Crash Point-epub by Mari Carr Page A

for more than a few days at a time.”
    “So you became the caregiver.”
    He nodded. “Yeah. I guess so.”
    “It was the same for Zac and Noah. They kept the house as clean as they could while their mom was strung out. Zac made sure Noah did his homework, got something for dinner, put him in bed at a reasonable hour. Parents shouldn’t do that to their kids.”
    Blake turned to face her. He’d avoided looking at her for fear of seeing pity in her eyes. There were a lot of things he could take from her, but sympathy wasn’t one. What he saw instead was anger. Strangely that helped. Made Blake feel like they were on the same page. “I’m not making excuses for what I did, Chloe. I’m not playing the poor pitiful me card. My dad was a lousy excuse for a person, but the choices I made were mine. Right or wrong, I can’t blame him for what I did. All I can do is hope to make you understand why I stole the money, why I left.”
    She reached out and took his hand in hers, giving it an encouraging squeeze. “So tell me about that night.”
    “We’d told your mother we were going to the movies, but we actually snuck into that old shed behind your girlfriend’s house.”
    Chloe laughed. “Her family was on vacation. You brought those sleeping bags and threw them on the floor. You’d bought a rose and scattered the petals on them. I thought it was all completely romantic.”
    He was glad she remembered that part of the night with fondness. “We were pretty damn horny most of the time.”
    “God,” she joked. “That’s a mild word for it. We were ravenous, insatiable. We couldn’t walk three steps without touching and we couldn’t touch without it sparking something hotter.”
    “I remember. We did it in two public restrooms, the backseat of your brother’s car, no less than half a dozen times around this lake and God only knows where else.”
    “We were young. For me, sex was new. Sometimes, when I looked at you, it was almost painful how much I wanted you.”
    He understood that. He’d felt the same way back then. Hell, he’d felt that way since bumping into her two weeks ago. He went to bed every night with a physical ache caused by longing.
    “You had to be home by midnight, but we were a little late.”
    Chloe nodded. “We were a lot late. I used the hidden key under the mat in the backyard, thinking I could sneak in through the back door in the kitchen.
    “But Mama Lewis was sitting there, waiting for you. I was surprised that she didn’t yell at us. Whenever I pissed my dad off, the whole neighborhood knew. He’d cuss me up one side and down the other, then finish it off with a punch or two.”
    Chloe winced. “My mother never hit me or my brothers. And she said yelling was never a good way to express an opinion.”
    “Yeah. She just looked at us and said she was disappointed. She explained how worried she’d been that we’d been in an accident. How much it would kill her to lose you. I swear I felt way worse after that conversation than I ever did when my dad yelled at me.”
    “Punishment through guilt and disappointment,” Chloe said. “I totally intend to use it with my kids. It’s very effective.”
    They laughed together quietly. Then Chloe sobered up. “You came back that night. You knew where we hid the key.”
    Blake nodded. “When I got back to my apartment, the neighbor was waiting for me. Said my dad had been arrested for getting into a fight. I figured he’d gotten drunk and punched some guy at a bar. It had happened before and the cops just made him sleep it off in the drunk tank, then sent him home the next day. The neighbor said this time was different. He said my dad was in real trouble and he needed money for bail. I dug through all my hiding spots, but I could only come up with about fifty bucks. I didn’t have anyone else to ask.”
    “You didn’t ask.” There was no tone of accusation, just the statement of fact. He hadn’t asked. He’d simply taken.
    Blake