Willow by Kathi S. Barton Read Free Book Online Page B

that was more because she hated to lie to the one man she would love forever.
    “ It’s not like that. It was a kiss that I let get away from me. It should—”
    Her dad suddenly sat up in his chair. “Did he force you, baby girl? I’ll kill the son of a bitch. Alexander didn’t say…”
    “ Oh no, don’t stop now. What did my brother, who I might add isn’t long for this earth, have to say to you? Damn it all to hell in a hand basket.” She stood up to find her brother. “Is he still here?”
    “ Now Wills, don’t hurt him. He was just concerned, that’s all.” her dad started edging toward the door as he spoke. Whether to stop her or to warn Alexander, she didn’t know. But her brother chose that moment to step through the door.
    She lunged for him as her dad tried to push Alexander back. Willow was quicker and caught him around the neck before he could get away. Her dad didn’t move quickly enough and went down when she and Alexander did. She cuffed her brother in the mouth. There were a few stray punches, some to her and some she landed. She was just straddling her brother’s chest to drop his head on the tile floor a few times when ice cold water hit her in the face.
    “ Mother fuck!” Willow tried to get away from the spray, but it seemed to be following her everywhere. She moved off Alexander only to have the water follow her there too. She opened her mouth to scream at someone and heard her mother’s voice. The “you are so fucked” voice.
    “ One more, Willow Dawn James, one more cuss word and you will eat an entire bar of soap. Alexander Patterson James, get up from that floor this minute. And you.” She snapped at her husband of thirty-five years. “You are well grown and should know better.”
    “ Me?” her dad asked incredulously. “I was trying to keep her from hurting her brother.”
    A single raising of her hand had the three of them shutting up. Willow wanted to kick out at her brother, but her mother simply looked at her and she drew her foot back to her body.
    “ Who started this?”
    Willow opened her mouth to say Alexander had when her brother beat her to it, blaming her for the whole thing.
    “ I was coming in for breakfast when Wills attacked—”
    “ I most certainly did not,” she snapped at him. “You, you big-mouthed as…wiener head had to blab about my hickey. Why couldn’t you just—”
    “ I didn’t say anything until Mom cornered me in the kitchen last night. And if you ask me, it’s about time you get laid. You must be the oldest living virgin on the planet.”
    Pain ripped through her heart as silence blanketed the room. Her mouth hurt and so did her jaw. She was soaking wet sitting on the cold floor and none of that mattered as much as the embarrassment and humiliation she felt. They knew, all of them knew. She stood up and so did her father. She couldn’t look at any of them.
    “ Honey,” her dad started. “Don’t, baby. He didn’t mean to—”
    She brushed past him with a mumbled “excuse me,” left the kitchen, and went up to her room quickly.
    She heard Alexander shouting for her, her mom too. But she didn’t slow down. When she got to her room and locked the door, she let the tears fall. She went to her bathroom and with that door closed and locked too, she crawled into the tub and let go.
    Even over her sobs, she could hear someone at the door. Her cell phone went off twice in rapid succession, but she wasn’t in the mood to speak to them just yet. Willow wasn’t really mad at them…well, maybe her brother, but she knew she wouldn’t stay that way for long.
    This wasn’t the first time their mother had hosed them down to get them to stop fighting. But it was the first time in the house. Willow grinned when she thought about the look on Shasta’s face. Willow and Alexander were always fighting as kids. They never stayed angry with each other. But if either of them needed help with a bully or even another kid, they’d be the first