As I close the door behind me, I pick up my pace, walking straight down the driveway and out of the gates. The woods rise up quiet and dark around me as tears of frustration and humiliation begin to stream down my face. I don't know where I'm going—I just need to get away from that house.
“Hey! Wait!” I hear a woman's voice call out behind me, but I keep walking. “You're Brynn, right?”
I freeze and take a deep breath before turning around. “Look, if you're a reporter or something, I'm really not in the mood.” I can just see her blonde hair reflect the moonlight as she takes a couple steps closer.
“I'm not a reporter. I'm Nate's mom, Eileen.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Are…are you alright?” she asks, taking another step toward me.
“I'm, I'm just—” I break off as a sob escapes my lips. “I'm sorry.”
“It's alright. I've got some tissues in my car—why don’t you come sit down for a moment.”
I nod. In a saner moment, I might have questioned the safety of getting into a strange woman's car, but this is not a sane moment. She wraps her arm around my shoulders and leads me to the passenger side of her blue sedan, parked just down the street from the gates of the house. She sits me down then hurries around to the driver's side and gets in.
“Here you go,” she says, pulling a box of tissues from the floor of the back seat.
“Thanks,” I murmur rather incoherently. She flips on the car's overhead light. “Oh!” I exclaim. “You're the woman from the boathouse parking lot.”
She smiles wryly. “I thought you saw me that day. I'm not a stalker or anything. It's just, sometimes I like to get a glimpse of him, that's all. See what he looks like, how he's doing.”
“I understand.”
“But what's happened to you? Is there anything I can do?”
“It's Pierce,” I murmur as more tears fall from my eyes at the mention of his name.
“What'd he do now?”
“He…he made a pass at me at work. I mean, I actually wasn't sure that's what it was right after, but then tonight he got on my case about something I didn't even do, and that's when I knew for sure.”
“Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry,” she says, rubbing my shoulder. “Pierce has a serious case of entitlement. He thinks that anything with a vagina is fair game, even his stepdaughter, it seems.”
“I mean, I already knew he was an asshole from the way he treats Nate, but I just hadn't felt it directed at me yet.”
She stills. “He doesn't treat Nate well?” she asks quietly.
“Oh, oh, I'm sorry,” I reply, looking at her through bleary eyes. “He's…he's very hard on Nate. He calls him entitled, selfish, when I think those are really things he knows deep down are true about himself.”
“My little Nate,” she murmurs to herself.
“But he's really…Nate is a good person, you should know that. Well, to be honest, at first I thought he was more like Pierce, but that's just a cover. Maybe it's that half his genes are yours, or maybe his father raised him to be a better person than he is himself, I don't know. But he's smart, funny, hardworking…”
“Thank you,” she says, taking my hand. “I'm sorry you have to go through this. Did you tell your mom?”
“She found out at dinner, but…” I shake my head. “She's completely under Pierce's spell. She gets like that about men, but I've never seen her quite so enamored of one before him. She looks a lot like you, actually,” I realize, studying her beautiful, slightly lined face.
“Pierce certainly has a type,” she says with a sad smile.
“There's another thing you should know…about Nate…I found out after you called: he thinks you left because he was too much for you, because he was a bad kid, basically. I tried to talk to him about it, really, but he wouldn't hear it.”
“Nate was a wonderful child, and even if he'd been the devil incarnate, I still wouldn't have left him.”
“Yeah, I figured as much. He said that the night before you left, you and Pierce had a big fight over him, because he misbehaved, and that's why you left the next day.”
“Oh, god,” she murmurs, covering her face in her hands. “He must have felt so alone, so responsible. No…I remember that fight, because it was our last. We'd been to some big gala that night, and we'd seen this woman there who was in our circle at the time. I knew he'd cheated before, but he promised me he'd stopped, and then at this party, I could just tell by the way they looked at each other that they were sleeping together. I confronted him about it at home, and he barely even bothered to deny it. I was yelling at him, asking what kind of example he was setting for his son. I left…I never thought that would be one of the last times I'd see Nate. I never thought that was even a possibility.”
“I want to help you,” I say suddenly.
“What? No. You have too much going on already,” Eileen says, shaking her head emphatically.
“No, I want to. Not just for you, either. For Nate. He needs you in his life. I can tell that you're good, and kind, and he needs people like that to love him. Please let me help you.”
“I don't want to put you in a position…I don't want to jeopardize anything. You and Nate, you have a special relationship.”
“Um, sure, yeah, he's a great guy,” I hedge.
“Brynn…it's OK. I know.”
I swallow. “Know what?”
“When I saw you that day at the boathouse, I could just tell. At first I thought you were his girlfriend, and then I realized who you were, and I saw the way you two looked at each other. You're in love,” she whispers. I begin to tug at my hair nervously. Shit. Shit. “You've acted on your feelings?” It's all I can do to nod. “Do your parents know?” I shake my head. “Brynn, you don't have to be embarrassed. Life's messy. People find love wherever they can. Hell, it's not like you're breaking any laws.”
My tears begin to slip down my face again, renewed. “I can't believe it's so obvious.”
“Maybe I just caught you two in an unguarded moment. But, see, if Nate and you are together, I don't want to come between you.”