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.""You shouldn't.It wasn't your fault any more than it was mine." That statement struck close to home, and Addie hoped her guilt on the subject wasn't obvious when she said it."Drake and I will be at my parents' house in Jensen for Christmas, but I'll help you deliver something if we're still in town."Rory knew exactly what he was going to get her, but decided not to tell Addie or Drake.He knew at least one of them would object, and he didn't want to deal with that."It better not be an engagement ring," Drake said."As if I would have someone else deliver a ring for me, you arse.""Okay good, I was just making sure, because you're acting like an ass in general with this girl.""Fuck ye, Drake.I'm not the one who locked myself in my shop for a week to make a piano bench."Drake put his hands up in surrender and smiled at Rory."I'm just saying, maybe you should rethink the Christmas present thing since she's not really talking to you right now and everything's still really fresh.""Maybe ye should just mind yer own business."Drake shrugged challengingly."Yer the one who brought it up," he said, rolling his R's in a perfect imitation of Rory's accent."Screw the lot of ye," he said, pointing at Drake and Addie.She stuck her bottom lip out."Okay, I'm sorry for that, but screw ye, Drake." He sighed again."I hate that I have to leave right now.What if she needs to go to the doctor or something?""She's fine," Addie said."We know who to call if she needs anything.And I told you I'd send updates."Rory left the room in a huff, and Addie stared at Drake with wide eyes.Drake shrugged."I guess he feels like it's his fault.""You think that was all about guilt?" Addie asked."No way! He's smitten.""He's not smitten.Rory's not like that.""You're wrong," Addie said."I can't believe you don't see it.""I think he feels responsible," Drake said."He'll stop once she gets better.I feel for him.It's hard to see her all beat up like that.""We'll see," Addie said.Chapter 14Christmas snuck up on me.It had been over two weeks since I got home, which meant my bruises were just about three weeks old.They were faint, but I knew where they were.There was still a greenish-yellow quality to the side of my face that I'd be glad to see fully disappear.Thankfully, it was easily disguised with makeup.I was reluctant but excited to get my feet wet with human interaction.My aunt and her family got to our house the night before, which was Christmas Eve, and would stay until after the first.Cincinnati is cold, and they planned their vacation in December every year rather than in the summer.They'd been coming for as long as I could remember.Aunt P.J.and Uncle Jamey were both professors at a University.My cousins were close to my age, and we always loved family get-togethers and hated that we lived so far apart.The two oldest were twenty-one-year-old twins, one boy and one girl whose names were Sam and Charlotte.Thomas was seventeen, and he'd always been close to Steven.Sam and Charlotte were both still living at home since they went to the college where their parent's taught and they lived close to the campus.The twins each had to miss a Christmas or two over the years to be with whoever they were seeing at the time, but mostly, the whole family came down.I always looked forward to it.This year was slightly different just because I was still in a peculiar frame of mind from the incident, but I tried to stay positive.I knew it'd be nice to have the distraction, and I was extremely comfortable with them, so it was a positive thing, and I tried to see it that way.Dad asked me if I wanted to have them call off their trip—said he could take care of that discreetly if I wanted him to, but I refused.Charlotte hadn't even noticed the bruises, but if she did, I'd just give her the same story I'd given Steven—that I slipped and fell.My parents and I talked about it before hand, and decided it was best if we kept the story short and sweet with my little brother.First I had the flu, and then I slipped on some stairs and fell on my face.We didn't have to account for my car, which was recovered from the Target parking lot, cleaned up, and returned to me within a day by someone Tom knew.Rain had come in through the moon roof, but otherwise there was no damage.My phone was in my bag and got soaked in the rain, so I had to get a new one, which was a pain.I went ahead and got a new number while I was at it, since there's just something about being abducted that makes you a little paranoid.My cousin Charlotte, who was staying in the guesthouse with me, was currently in the living room taking a selfie to send me for her contact information on my new phone.It was Christmas Day, which happened to fall on a Tuesday.We usually ate a huge late lunch that was always an elaborate meal from a catering company called Carson's that my parents used all the time.My mom had been on a Martha Stewart kick lately, though, and had mentioned cooking Christmas dinner herself.My dad was strictly against it, and I didn't know until this morning, when I went to the house and saw my mom up to her ears in dirty bowls and spoons, that she won the argument.My aunt P.J.hated to cook and was sitting at the bar being no help whatsoever.My mom didn't want it anyway.She was a sight.She had on an apron and was stirring, mixing, and pouring like a madwoman.I didn't have a history of loving my mom's cooking, but she'd been on a jag with it recently, and was actually getting a little better at it.She and my dad weren't the happiest of couples, but they both pretended to love each other during the holidays, which was a nice fantasy to look forward to every year.I hoped my mother's cooking wouldn't compromise the happiness factor, but everyone seemed to be in good spirits when I was in the main house this morning.Charlotte and I had been hanging out in my place, and were told to be back for lunch at 2PM.She was spacing out on her phone when I joined her in the living room."Did you get that picture?" she asked.I took my phone from the back pocket of my jeans and stared down at it."Aw, that's cute," I said.She was my opposite in so many ways, and I'd always thought she was so beautiful.Where I was blonde with light eyes, she had dark hair and eyes with fair skin like Addie.She always had cute, trendy hairstyles, and wasn't afraid to do things like cut her bangs at a diagonal or try some cool, unconventional hair color.She'd also been collecting tattoos since she was eighteen, but her mom knew nothing of this, and she always got them in places that were easily hidden.I stared down at her picture thinking about how cute she was.It ran in the family.Her brothers both had dark features and were at least as handsome as she was beautiful.Sam and Charlotte turned twenty-one since we last saw each other, and I knew they'd want to go out while they were here—she'd already mentioned it.I was spacing out thinking about the prospect of going out and how I felt about it when I got a text.I'd been looking at her picture, so I was staring at the screen when it came in.The contact information didn't come up, but that didn't mean a whole lot since about half of my contacts were lost with the old phone.I barely glanced at the number anyway.What was the sense in trying to figure out who it was when I could just read the text?I stared down at it.Unknown number: "I got your new number from Addie, but she has no idea, so don't be mad at her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]