Page 135 of Always Love You More

The passenger door opens, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turn as Billy climbs into the back seat, Sam sliding in after him.

Her hair is even darker than usual, weighed down and wet. Black streaks run down her face, and I move to wipe it clean, my eyes following the dripping water that drops from her chin.

“What?” she asks, looking up at me through her wet lashes.

I lower my hand. “Nothing.”

“You’re looking at me weird.”

“Just missed you today,” I say quietly.

She smiles. “Missed you, too.”

“Can you swing by my house?” Billy asks, oblivious to the moment we’re having. “I wanna change before going over to the garage.”

“Sure,” I answer, shrugging off my flannel and handing it to Sam. I wait until she slides it on before pulling away from the curb.

Reaching into her bag, she grabs a cigarette and cracks the window. After she takes a drag, I hold out my hand, and she passes it to me. I bring it to my lips, inhaling, before I pass it back.

“How’d that presentation go?”

She shrugs. “Good, I think.” Leaning forward, she changes the radio station. “Everything go all right today?”

“Fine,” I respond. “Ryan called.”

She drops back in her seat.

I know she doesn’t like it when I fight, but she only asks, “What time?”

“Nine.”

“That early?”

“I just go when he tells me.”

She turns to Billy. “You’ll be working?”

“Yeah,” he answers. “Gonna be late.”

Sometimes, she’ll go to my fights to watch, but only if Billy goes with her. I can’t focus when nobody’s looking out for her.

I glance back at him in the rearview mirror. His body is hunched, his expression hard.

“What’s up with you?” I ask. “You’ve barely said anything.”

“Just shit at home,” he mutters.

Ever since everything with my old man, stuff has been tense with his parents. It was rough before, but it’s only gotten worse.

My father used to pay half the rent on the garage, maybe even more than half. After he died, Luke became the sole owner, and without my father’s money, he had to let two other mechanics go. He’s at the shop seven days a week, trying to keep up. Then Billy quit the band and started helping out as much as Luke will let him. They’re keeping it afloat, but just barely.

I tried to step in, but Luke wasn’t having it. He said he should be the one helping me. He wasn’t happy when I told him I wasdropping out and even more unhappy when he found out I was working with Marcus again, but there’s really nothing he can do.

I think that’s what upsets him the most—that he has nothing left to give. He’s still there for me, the closest thing to a real parent I’ve ever had, but he can’t bail me out of a life he’s trapped in, too.

Instead of supporting her husband, who’s stretching himself thinner than anyone should, Billy’s mother has only become more resentful. I’ve heard her say things around Billy,to Billy, that nobody should ever have to hear.

I don’t understand what Luke sees in her. She’s clearly not happy with her life. I mean, she’s so careless about the fact that she’s cheating on him that it’s like shewantsto get caught.