Page 19 of Quiet Obsession
He looks angry.
“Millie,” he says, and my body picks a temperature.
Hot.Blazinghot.
It’s been almost a year since I felt something other than the coldness that’s become my normal, along with the silence.
5
Creed
I’ve never seen Millie upright, healthy, and with her eyes open.
Now, as Hyde steps aside, revealing his little sister, the first thought I have is: she looksnothinglike her brother. She’s soft, short, cheeks pink, so fucking delicate while she shrugs her sleeves lower, hiding her dainty fingers.
Hyde’s taller than a tree, though still shorter than I am. Built like a bear without having to kill himself at the gym. It’s genetic. His father’s equally broad-shouldered. It’d be comical if he were shorter, but it works on his six-foot frame.
I imagined Millie taller. I imagined hazel eyes, high cheekbones, and Hyde’s stoic demeanor, butshe’s the exact opposite. The top of her golden-blonde head ends below my collarbones. She’s skinny, her dusty pink jumper swallowing her whole and ending mid-thighs. She stares at me with one deep-blue eye, the other half-blue, half-hazel andfuck... if that isn’t enough to floor me, her full, perfectly heart-shaped lips sure are.
“Hey, Millie,” I say.
She opens her mouth, a greeting at the tip of her tongue, maybe a question, or my name, but she says nothing instead. Pinching those pouty lips, she seals herself behind a wall of silence.
Two hands grasp my shoulders as Dash peeks out of the house. “Hellyes, Mini Ward! Good to see I’m not the only one who gets an immediate cold shoulder.”
She relaxes but doesn’t smile.
“Will you stand out here all night, or...?” he continues, extending his hand between Hyde and me.
She only hesitates a moment before taking it.
“Is tonight the night you have a drink with me, Mini?”
I follow them, my ears straining to hear her answer, but she just shakes her head.
“Oh, come on. Just one.”
Another headshake instead of a simpleno, and my pulse spikes. My hands ball into fists as I rein in the frustration creeping up my spine. I knew this was a possibility. I knew she might not talk to me right off the bat.
She needs time. She just fucking met me. She just fucking got here. But the same was true when she met Noah, yet he got ahiwithin ten seconds according to Hyde.And she’s been talking to Dash, too, so why the sudden muteness?
We enter the kitchen where Dash makes a dash for the fridge.
“I’m starving,” he groans. “Got anything good here?”
“You ate forty minutes ago,” Noah reminds him. “You’re fucking insatiable.”
He pulls a chessboard from his backpack, calling Millie over with a look. She takes a seat opposite him, shoulders dropping an inch, only tohike back up when I sit beside Noah.
I glance at Hyde, cocking an eyebrow.
Did he tell her? Is that why she’s not speaking?
Shame and anger curdle my stomach. He fucking promised he wouldn’t. I was severely concussed that night. In pain, clutching broken ribs with a broken arm and bleeding from my broken nose. I wasoutof it. I wasn’t thinking straight.
Well, that’s a fucking lie. I knew exactly what I was doing. Exactly how selfish I was. The fact I hadn’t anticipated the consequences doesn’t matter. The damage was catastrophic.
Millie almost died because I couldn’t keep my shit together.
