Page 197 of Spicy Ever After
And I need to take a breath.
She’s right. Her parents did a shitty thing. But she’s okay. She sounds okay. And I need to listen. Because she might be trying to tell me something important.
And it might not be easy.
“Go on,” I tell her after the silence stretches.
Hattie clears her throat. “I’m learning some things.”
“Like?” I ask gently.
“Like… ways to handle difficult or uncomfortable situations… and experience and express my emotions differently. Practice acceptance… And how I can communicate my needs and boundaries… And… other hard things.”
I want to be snarky and ask her just how recently her program covered interpersonal communication. Yesterday? This morning?
I swallow the urge instead. “Yeah?”
“The… um… the ultimate goal of being here—at Summit House—is…”
I swear, I can almost hear her summoning courage.
Hattie, my girl, I want to tell her, you can do this.
“To, um… launch.”
I frown. “To launch?”
Not what I was expecting.
“Yeah.” Hattie laughs nervously. “To… to live independently.”
I blink. “And you couldn’t tell me this before?”
She scoffs. “No. Of course not.”
“Why not?” I seriously don’t understand why this is the thing that could break us. “Why is going away to learn some life skills something you can’t trust me with?”
Hattie gasps.
“Beck… i-it’s not that I don’t trust you?—”
“It sure as hell is,” I blurt.
Silence.
“No. No-no-no—” she insists. “It’s—it’s not that I don’t trust you. I do trust you. It’s… that… I…”
Her voice sounds tight, almost strangled.
“You what?”
“Need too much.” The defeat in her tone is so heavy the words almost knock me back on my boots.
“Need too much?” What the hell is she talking about? “That’s bullshit. You don’t need too much.”
Hattie snorts. “My parents disagree.”
The brakes fail. I’m careening over the edge. “Fuck your parents. In all the time we’ve spent together, I’ve never once thought you were needy, Hattie.”
