“Are we really going to do the whole thing?” I asked, feeling somewhat out of breath.
“Yeah,” he replied, seemingly unfazed from the physical work. “There’s a snow blower in the garage.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I spat.
Jackson gave me a one-shoulder shrug. “I wish I was.” He pushed aside more snow. “Zane is impatient. If I do something really slow, sometimes he lets me use a tool or something to speed it up.”
“Oh,” I said and remembered Zane pushing me out of the way when I tried to hang up the Christmas lights.
“And sometimes that just pisses him off and he punches me. I never really know.” He let out a deep breath. “But today I’m guessing Nate will want the driveway cleared. So go slow. Don’t strain yourself.”
I nodded. “Okay.” I took Jackson’s advice to heart, mostly because I wasn’t in shape enough to shovel the entire driveway without passing out. His words turned out to be true. About an hour later, Nate threw the snow blower’s key into the snow. It took us nearly another hour to find them.
“Stay in here,” Jackson told me when we went into the garage. “It’s not warm but at least you’re out of the wind.”
I looked down the long driveway, which was in the shape of an ‘L'. “It will still take you forever. I’ll do the short part of the driveway by hand,” I told him.
“I can do it,” he told me.
“Really,” I pressed. “Let me help.” He still had to be hurting from the beating he took, especially if his bones had broken like I suspected.
“Okay,” he said with a nod and fired up the snow blower. No sooner had he finished, a car turned down the driveway. Jackson exited the garage to direct whoever it was to the front door. I followed him. As soon as the car came into view, I froze.
“What’s wrong?” Jackson asked me.
I shook my head. “I know that car.”
Jackson gave it a second look. “Yeah, that’s Travis—” he cut off. “Oh.” Without another word, Jackson stepped in front of me, shielding me from Travis’ line of sight. I moved closed to Jackson and cast my eyes to the ground. I didn’t want to risk Travis seeing my face. Travis gave Jackson a small nod and continued on to the front porch.
“I bet you’d like to hit him with a car,” Jackson said quietly, turning to me.
“You have no idea,” I replied, looking up into his eyes. It was weird, feeling safe next to Jackson. Not that long ago I feared him. Now his presence brought me a little comfort. He had definitely proved that he cared about me by taking the fall. It wasn’t that I wanted him to do it again, not at all. It was more like I felt like I had an ally.
Jackson turned around and studied my face. “We should probably shovel the sidewalk again,” he said with a small grin. “Ya know, since it’s been snowing this whole time.”
“Yes,” I said seriously and felt another ball of anxiety unwind. “I think that’s a good idea. We should be thorough.”
Jackson’s grin turned into an actual smile. His eyes brightened, and for the first time, he looked like he wasn’t wishing death on himself or someone else. I picked up my foot to take a step when the garage door opened.#p#分页标题#e#
“What the fuck is taking so long?” Zane barked.
“Snow’s still falling,” Jackson stated. “We need to re-shovel.”
“You do it,” Zane said. “Adeline has to work. Travis is waiting.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“WHAT?” I BLURTED.
“You’re working. Get in the house,” he said.
I felt like someone ripped out my heart and threw it into the snow. My body was too cold, too numb to move. I stood there shaking my head. “N-no,” I stuttered.
“No?” Zane asked and raised an eyebrow. He laughed and sneered at me. “Get in the goddam house.”
“Why?” Jackson asked. Zane actually looked surprised.
“What’s it to you?” he retorted.
“He’s Rochelle’s client.” Jackson took a step to the side, moving closer to me. I wanted grab his arm and hide behind him.
“Rochelle is busy,” Zane snapped. “Adeline, get your ass in here before I come get you.”
I knew my legs moved, but I had little feeling in my body. The floating feeling took over, the one I had become all too familiar with the last few months. I didn’t want to be in my own skin anymore. I wanted to be anyone else, to be anywhere else but here.
I entered the house through a mudroom. I took off the oversized boots and unzipped my coat. Zane yelled at me again to hurry up and go upstairs. I let the coat fall to the floor and walked through the house.