraine told me.

Not giving in to Jonah’s pleading eyes silently asking me not to leave the room, I walked into Lorraine’s small bathroom and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My eyes widened at the sight. My hair was a dark, tangled mess, and my face was pale. Around my neck, bruises in the shape of fingers were forming. I didn’t want to see the marks or think about how they got there, so I quickly pulled open the medicine cabinet and located some gauze and antibiotic cream.