Picture Perfect Love Read online

  Only I’ve never told him so.

  He’s never told me either, but I like to think that his actions show it. He’s always coming to my rescue, popping me out of basement hell jail, and making sure to feed me when my mother leaves me with no money and not enough food to last while she’s gone. She doesn’t even keep a large pantry, only buys exactly what she needs to cook for dinner. She’s always saying that having more than that is wasteful, and I don’t disagree, not really, but I’m tired of always going to bed hungry.

  “Warning heard. I won’t blame you.”

  Her lips thin. “Go spend the rest of the day with him, but before you come back, I expect you to break things off.”

  “What?”

  “If you don’t, then I won’t help you with the cost of school.”

  “But you promised. You said that if I got into college—the ones you preapproved—that you would pay. I only applied to those.” The irony of my situation is that we’re actually not poor, but my mother refuses to spend money on things I’ll outgrow or things she can pass down to me, like clothes and shoes. She doesn’t believe in haircuts either, not beyond what she can do with scissors. It’s a good thing that I like my hair really, really long.

  She shrugs. “It’s either Laird or college. You can’t have both.”

  My mouth trembles, because she has me between a rock and a hard place. The colleges she approved are on the other side of the country, small girls-only colleges that are private, expensive, and exclusive. Laird and I could never be together while I went there, but he assured me he could wait a year until he graduated from high school, and then simply attend college near whatever one I chose, but we’d trick my momma into believing that he was staying in state.

  He’s a big dreamer and schemer, and he has everything figured out for us.

  But he’s never told me he loves me.

  “I don’t want to give him up.” I try to appeal to her as a mother. “He’s my only friend, and he keeps the bullies away.”

  “Bullies are a fact of life. Better you learn how to deal with them instead of having him fight your battles.

  Oh, the irony. I live with a bully who happens to have given birth to me. “What if I promise to break up with him right after graduation? That’s only six months away.”

  For a scant second, I think she might go for it, but then she says, “He could do a lot of damage in six months. I won’t have it. The Kings get what they want far too easily as is.”

  I don’t understand her obsession with the Kings at all. She’s never explained it to me. “That might have been true in the past, but with Laird’s dad and the business, I think that they aren’t so blessed anymore.”

  “Then you certainly don’t need to be around Laird. Our family has buried their dead and kept their secrets for centuries. I don’t need my only child to bind herself to them forever to do their bidding like some underpaid employee.”

  “They don’t treat me like an employee. Miss Jane Ellen is nice to me. She always says kind things and says nice things about you too.” Although I don’t know why because my momma never has nice or kind things to say about anyone, except the dearly departed. With them, she’s as tender as a newborn baby. She used to be the same way with me until I started to look more like my daddy than her.

  “Sugar wouldn’t melt in her mouth.” She sighs. “Ophelia, I have tried with you, but I’m not going to put up with this rebellious streak. Break up with the boy or find a new place to live.”

  My mouth drops in shock. While I hate it here, it’s the only home I know. “You’d kick me out?”

  “Cut you off completely. You want to run wild, then do it on your own dime.” She moves across the room, peering out the blinds in the closest window. “Besides, your golden boy isn’t so golden. Cates Boykins is dating him publicly while you’re his dirty little secret.”

  I reel back from the news. Cates has always made it known that she wants Laird, but he’s never given her the time of day. “That’s not true.”

  “If it’s not, then ask him where he was last night.”

  Blood starts to drain from my face. Laird had an away game last night, and Cates was cheering during it. Since I’m not allowed a phone, I have no idea what time he got home, but since he didn’t contact me via the walkie-talkies he got us, I assumed it was after midnight. It wasn’t uncommon for our sports teams to play against schools that were hours inland.

  “I don’t care what you heard. Laird wouldn’t...” I can’t even say the words. “He simply wouldn’t.”

  “They all would, given the chance.”

  I stare at her for a beat. “Even my daddy?” Is this why she’s so bitter? Had he cheated on her?

