High On You (As You Are Book 2) Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Eden

  Xavier

  Chapter 2

  Eden

  Chapter 3

  Xavier

  Eden

  Chapter 4

  Eden

  Chapter 5

  Xavier

  Eden

  Chapter 6

  Eden

  Xavier

  Chapter 7

  Eden

  Chapter 8

  Xavier

  Chapter 9

  Xavier

  Chapter 10

  Eden

  Chapter 11

  Eden

  Xavier

  Chapter 12

  Xavier

  Eden

  Chapter 13

  Eden

  Chapter 14

  Xavier

  Eden

  Chapter 15

  Eden

  Chapter 16

  Xavier

  Chapter 17

  Xavier

  Eden

  Chapter 18

  Eden

  Xavier

  Chapter 19

  Eden

  Xavier

  Epilogue

  Eden

  OTHER BOOKS

  Copyright © 2020 by HAILEY SMOKE All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  Eden

  Jordan ran ahead of me and I started to raise my voice but decided against it. When you were in charge of a life, a child, how much trust did you give to them? When did you let them run ahead and when did you call them back? He was only five but as long as he stayed in sight and on the sidewalk, he could rush home. He wanted to race me, but I knew he’d win. I got tired more easily these days. I had to keep up my energy for class, but sometimes it was hard.

  We took these walks around the neighborhood whenever the weather was nice, it cleared my head and let him get some energy out. His brown hair was getting curly against his head and the bright yellow rain jacket I had him put on, just in case, dragged behind him tied around him almost like a cape. He turned around and flashed a smile because he beat me home. He was missing his left front tooth, his first missing tooth. When he showed me it, wiggling it with his finger a few months ago, I hugged him close. He was getting so much bigger, wasn’t he?

  It was early spring, so the world was in that limbo of cold winds and warm sun. There were bare branches next to bright green buds. The world was changing, but not all of it had caught up yet. They still needed time. Maybe we’d plant a garden this year.

  As I got closer to our little home, I spotted a moving truck in the driveway next to ours. The house next to us was the nicest on the street and had been for sale for as long as Jordan and I had lived there. Our one-story house always looked squat next to its two stories with wider windows and a modern chandelier visible from the high window above the door that was painted a royal blue.

  New neighbors. I hoped they were friendly. I didn’t really know any of the other neighbors on our street. When I first moved in, I hadn’t been in the right place to be making friends and probably ruined my chances with everyone who’d already lived here. We passed some couples on our walks, but there weren’t any kids Jordan’s age and I never struck up a conversation with anyone longer than a few sentences. It might be nice to have someone for Jordan to make friends with at the very least. And maybe I could make some friends too. I taught my students about the importance of having someone to trust, but it was a rude awakening to be twenty-four years old and having to relearn that lesson.

  I got a glimpse of a man carrying boxes into the house. I nearly jumped when I realized there was also a little girl next to him. She was like his shadow; I almost didn’t even notice her. She had beautiful straw gold hair and curious green eyes and wore a cute pink dress. She looked to be about five or six, probably the same age as Jordan. She noticed us and started waving energetically. I smiled. Kids were so quick to be friendly; it was why I loved teaching them. They didn’t have any preconceived notions about anyone they met. They were nosy and curious and ready to make new connections. If only they never lost that spirit. I waved back and glanced down at Jordan and watched him wave barely before looking down and away from the girl. He was shy around new people, but the little smile on his face made me think that he was still happy to see someone his age. I had to ask her parents if they wanted to arrange a meeting to see if our kids could play together.

  I tried to catch the eye of her father or look for his partner to introduce myself and Jordan to them. I never got past introductions with the other neighbors, but maybe this time would be different. He noticed his daughter’s waving and as I stepped forward, I saw him scowl.

  I faltered and stepped back. Jordan was still looking shyly away so he didn’t see the harsh look we’d just been given. I scooped him up in my arms and faced him away. I thought I saw a flash of teeth before the man took the box he was carrying inside and nodded for the girl to follow him. He was a tall man with black hair that was long enough to show his curls, chiseled jawline that was visible beneath the stubble and carried the boxes with ease with the strength I saw in his arms. He might have been attractive to me, if not for the fact his gray eyes with dark circles under them, marring his pale skin seemed to pierce me when he glared. It was the kind of look meant to hurt or to keep people away. I was deeply familiar with it. I hoped it wasn’t a sign of the worst.

  I carried Jordan inside and gently rubbed his back, soothing me more than him. They were not going to speak to me right now and I no longer wanted to.

  “Mom,” Jordan said as I sat him down on the kitchen counter.

  “Yes dear?” I was still distracted by that look as I started to get everything ready for dinner.

  “Can I go over and play with that girl some time?”

  I looked at the gentle hope on his face and thought of that man. I was probably reading too much into it.

  “Some other day, once they are all settled, okay baby?” I said and ruffled his hair.

