He stood and turned to walk back to the coffee pot, but he noticed the look on Kory’s face. “What?”
She shook her head, her smile wide. “Nothing.”
He tilted his head at her but didn’t say a word. He took two coffee cups out of the cabinet and, once the pot sputtered, he poured coffee in both. He placed them on the table and then turned back and pulled two spoons out of the silverware drawer. Kory looked at the mug of steamy black liquid. She’d never liked coffee much, but she had to admit that the drink Stone had bought her at the coffee shop—a caramel macchiato, she thought he’d called it—had been pretty good. Maybe coffee was gross unless sweet.
He scooted his chair over so he was closer to the corner of the table, closer to her. He took the creamer and poured some into his spoon…once, twice, three times. Then he took the lid off the sugar bowl and scooped one spoonful into the coffee and stirred. He slid the mug in front of Kory and said, “Try that.”
She was skeptical, but as the steam wafted up to her nose, she had to admit it smelled good. Lifting a spoonful of the hot liquid to her lips, she blew on it and then took a sip. It wasn’t as sweet as the coffee at the shop had been, but it was pretty good. She nodded.
“What’d I tell ya?” Stone did the same thing with his cup and took a sip himself. Then he said, “Okay. You still feel like talking?”
Honestly…no. Kory didn’t want to talk about any of it—not with Stone, not with Natalie. She didn’t even want to think about it. She knew, though, that there was the problem. Hiding it, stuffing it in would make it worse. In fact, she was beginning to think that there were memories she’d either crammed deep down or had blocked out and, now that she was older, her brain decided it was time for her to deal with them. She also suspected that it might be something a little different, that Stone was the reason why all of it was coming to the surface…
Especially his tattoo gun.
It wasn’t his fault, but she knew she’d need to get through all this shit if she wanted Stone in her life. She took another sip of the coffee and said, “I don’t even know where to start.”
He leaned down a little so she’d stop staring at the coffee and look in his eyes instead. “You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want.”
“No…I need to.” She took another drink of coffee to wet her mouth, because it had grown suddenly dry. She took a deep gulp of air too, trying to find the courage to talk about something she hadn’t consciously thought about in years. She let the air out of her lips slowly, trying to figure out what to say, where to begin, how to say it. She decided to just start talking and let it spill out. “My mom…had this boyfriend. For a long time. His name was Art. I never knew my dad. Anyway, I was…about ten maybe, or eleven, when Art moved in with us. Before that, my mom had had boyfriends now and then, but nobody who’d hang around for very long. Anyway, this guy started out by trying to act like a dad. You know, telling me to pick up my room, do the dishes, shit like that.
“I guess I should mention that he was a tattoo artist.” Stone raised his eyebrows but said nothing. He brought his cup to his lips for another drink, but that was it. “He was an asshole, but I tried to keep to myself. You know, I’d stay in my bedroom or be outside playing with friends. At first, if my mom was home, he wouldn’t say anything, but after a while, he started being an asshole in front of her, and she didn’t care.
“He was with us a long time. At least it seemed that way. I have too many sharp memories of him, but the first time I remember thinking things were even worse than I’d first imagined was one day near the beginning of summer. My mom had gone to work. I woke up late in the morning and went to the kitchen and made myself a bowl of cereal. He came in a few minutes later and sat next to me. I was trying to ignore him, just keeping my eyes glued to the bowl, you know? Then he finally asked if I’d heard him and my mom. I told him I didn’t know what he meant. He clarified then, asking if I’d heard them the night before. Had I heard them fucking, he asked, ‘cause he was givin’ it to her.” Kory had been trying to keep the memory at a distance, but it stirred up so many emotions inside that it was hard not to lose it. She managed not to cry, but she couldn’t look Stone in the eye. “He was such a fucking asshole.”
She couldn’t bring herself to talk anymore…not yet. The lump in her throat was too hard. She took a sip of coffee. “What was he trying to do?” Stone asked. “Do you know?”