  “He certainly wasn’t surfing by himself that day.” She snaps the blinds closed and turns to me, her eyes carefully avoiding my gaze. “Go to Laird. Do the right thing and be back in time for supper. We’ll have your favorite meal tonight and bake brownies and watch whatever you want.”

  The little girl inside of me, the one who longs for the mother that loved me and showed it until I turned twelve, begs for me to do her bidding. My heart twists painfully at the carrot of affection she’s dangling, but I won’t be used or bribed.

  “Sounds good.” I’ll say anything to get out of here right now. I don’t wait for her reply. Instead, I barrel through the door, snatch up my tote bag, and practically sprint through the woods, finding the trail that Laird and I made that forks in the middle of it. To the right, it takes me to his house, and to the left, it leads me to our special place.

  Since I don’t want to see Laird right now, I head to our special place. Over the years, we’ve added things, cleaned it from top to bottom, and renovated it a little so that it’s more comfortable for us. My favorite addition is the hot water heater Laird found at the junkyard. We spent an entire afternoon figuring out how to hook it up to the house. Thankfully, YouTube came to the rescue.

  I’m panting hard by the time I get to the bungalow, my heart racing not just from the exertion but from what I’ll have to do.

  I’ve always known this day was coming. I always knew Laird was mine only temporarily.

  My heart thumps painfully against my chest as I fish the key out of my bag and unlock the door. Thankfully, Laird isn’t there, so I have time to think. I collapse on the bed in what we use as the bedroom. There’s a sleeping bag on the floor. Laird and I take turns sleeping on it.

  Truthfully, only Laird sleeps there, and it’s after we’ve had intense makeout sessions because I’m not ready to take things further. He says he doesn’t care, but maybe he does, and Cates is all too happy to give him what I won’t.

  I frown, covering my face with my hands. It’s so disloyal for me to think that. Groaning, I turn to my side and punch the pillow with my fist with a growl.

  “What’s got you so riled up, tiger?” Laird asks, and I nearly scream. He’s so good at avoiding the creaky floorboards that I didn’t hear him come in.

  “Nothing. Everything.” I don’t switch positions because I’m ninety-nine percent sure Laird will climb in the bed with me. Sure enough, the mattress dips under his weight, and I start to roll to my back, but Laird’s arms come around me, settling my body against his. “How was the game?”

  “We won. What’s wrong?” he asks, his lips in my hair. He’s so tall, so strong and fine that I don’t want to answer him. I want to stay in this position forever.

  “Cates Boykins.”

  “I take it your mom said we were together last night.”

  My heart stutters in my chest. “So it’s true.”

  “I gave her a ride home, and that’s it.” Laird nuzzles the back of my neck. “Her car wouldn’t start.”

  “No one else could take her?” I hate how jealous I sound, how small and almost accusing my tone has become. “You were literally the only person with a vehicle?”

  “By the time I helped coach put up the rest of the equipment, yes. He didn’t feel comfortable taking her hom
e by himself, and her parents weren’t home. I think she said they were in Vail or Bali or something. They travel a lot and leave her alone.”

  I don’t want to feel sorry for her, but I do. “Convenient.”

  Laird rolls me onto my back, his ocean blue eyes bright. “You’re turning green for no reason.”

  “Maybe I’m simply becoming my natural color and plan to return to the ocean to live out the rest of my days.”

  He frowns a little. “What about me? I only live on land.”

  I cup the side of his face, where the skin has slight stubble to it in the morning. It's so odd to think of him shaving all the time now when he hardly ever had to before. “That’s because you’re a King, and they always live in a castle.”

  “Little mermaid, I swear to you that nothing happened between Cates and me.” He dips his head, kissing me sweetly. “You’re the only one I see.”

  “Stop teasing me.”

  His brows crash together. “With the nickname or...? I mean what I said, love, all of it.”