  “Cool!” He had the biggest grin on his face and went back to swinging his legs back and forth and watching me move around pots and pans for the spaghetti I was making.

  That man was probably just tired from the stress of moving. I knew I wasn’t my best after I moved towns away with Jordan without any help. He’d probably be more open to talking some other day and we could organize playdates then. His daughter seemed so happy, it was more likely he was just stressed and not as angry as I thought. He and his partner and their daughter were probably the typical happy, normal family moving into a bigger home to grow their family. People did it all the time in this town. Most of the parents whose kids I taught told me that Springbrook was the perfect town for that, for starting a new life. I was just projecting onto him. I would have been the one to glare at my neighbors not too long ago.

  I looked at my reflection in the silver pan before I turned on the faucet to fill it with water. My eyes looked more livelier, and without bags under them like they had been for a long time. My tawny complexion was looking healthier. Sometimes I looked in the mirror and expected to see the way my skin had turned pallid, and how my face looked sunken in, like I was
a skeleton. I’d rounded my cheeks out again and had most of my hair cut off to the pixie cut I had it in now. Nothing about me reminded me of who I used to be. I wanted to keep it that way.

  Xavier

  There was a rumbling in the distance and thick vegetation all around me. The sky was gone, it was only dark black smoke swirling above me. When had I come here? Where even was here? I felt like I was being chased but I wasn’t sure by what, so I took off running. But I felt it getting closer and closer no matter how fast I ran. I took a risk. I turned around and looked and saw familiar green eyes between the tall grass. They were going to kill me. I was not sure how I knew, but I did. They were going to pierce me with thin claws I could not even see yet but still knew were there. I stopped running. I was going to let it do what it wanted. I deserved it. I felt the tip of one of the claws like a blade against my back. I waited for the pinch and the pain as it speared through my chest and then my heart, but everything melted away.

  I blinked my eyes open and groaned. It was still dark, and I was twisted up in the blankets on my bed. My face was firmly pressed into my pillow like I had tried to smother myself in my sleep. I felt a tug on my arm and turned in the darkness to see two glowing green dots so unlike the eyes in the grasses coming to kill me. Ingrid’s eyes were always softer.

  “Uncle Xavier?” Ingrid always had trouble with my name. She pronounced it like “zaver”.

  “Yes?” I grunted out, still not fully awake.

  “I had a bad dream.” She had her arms wrapped around herself and I noticed a slight shake to her voice. She’d always had them, vivid ones that no matter what we tried seemed to haunt her. But she’d been having more and more lately. Maybe it was the move? I’d hoped it be good for her to get somewhere that didn’t remind her of where she came from, but maybe it made things worse?

  I tried to shake some of the sleep from my eyes and sat up in bed rubbing my face. “Don’t worry Ingrid, I’ll help you sleep.”

  She nodded and went back to her room. I followed and tried to look more awake than I felt. Every time I blinked, the world faded out a bit. I could have fallen asleep standing up. I needed the rest, but this was more important.

  She got back into bed and curled up in the pink fleece blanket covered with large yellow stars. I pulled over the pink plastic desk chair that was much too small for me and sat beside her. Her room was still pretty empty. When she moved in with me, she didn’t have a lot. What she did have, she didn’t want any more, like they had been tainted. I kept a few keepsakes in a box now shoved in the attic. Maybe she’d change her mind one day.

  She blinked up at me, waiting for me to fix everything. God, I wished I could.

  “What do you want a story about, Ingrid?” I asked even thought I had a pretty good idea what the answer was going to end up being.

  “Can you tell me more about the Egg Man?”

  It was a stupid story I made up the first night this happened on the fly based on the logo for an egg company I was creating a lawsuit for as their IP lawyer. There was another company with a similar egg character on their packaging and the case for copyright infringement was strong. I wasn’t used to this parenting stuff. I still wasn’t. When she asked for a story after her first nightmare, I couldn’t think of anything else. I should have thought of a fairytale or something with princesses in it, but instead I came up with an Egg Man. At least Ingrid seemed to like him even if I thought I had ruined her imagination.

  “Remind me, where was the Egg Man last time?”

  “He was going on a journey,” she yawned and already sounded sleepy again.

  “To the Lightbulb King so he can ask for help defeating the Vacuum Monsters,” I finished for her through a yawn of my own. I wasn’t very good at creating new characters. I usually looked around her room for ideas.

  I rubbed at the stubble on my face. Before, before all this, I wouldn’t be caught dead without a clean face. But now, I didn’t care about that as much. There were more important things I had to deal with. I probably looked like a different person to me.

  “So, the road to the Lightbulb King was covered with spikes and the sun was very hot,” I started, making up each word after the other. I hoped she couldn’t hear the hesitation in my words.

  “Will he be okay?” She asked as her eyes struggled to stay open. Even though her voice was sleepy, the concern for the Egg Man was very clear.

