Page 56 of When You Stayed
She pushed through the door, and I followed as closely as possible.
“How do you know?” I asked as anxiety hummed through my chest.
Ford had a few lights on, illuminating the laminate flooring. White, rustic cabinets hung in his kitchen, with Formica counters that looked almost purple. Horrible.
Taryn softly replied, “Ellie has a big recital tonight, which means their whole family is there.”
I watched my feet, seeing the laminate on the floor was brown. There once was a time that all our families would be there for Ellie’s recitals. Back when our chosen family was all still here, and Dad didn’t force everyone to leave out of fear.
“My God, this is awful.” Taryn shook her head, making her way to the dining room.
I gasped. “Is that an outdoor patio table?”
The circular shape took up most of his dining room, and there in the center where an outdoor umbrella would slide into, he had a baton of some kind. Curiosity got the best of me as I leaned over the table and pulled it out. With my fingers around the base, I quickly snapped it down toward the floor, seeing several inches of thick rubber extend.
“He has a baton as the centerpiece on his table.”
Taryn made some sort of humming sound before taking it from me. “I guess you never know when you’re going to have to beat someone to death.” If she only knew how close Ford had already come to that, and with no assistance from a rubber baton. His fists did the job just fine.
With a small shake of my head, I moved my gaze to the rest of the furniture. Taryn did as well, which had her groaning. “Oh my God, the lawn chairs… Have Callie and Wes even seen their son’s house?”
I ran my hand over the metal bar of one of the chairs. “There’s no way.”
Taryn suddenly stopped in her tracks as she made some sort of pained sound.
“It’s…wicker, Royce. He has a wicker couch,” Taryn said, like the couch was a mystical creature.
I came shoulder to shoulder with her and saw what she was seeing. Sure enough, the two-seater couch looked like something from the seventies. “Wicker anddenim…how is that possible?”
She turned toward me with huge eyes as a smile spread over her face.
“I know you want the cat, but can we please do my idea?”
Shit, I was there for Gus, and I hadn’t even tried to find him. Searching corners of his house and around the floor, I aimlessly asked, “What’s your idea?”
“I’d need to see his bedroom first in order to tell you.”
My poor stomach rolled again. “I don’t think we should, let’s just steal some stuff and go. Gus? Here kitty kitty.”
Regardless of my protests, my sister continued through the house until we made it to a small hallway with two closed doors in front of us.
“You take that one—” she gestured to the side.
I shook my head. “Absolutely not, we go together into each one.”
With a sigh, Taryn grabbed the knob for the first door and pushed it open. The room was dark, but the curtains were open, so the streetlights helped illuminate the room.
My hand shot to the wall where I flicked on the light. “Gus?”
A basic queen-size bed sat in the center of the room, with a sheetand a singular, thin, scratchy-looking blanket. One pillow. No headboard. Gus would hate it here. There was no chance he was in the house anywhere. Surely, he’d run away if Ford ever tried to keep him here.
Across the room was a dresser with a flat-screen TV perched on top.
“How does he live like this?” Taryn sighed. “There’s not even a nightstand for his phone charger. It just sits on the floor, plugged into the wall like a little sad, pathetic wire.”
I stepped over the threshold and moved closer to the dresser, seeing a few framed pictures. One was of him and Connor when they were kids. Another was of his family. I traced his smile with my eyes, feeling a strange warmth in my stomach at the sight. His grin was beautiful and full of life, like he had a whole secret identity inside that smile where he went to a bank job, came home to a loving wife and kids, with a dog.
He looked so complete…so unlike each time he looked at me. My mind suddenly served a memory of each time Ford had looked at me like that but I didn’t know what to make of it.