  “No, I like the nickname, but,” I sigh thickly, tears making it hard to see. “We have to—I have to break up with you. You’ll probably be happier anyway, but if I don’t, then—

  “What’s her latest threat?” Laird asks, all casual as if my life as I know it isn’t being forced to go through a radical change—not that I’ve told him yet.

  “Homelessness and no college.”

  He shrugs. “So?”

  “So... so that’s a big deal.”

  “Nothing I can’t handle.”

  I punch him in the shoulder for his flippancy. “Not cool.”

  “Ouch,” he says, wincing a little. “You’re strong.”

  “Not as strong as you.” But I do know how to throw a punch. Laird showed me how to do it properly. I run my hand down his shirt and then under it to touch his abs. His stomach contracts at contact. “You’re hard as steel.”

  “Now I am,” he says, grimacing, but he doesn’t move or ask me to stop touching him. “Seriously, though, take a look around, we practically live here already.”

  I bite down on my lip. “Yeah, but next year...” I shake my head, tears slipping from the corners of my eyes. “Who knows?”

  “I know, and you should know too.” He gazes at me, his expression serious as anything. “I promised to take care of you always, no matter what happens.”

  “But so much could happen...” I turn my head, unable to look at his face, his perfectly sculpted face. “My momma said that the day my dad died... he was with another woman.”

  “Shit. Why would she tell you that?”

  “Because she hates me.”

  “I love you,” he says quietly. “I love you so much that it takes up my whole body and not just my heart.”

  Shocked, I yank my gaze back to his. “You love me?”

  He nods. “With every breath.”

  “I love you, too.” I try to smile, but I’m crying harder now. “I don’t... I don’t know what else to say.”

  “Nothing.” He falls to the mattress, holding me again. “Trust me to protect you and come up with a plan so that you to go to get college.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’m nonreturnable. You’re stuck with me.” He kisses me again, and I get caught up in the moment of it. The way his lips move over mine, the way his hands are in my hair, cupping my head as if I’m precious to him. I am precious to him. He’s always treated me that way. “Tell her we broke up, but it won’t be true for us. We’ll meet here every day after school.”

  “What about the weekends?”

  “Tell her you made new friends and want to do sleepovers or whatever girls do, and we can spend the night here.”

  I seek his mouth with mine, needing the contact and reassurance he provides. I love him so much. “Don’t pretend to date Cates, please.”

  “No problem. We’ll be best friends at school still,” he informs me between kisses. “I’ll have to find ways to kiss you without anyone telling on us.”

  I think about my momma calling me Laird’s dirty little secret. “I don’t want to be a secret.”

  “My family will know the truth,” he says, pulling away from me. “They know I love you, and you are invited to Sunday dinner. Surely, your momma can’t refuse an invitation from mine?”

  Surely my momma shouldn’t hate her own child, but... “Okay.”

  “Just wait, little mermaid. We’ll be free of all this soon.”

  Then our lips meet again, and we don’t talk for a very, very long time.

  Chapter Two

  Laird

  (17 years old)

  “SHE’S NOT HERE, LITTLE brother,” Duke says as he gives me a congratulatory hug. “Stop looking for her, or you’ll make Momma feel bad.”

  “Not trying to make anyone feel bad, but Ophelia promised to come to my graduation, which means her mother stopped that from happening.” Anger already burns brightly inside of me, but the thought of Ophelia being locked in the basement of her family’s funeral home for what has to be the hundredth time makes me unreasonably furious. Except what’s reasonable about locking children, much less anyone else, in a fucking basement to keep them in line?

  Duke pulls back, his dark blue eyes full of concern. He views Ophelia like a little sister, maybe even like another daughter. “Take River to her and then make your escape. I’ll stall for time at the house.”

  “Thanks.” I turn my attention to River. “Wanna go see Grandmomma?”

  My sweet, four-year-old niece grins at me, a miniature version of my brother, except she’s always happy, and holds out her chubby, little arms. “Let’s go.”

