Page 76 of The Burning
“Apparently no one remembered that I don’t like lemon cake.” She said the words into my ear, but I knew at least her brother could hear.
I shot a glance at Karina’s dad, just to see his expression as his daughter was leaning into me, near my neck. He looked like he wanted me to die on the spot and that filled me with an indescribable joy. Fischer looked at me and at his sister, a silly stupid grin on his face. His tune had changed drastically over the last few days. I knew he was rooting for us.
“Want a beer?” Fischer offered.
“I’m driving.” I pulled out my car keys, dangling them on my index finger.
He nodded his head. “I was telling my dad how good you’ve been to me.”
Karina was staring at me, waiting for my reaction. I didn’t want to give her, or any of them, one.
“Thanks. Yeah, he’s been working really hard to help me get the duplex done before he leaves.”
“Where are you going, Austin? Another camping trip?” the stepmother asked.
Everything went silent, Karina’s hand squeezed my thigh, and I realized I had dropped a major fucking bomb on the table.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Karina
My mouth fell open.
Holy shit.
The color of Austin’s skin was slowly turning red, creeping up from his neck to his forehead.
“You’re not going back to your uncle’s?” our dad asked. His brows crinkled together and I could tell he was mentally going through a list of places Austin could be off to, but none of them were the Army . . .
Austin shook his head. There was no way out of the truth of it all except for Austin flat-out lying to our dad. He had been doing that very well all night.
“I’m not going back to . . .” my brother started. “I, uh . . . I joined the Army.” Austin’s words dropped onto the table. My dad’s eyes nearly blew out of his head, and Estelle made a noise I’d only heard in movies when someone’s surprised.
My dad cleared his throat. “Youwhat?”
Kael sat still as stone next to me. From his expression, I could tell that he was as surprised as I was that Austin had kept his enlistment a secret from our dad.
Austin sighed, pushing his plate away. “I enlisted. I’ve been working with a recruiter. I was going to tell you—”
My dad stood up. “When? Whenwere you going to tell me? Because you’ve been here for hours and just had the whole dinner at my house and didn’t say a damn word about it. You said you had a new job doing construction demo!” He pounded his fist against the table. The plates shook and his beer rocked, almost falling over.
Estelle jumped to her feet. “Honey,” she warned him, looking at Kael and then my brother, and finally me. This outburst was surely not what she had planned when she was sticking twenty-one candles through the delicate icing of this fancy birthday cake.
Austin was silent. Kael’s leg began to shake under my hand, and I felt like I was back in my teens preparing myself for Austin and my dad to go at it.
“I shouldn’t have expected anything less than lies from you,” my dad spit as he moved toward my brother.
Kael’s body pushed against my touch as he tried to stand up, but I did my best to stop him. There was no use getting between my father and brother, and Kael—of all people—really, really needed to stay out of it.
“Anything less from me? I thought you would be proud! And it’s not like you’ve set an example or encouraged either of us when it comes to our futures.” Austin stood up from the table to face our father. Even though he towered over him physically, I knew my brother was at least a little afraid of our father. He had always been, but right now Austin was somehow holding his own.
“I haven’t?” our dad responded in disbelief. “I’ve worked myself to the bone to provide for you. Both of you,” he added, seeming to suddenly remember I was sitting there.
“Yeah, maybe you did when we were kids, but not so much for the past decade. You preached to me about joining the service ever since I can remember, and now that I’ve done it, you’re pissed? What changed?” Austin interrogated the proud and arrogant man standing in front of him.
“You must have done this to spite me,” my dad hissed. “If that weren’t the case, you would have and should have come to me to help you do this.”
“Your help will always be the last thing I need.”
