Page 53 of Thicker Than Water
Maeve’s statement hovers in the air, dark and ominous as a storm cloud. She’s looking at me like nothing’s changed, like the room doesn’t crackle with charged particles, like the hair on my arms isn’t standing on end.
“You—” My voice fights me on its way out, wanting to cower in my throat. “You think Jason’sgladGavin was murdered?”
“Not glad. Relieved,” Maeve says. But I don’t see the difference.
Head cocked, she watches me as if trying to determine something. “Why did you ask me whether I thought Jason had reason to hurt him? Do you—” Her eyes narrow. “Do you think he did it?”
“I don’t know what I think, I’m—”
A creak on the stairs snatches the rest of my sentence. I jerk my head toward the front hall, straining for the source of the sound. But what follows is a nothingness so thorough it’s like someone’s holding their breath.
“Aiden?” I call.
A pair of feet thunk down the steps before reaching the floor. “Yeah?”
I spring from my chair and hurry down the hall, where Aiden’s gripping the banister with one hand, knucklebones white through his skin.
“Maeve’s here,” I say, “in the kitchen. Did you… did you hear us just now?”
Aiden chews the inside of his cheek, hollowing out one side of his face. It gives him a wounded look that compresses my chest, but when he speaks, his words are gruff with indignation. “No. I wasn’t listening to you. I was about to leave.”
“Leave for where?” It’s only now that I register Jason’s garment bag slung over his arm.
“Parker’s. A bunch of us are chilling there before the semiformal. His mom’s driving us to the school after dinner.”
“Oh. Well—” I waver between asking for details and insisting he stay. If he did overhear us, there’s so much I need to explain. But I don’t have the words yet, don’t have Sienna to help me craft a script. Despite my recent victory with Dale, talking to my son about his dad’s impending arrest is not the same as talking to a belligerent client.
“Does this mean you’re feeling better about the dance?” I ask. “Last night you were worried about kids saying things about Dad.”
Aiden scrunches his nose. “I wasn’tworried. I’ll be fine.”
“But if someone does say something to you—”
“I know, I know: ‘violence is never the answer.’?”
He’s quoting me, what I told him at the hospital after he explained the incident. I hadn’t known what to say to him then, couldn’t grapple with the fact that my son, who still seems so soft-bodied and vulnerable to me, like a turtle without a shell, shoved someone into a locker. So I’d fallen back on a cliché, a phrase that tasted strange, andhe wouldn’t even look at me. Instead, he glared at Jason and muttered,Then why the hell are we here?
“I’m gonna be late,” he says now.
“Do you have the cuff links?” I ask.
“Cuff links?”
“The ones you were looking for the other night. In our room.”
“Oh. Yeah. They’re in here.” He lifts the garment bag in a kind of shrug, then shifts his eyes to the banister. “Why did you ask if I heard anything? Did something happen with Dad?”
“No,” I say, too quickly maybe. I hate to lie to him, but I hate to hurt him more. “No, everything’s the same with your dad.”
Annoyance scribbles across his face, as if he senses all my secrets. Not just the arrest warrant, but Jason’s infidelity, too. I’ve been wrestling with how, or even if, I should tell him about Maeve. Just the thought of saying it—your father cheated on me—makes my tongue feel thorned, the roof of my mouth riddled with cuts, and I wonder if it’s better to never speak of it at all.
But as I look again at his garment bag, I remember I’m not the only one who’s leaving things unsaid.
“Honey, let’s step outside a minute.” I open the door and he hesitates, eyes wary, before following me out. I wait until the door is closed behind us, Maeve no longer in earshot. “When you were looking for Dad’s cuff links the other night…” I let the sentence trail off, giving him space to anticipate my question.
“What about it?”
“Well, is that…” I step toward him, trying not to notice how he steps back in return, a dance that keeps us apart. “Is that really what you were looking for? It seems like you were searching in places where the cuff links wouldn’t be. I’m not mad or anything. Just curious.”
