The music shut off abruptly, and Jackson cocked an eyebrow as we both stood up with wobbly legs to walk toward the kitchen. I was walking behind him when he stopped in his tracks, causing me to walk straight into his back.
“Watch it, Jackson.” I laughed as I went to side-step around him, only to find his mother staring at the two of us from across the room. We were fucked.
My heart started racing as I watched Mrs. Delvecchio’s eyes bounce back and forth between me and Jackson, before they settled on thealmost finished bottle of wine in Jackson’s hands. Shit, shit, shit. We had never been caught stealing the wine before, and he wasn’t even trying to hide it. I took in a large breath of air, trying to act as sober as possible.
“Are you kidding me, Jackson?” Marie’s nostrils flared, and I could see how red her face was, even with the dimmed lighting in the dining room. I was suddenly terrified of this woman—I had never seen her look like that before. She was hardly five feet tall, but I only felt about two feet tall with the way she was looking at us.
“I’m sorry Mrs. D—” She didn’t even let me say her full last name before holding up her hand to stop me from talking.
She walked toward us, and I braced for impact as she grabbed the bottle out of Jackson’s hands.
“When will the drinking stop!” Marie screamed so loud I flinched back, my hands involuntarily reaching for my ears to protect them from the sound. “Stealing our wine! Drinking every damn night! And you’re supposed to drive Addie home? You could kill her! You could kill yourself, Jackson!”
I was terrified. I had never seen this sweet woman yell like this. The way she yelled instructions in the kitchen during a rush didn’t hold a candle to how aggressively she was shouting now. But it didn’t feel like anger spewing from her anymore—it felt likefear.I wasn’t used to this type of screaming. The kind that came from being worried.
“Good!” Jackson yelled.
My mouth dropped open as I swung my head to look at Jackson. How could he say something like that? Good that he could kill himself by drunk driving? How could he act like he had no problem with doing something so reckless—withdying?His face was red with anger now, too, his jaw clenched as he stared down at his tiny mother.
I could never have predicted what happened next. Marie screeched so loud that I dropped to a crouch in terror as I watched her throw the wine bottle across the dining room. It shattered against the wall, and the remainder of the wine splattered like blood across the clean tables and floor.
She raised her left hand, and my first reflex was to run. I didn’t want to watch her hit him—Icouldn’t. I didn’t want to watch him yell at her, either. I couldn’t hear him say he wanted to die again. I wasn’t just scared—I was absolutely petrified.
I was out the door and down the street, my sneakers smacking across the pavement, when I felt a hand grab my shoulder. This time I was the one to scream at the top of my lungs as I blocked my face, preparing for impact.
“Jesus, Addie. It’s just me,” I heard Jackson say.
I was crouching on the ground again, my hands covering my ears. Jackson grabbed my wrists to slowly take my hands away from my head, and when I opened my eyes, he was in the same position in front of me. He had a red welt growing on his right cheek; his mom must have slapped him with her left hand—there was a perfect mark from the band of her wedding ring. I couldn’t believe she actually hit him. His eyes were heavy with remorse as he looked at me.
“Hey . . . Hey, don’t cry.”
I didn’t even realize I had started crying until Jackson reached forward to wipe his thumbs across my cheeks.
“I can’t. I can’t be around that,” I choked out.
I flashed back to Peter in the kitchen at Christmas, smashing the dishes and destroying everything in a rage. The time he tried to drag me down the street outside of Delvecchios’. Him and my mom having screaming matches over my head as I grew up.
“I’m sorry, Addie. I’m so sorry.” And then he was hugging me, rocking us back and forth and trying to calm me down. “Just let us take you home. Come on, Marie’s waiting in her car.”
I shook my head against him. I couldn’t be in the car if he was going to fight with her more. “I don’t want to hear you both yell again.”
“We won’t, I promise. I promise,” he whispered against my hair.
I heard the crunch of tires in the road, and Jackson helped me stand up. I hurried to wipe the snot that was leaking from my nose as Marie pulled her car up.
Jackson opened the back door for me, and surprised me when he slid in beside me. He tucked me into his side, and for the first five minutes of the drive, none of us said a word. I could hear Marie sniffling, and every time I heard her try to suppress a sob, it made silent tears fall from my face. Jackson wiped each one away with his thumb, pressing a kiss to the side of my head each time. I thought I should tell him to stop—that his mom could see us—but I couldn’t make myself speak.
“I’m sorry you had to hear that, Addison,” Marie said as she pulled into the driveway. Everything felt wrong. I felt like I was slipping away from this family; like I was stuck in a bad dream, trying to run toward something but my legs wouldn’t move.
“Please,” I started to say before I choked on a cry, “don’t hit Jackson again.”
She choked out a sob and I opened the car door before anything else could be said, rushing toward my front door.
“Addie, wait.” I turned around to find Jackson standing on the path with his hands in his pockets. His bow tie was still loosened around his neck, and the top three buttons of his dress shirt were undone, my mascara smeared across the white of it. The porch’sautomatic light flickered on, and I suppressed another cry when the welt on his cheek was illuminated by the light. Everything was falling apart.
“Jackson, don’t ever say you want to die again,” I managed to say before turning around and walking through the front door, locking the deadbolt behind me.
Chapter 31