Moment of Impact by Lisa Mondello Read Free Book Online

say, pulling my hand away. But Gus’s smoky eyes never leave mine. They penetrate me so deeply, I can feel my skin burning more than it had when it was over the hot flames. And I want to burn with him. It surprises me just how much I want that. But not with my roommates thirty feet away as witnesses.
    I hear the screen door slam as Heather walks inside. Penny is sitting on the railing, occasionally looking out at the ocean and then at me. She’s worried. I can tell. But Penny is always suspicious about men. I begin to wonder what she knows about Gus that isn’t obvious.
    Okay, yes, he’s been in jail. He told me himself that he was on parole for fuck’s sake! What was that all about?
    I should be scared. For all I know he murdered his family when he was ten and spent all this time in juvie. Except…it can’t possibly be something like that. He wants to play a badass, but there is an innate gentleness about him that I can’t ignore.
    He was being suffocated and I know suffocated. Gus has a wall wrapped tightly around him as if it were a blanket. And I understand those walls, too. Lord knows I’ve spent my life putting up walls so I could please my parents. There are days I wonder if they know me at all. Did they ever even want me? Or was I their reason for conversation at the dinner parties they held with all their uptight friends? I’d listened in enough times at the conversation to know that bragging was as big an art form as dancing. The only difference is that my parents didn’t get sore legs and feet from it.
    “You went somewhere again,” Gus says.
    I realize I did and it sends a flash of fear skirting through my body. It’s not good to wander, even if it’s only in my mind. When I wander, I remember things I don’t want to recall.
    “Don’t do it again or I’ll have to take over the grill.”
    I chuckle because…I don’t know why. I feel light, almost like I do when I’m dancing. Except my feet are firmly planted on the concrete patio.
    I hand him the spatula. “Be my guest.”
    Gus had been quiet the rest of the evening. He manned the grill while Heather, Jenna and I set the table with everything we needed. We anchored napkins and paper plates with glasses and beer cans to keep the wind from blowing them off the table. Bobby, Jenna’s boyfriend, arrived with a twelve pack of beer that was gone before dinner was through.
    Jenna had been quiet during most of dinner and didn’t seem like her normal self. Bobby had been by her side the entire time. And when he wasn’t, he was watching her. Gus and Bobby talked about sports, something I couldn’t be a part of since sports was never my thing. And when dinner was over, Heather disappeared somewhere down the beach. She was most likely going to the Windjammer. She wasn’t scheduled to work. At least, she wasn’t dressed for it. But Jason was there and it was a sure bet she wanted to see him.
    “I’m headed to bed,” Jenna said with Bobby by her side. “We need to get up early to catch the ferry. We’re headed to Boston for the day.”
    “You’re going on the mainland?” Penny asked.
    “Yeah, do you need us to pick something up for you?” Bobby asked.
    “If you could just drop off some letters at any of the post offices on the mainland, that’d be great.”
    Jenna frowned. “Why not just mail them from the post office in town?”
    Penny waved her off with her hand. “You know how long it takes anything to get mailed to and from the mainland. It’ll get there faster if you mail it from Boston.”
    “Okay. Just leave whatever you need mailed on the kitchen table and I’ll pick it up when we leave,” Jenna says. She yawns as if the beer was getting to her and making her tired. But I know that Jenna hadn’t had any to drink. She also didn’t eat much.
    “Goodnight,” I say as Bobby takes her by the hand and leads her up to Jenna’s room.
    “I wonder what they’ll be doing in Boston,” I say, clearing the table of the last of the