I heard her sharp intake of breath. “They came back after Dad got sick.”
“Aw, B.”
She sniffed. “It’s gotten really bad, Cal. Sometimes he thinks I’m grandma or his sister. Sometimes he doesn’t know me at all. I can’t take it. I can’t.”
I reached for her uninjured hand, offering her comfort. “I’m sorry.”
She nodded, tightly holding my hand in hers. I squeezed her hand again and let go.
I felt horrible for her. She’d started getting panic attacks in high school. It wasn’t easy for her. And for some reason, I was the only one who calmed her down.
I remembered one time when I was in the middle of a heavy make-out session with a senior named Sakura, remembered how excited I was because I had been pursuing her for quite some time and she was playing hard to get.
That night when she finally gave in, Beatrice-Rose had phoned me in a panic, saying she couldn’t breathe. That freaked me the hell out. I left Sakura and went to find Beatrice-Rose. It took fifteen minutes to calm her down and help her breathe properly again. Since then, she phoned me every time she had an attack, and I was always there.
“It’s all right,” Beatrice-Rose said now. “Like I said, you’re here now. Everything feels better.”
I parked my car in their circular driveway. “I can’t stay. I have to go home to Red.”
“Please, Cal. Stay.” Her blue eyes were wide and pleading. “Please.”
She rested her hand on my thigh, making me squirm. She removed it.
I let out a sigh. “Okay,” I relented, thinking of the crap she must be dealing with at home. The least I could do was lend her a little support. “Half an hour.”
She pouted. “Three hours.”
“Forty-five minutes.”
She shook her head. “Two hours.”
“An hour.”
“Deal!” She grinned at me like the cat that ate the canary—like she’d wanted an hour all along. I should have known. I always seemed to underestimate her.
“I feel tired, Cal. But I’m hungry. Don’t start the timer until after we’re done eating. Okay?”
“Beatrice-Rose,” I warned.
“Caleb.” She giggled.
I knew Red was going to wait up for me. I had to phone her, let her know. When I reached for my phone, I panicked. It wasn’t in my pocket. Did I forget to bring it? Dammit.
“I forgot my phone. Can I borrow yours? I need to call Red and tell her I’m going to be an hour late.”
She pouted again. “My battery’s almost dead. I need to charge it first.”
Nodding, I got out of the car and opened the door for her.
Their house was a long, modern, rectangular building, with three floors of clear glass walls that reminded me of an aquarium. I could see everything in their house from where I was standing. Granted, they had a gate and a long driveway, so the house wasn’t necessarily exposed to the streets.
All I could think was that they couldn’t walk around naked or scratch their asses whenever they wanted to. I would rather live in a mud hut than expose myself that way.
The inside of the house was pretty much the same as the outside. Expensive antiques, classy furniture, paintings. It was elegant, beautiful…and cold. It lacked the warmth of a home. My eyes locked on the naked Greek god statue in the foyer. That was new. I had no problems with statues, but this one was ugly as sin. What the hell was the artist thinking? Were those horns sticking out of his—
“Good evening.”
It was their butler, Higgins. He’d been working for them for as long as I could remember. He always seemed to magically appear whenever there were visitors.