Time Bomb(7)

He lifted the bag onto his shoulder, then headed down the hall, determined to act as if there was nothing special going on. Nothing to see here, kids. Just a guy going about his business like it was any other day. No big statements to make. No lives to change. And it wouldn’t be just his life that changed if he went through with this.

Tad banged on Sam’s door again as he passed by. Sam cranked up the music again. Tad punched on the door one more time, then started out, wondering what his brother would think about his plan.

Oh, hell. He’d forgotten about his mother and her friends in the kitchen.

“The money is good, but if Dan has to keep traveling like this, I’m going to lose what little is left of my mind. I can’t keep doing all this alone. Raising boys is complicated.”

Tad went completely still.

“Well, Dan is going to have to tell them he has kids at home and can’t be away as much.”

His mother’s voice floated down the hall. He thought he could make out Mrs. O’Neil’s voice, too, and that of Mrs. O’Neil’s daughter, Jasmine. Ugh.

“I swear his boss looks at the pictures of the boys and assumes they aren’t his. Sometimes I wonder if he thinks he’s doing Dan a favor by having him go on all these out-of-town trips. If we didn’t have bills to pay, I’d give him a piece of my mind.”

Mrs. O’Neil said something that Tad couldn’t hear. But his mother was perfectly clear when she said, “Jasmine, honey, why don’t you go knock on Tad’s door and see if he’s around? His practice got canceled today, and I’m sure he’s looking for something to do.”

“That’s a wonderful idea, Jas.” Mrs. O’Neil jumped on top of that in a way that said she and Tad’s mother had planned the idea in advance. “The two of you should go see a movie. Why don’t you go see if he wants to?”

Damn. He needed to get out of here . . . fast.

“You know where his room is, right?” Tad’s mother asked as a chair scraped against the kitchen tile.

Tad took that as his cue to bolt for the door, while Mrs. O’Neil said something about his mother being so lucky. That Tad and Sam were both such handsome boys.

Tad hurried onto the front walk and down the street, hoping his brother’s crappy music covered the sound of his leaving. He’d reached the end of the block when he got a text from his mother.



WHERE ARE YOU? JASMINE IS HERE AND THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO SEE A MOVIE.





No. No, I wouldn’t.

He walked faster toward the school, more determined than when he’d left. How many times had he told his mother to stop meddling in his life? She couldn’t see anything other than her own point of view—just like everyone else. Words were useless. They were ignored. Well, he was done being ignored.

Since words didn’t seem to change anything, it was time to take action. People might want to bury their heads in the sand, but he wasn’t going to give them that option. Not anymore. They were going to take notice whether they wanted to or not.

No more just waiting for change. He had waited long enough. Tried talking long enough.

Well, the time for talking was over, and the time for doing was here. He was going to be noticed. He wasn’t going to be turned away anymore. Was he scared? Hell, yeah. But sometimes the only way to change something was to break it first.





10:13 a.m.





Cas





— Chapter 5 —


“TODAY WOULD HAVE BEEN a great riding day. Don’t you think?”

“Sure, Mom.” If a person liked riding horses. Cas gave her mom a smile, then looked out the car’s window. The sun was shining. The sky was blue, with white puffy clouds, but she would have been just as terrible and looked just as stupid on horseback in the sunshine as in the drizzle or the dark. Her mother knew that, but she liked to pretend Cas was something other than what she was. She kept imagining that Cas would someday be like the rest of them. Just as Cas’s father wanted. Just as everyone seemed to want.

Normal.

Popular.

Someone her family could be proud of. Because she wasn’t good enough now. And she was pretty sure no matter what she did, she never would be.

“You know, we could always go back.” Mom almost sang the idea, and Cas cringed. “There’re still nine days until school starts for all of you. We could ditch your dad, and the rest of us could go back until then. Grammy and Pop-Pop would love it, and your brothers and sisters would be over the moon, especially Midge.”

Her littlest sister, Midge, had fallen in love with a kitten and cried for hours after they’d left the farm. If they went back, the kid would end up crying all over again. It didn’t seem fair to promise Midge happiness only to keep taking it away. Cas knew how that felt. She didn’t want her sister to end up like her.

When Cas didn’t respond, her mother said, “Well, think about it. I’ll talk to your father and let him know we might head back for a couple days. Once you fix your schedule today, we won’t have anything to do until school starts. We’ve already been back-to-school shopping, right?” Mom reached over and adjusted the gauzy, decorative silver-and-black scarf she’d insisted on looping around Cas’s neck this morning, then looked back toward the road. “It’s all going to be great. You’ll see.”