  Taking her from my brother, I make sure she’s clinging to me like a howler monkey in a palm tree before I plunge through the crowd of people. It’s supposed to be a happy day, one celebrating our achievements as seniors, aka our high school graduation. Honestly, I don’t give a damn about graduating. I couldn’t graduate soon enough. My life with Ophelia can start now.

  Sure, I’m only seventeen, but in a couple of months, I’ll be eighteen, and I plan on marrying her, taking her away from her crazy-ass mother, and keeping all the nightmares at bay forever.

  “Can we go surfing?” River asks, always up for a trip to the ocean.

  “Not today, baby duck. I have to take Ophelia out on a grownup date.”

  River leans back in my arms, a scowl on her face. “I wanna go on a grownup date.”

  “You can.” I spot my mother, talking to some of her friends, and head her way. “You can go on all the dates you want when you grow up... as long as I approve of the guy taking you out.”

  “I’m grown up now. Take me out, Laird.” She grabs my face with her hands, squishing my cheeks. “I’m going to marry you.”

  “You can’t marry me.”

  She narrows her eyes. “Why not?”

  With a laugh, I shake my head. “I’m your uncle, that’s why.”

  With a dramatic groan, she drops her head back. “That’s not fair.”

  “Sure, it is. Besides, I’m way too old for you and Ophelia needs me. She doesn’t have anyone else to take care of her. You have your dad and me, and Grandmomma, and—"

  “Aqua and Unca Deac and Unca Bear.” She sighs. “Fine. I’ll find someone else to marry so you can marry Lia.”

  “Thanks. You’re a pretty rad kid, you know that?” I say.

  “Yes, I do know,” she replies with a little roll her eyes. Then she spots my momma. “Grandma!”

  I allow River to wriggle out of my hold and run to my momma. “River, I was wondering when you would join me.” Momma smiles at me, her eyes full of pride. “Congrats, honey. I’ll watch over River so you can go and get Ophelia. Her mother promised me she could come to your party.”

  Her mother also promised to allow Ophelia to come to my graduation. “Thanks. I shouldn’t be too long.”

  “Do what you have to do, as long as you’re respectful.”

  “Yes, ma’a
m.” I take off, dodging people left and right as I head to my jeep. In no time at all, I’m out of the parking lot and speeding down the beach road. Ten minutes later, I slam on the brakes, throw the gear into park, and jump out—no doors helps with that feat.

  The only cars in the drive are the shiny black limo and a matching hearse, which means Mrs. Randolph has gone for the day and most likely left Ophelia at home.

  “Please don’t let her be in the basement,” I whisper as I jog around to the back of the house. I jimmy the lock and head inside, calling out Ophelia’s name.

  Nothing.

  Son of a bitch. Her mother has locked her in the basement again.

  Heart racing, I yank open the door marked office and tug on the string connecting to one lonely lightbulb that illuminates the stairwell. Even if my girlfriend didn’t live in a funeral home, I’d think this was creepy as fuck. It’s dark, drab, and painted in an olive green color that reminds me of insane asylums in horror movies. At the bottom of the stairs is another door, the deadbolt in place.

  I call Ophelia’s name as I unlock it and swing open the door. Ophelia’s eyes meet mine, her tearstained face pale. She sways a little, and I rush to catch her before she falls.

  “Laird,” she breathes my name like a prayer as she clings to me. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to watch you walk across the stage.”

  “Don’t apologize.” I lift her in my arms, glancing around the room. Dead bodies are housed in metal coffins that slide into the wall. This time, none of them are on tables, waiting for Ophelia to make their faces look alive. “Are you hungry? Because I could eat an entire bushel of oysters.”

  “You know I’m hungry.” She glances at the ground, then back at me. “I can walk, you know.”

  “I prefer to carry you.” Shifting her in my arms, I head up the stairs, kicking the door shut behind me. She’s the perfect weight for me to carry because when I hold her, she feels real in my arms. So real and warm and sweet. “Little mermaid, you need to leave this place.”

  “I don’t have anywhere to go.” She looks up at me, her pale green eyes hopeless. “My mother says you’ll leave me now.”