  “He’s the Egg Man, there’s nothing he can’t handle,” I said confidently even as tired as I felt. “He brought an umbrella to keep from being cooked and took his time to avoid every spike.”

  I detailed the rest of the Egg Man’s brave journey, even encountering a dreaded Vacuum Monster on his way, which he craftily avoided, until he reached the electric castle of the Lightbulb King. By that point, however, Ingrid was fast asleep again. I hovered above her bed for a moment and stared at her innocent face. Would a good parent kiss her forehead or have something to say? Saying “sweet dreams” felt like an empty gesture and I didn’t want to wake her. I headed back outside her room and to my bed.

  As soon as I was laying down, my back made its anger known to me. Before we’d moved here, we’d been living in my one-bedroom condo. That meant Ingrid got the bed and I got the couch. I started looking for places to live after a few hours of restless sleep that first night. After three weeks before we could finally move in here, I think I had permanently injured myself. Carrying all those boxes in myself didn’t help either. But Ingrid was jumpy around strangers, I couldn’t hire a moving crew.

  We’d already been here two days and I was exhausted. Juggling work, Ingrid, and the house was too much. And I couldn’t help but wonder if I was somehow ruining Ingrid or raising her wrong. I didn’t know. I didn’t know a lot.

  Even exhausted, I had trouble falling asleep again. The thought of that claw against my back and those judging eyes flashed before me as I shut my eyes. I couldn’t find peace, even in my dreams.

  “Karen,” I muttered to the dark room. “I’m trying. I’m trying. I really am.”

  I knew my words weren’t enough. They never had been before.

  Chapter 2

  Eden

  The best part of the house Jordan and I lived in was where it was located in town. Once you walked through the trees and past all of the houses on our street there was the kindergarten I taught at right across the street. It saved a lot of gas to be able to walk to work whenever it was nice out and today was the first time we could since winter ended. As soon as Jordan was older, I would have to walk him to the grade school building that was right behind the kindergarten, but at least I wouldn't have to go far.

  As soon as we were on the sidewalk up to the school’s doors, we were joined by half of my class. I let Jordan skip ahead to chat with them. Jordan had a very bright personality once he opened up to people. He was getting pretty popular with the other students. I had been a bit of a social butterfly in school too. But I wasn’t sure if the other kids liked me because of me, or my parents. Even looking back, I still didn’t know. But I didn’t like to dwell on that anymore. My therapist told me it wasn’t healthy to obsess over the past, as long as I didn’t ignore it either. That made sense to me, after all, Jordan was part of my past and that wasn’t worth forgetting.

  The kids all ran to the auditorium for morning announcements and then they’d be led back to class by some of the helpers. This system was a godsend because teachers only had to go on specific days which let me have fifteen minutes to prepare for the day and get a cup of coffee in before the craziness of the day began.

  I stopped by the reception desk to pick up some papers I had copied and was greeted by my best, and only, friend in town.

  “Hello,” Bridget Stone, another kindergarten teacher whose classroom was across from mine, greeted me warmly. She had honey brown hair that was pin straight and chunky framed brown glasses. She wore clothes that looked like they were straight from the seventies. Today she had a knitted sweater and bellbottoms on for
example. She was an incredibly studious woman despite her sometimes loud fashion. She had taught me a lot about being calm and patient with my students. Even so, I didn’t have any idea how she managed to keep her unruly students to go quiet on a count of three. She had to be magic.

  “Hey Bridget.” She had immediately taken me under her wing, even though she was only two years older than me, when I moved here. I’d never be able to repay all she had done for me.

  “Did you have a good weekend Eden?”

  “I had an interesting weekend,” I started as I straightened the stack of papers.

  “Oh?” She pushed her glasses up her nose and leaned closer.

  “Remember the house next to mine that’s always on sale?”

  “That lovely house with the nice siding and the chandelier?”

  “That one. Someone moved in on Friday.”

  “A shame. I was considering that place if Jeffery and I started thinking about starting a family,” she said with a short sigh.

  “It would have been nice to have you as our neighbor,” I muttered. “The guy I saw move in might not be as nice.”

  Her eyes widened slightly, she wasn’t the most expressive lady, but that meant surprise for her. “What did he do?”

  “He has a little girl, about Jordan’s age and she was waving to us, it was sweet. I was going to go over and talk maybe help him get to know the neighborhood or organize some kind of playdate but instead he gave me the evil eye. It might have just been stress, but I’ve been wondering all weekend if that was really normal.” It was nice to finally say this all to someone, I had been second guessing myself.

  “You are too kind,” Bridget said bluntly, as was her way. “Even being tired, you don’t glare at your neighbors, especially with a kid around them.”

  I frowned. I guess that was right. “But I haven’t gotten to know him yet, I don’t want to assume anything.”

  “Of course, if you did you wouldn’t be a very good teacher. But when you do, make sure to catch him outside, in case he’s trouble. I wouldn’t go over to his house alone.”