Read Online My Night Breeze (The Breeze Series) by M.L. Newman - Free Book Online Page B

off of her case. She needed to be able to have some sort of freedom, and if holding this over his head would do it, then so be it. Jim opened his mouth to respond, but she shook her head.
    “You can’t threaten me when you make dumb decisions all on your own ,” she continued.
    “You were upstairs ,” Jim reiterated.
    “Was I?” she asked before persisting, “I won’t say anything, Jim, I promise. I just need you to get off my back.”
    She walk ed back into the kitchen where Mom was busy fixing dinner. Audra joined her side without question and helped put out the pots with water to boil. She could feel her Mom’s eyes on her actions, but she focused on what she was doing. Mom was so strange around Mateo that it was causing Audra to wonder what the deal was, but with Jim around, she couldn’t possibly bring it up.
     
    Family dinner was already tension-filled with Dad’s usual zero tolerance, but Jim glaring at her was making her appetite disappear quickly. Mom tried holding light conversation about the weather; however, it didn’t make a dent in the obvious tension. Audra glanced over at Dad roughly cutting into his steak.
    “Why do we have family dinner?” Audra ask ed.
    “Don’t start ,” Mom said.
    “I’m just asking a question ,” Audra persisted.
    Dad clear ed his throat before stabbing into his meal. “It’s the only time we spend together.”
    “To check up on us ,” Jim added.
    “My life doesn’t consist only of school ,” Audra said.
    “What are you getting at?” Dad ask ed.
    “We never have real conversations. No one reminisces about anything. We just sit at a table with food on it and give one word answers until we can be excused ,” Audra said.
    The sound of Mom’s fork scraping her plate vibrate d through the air. Deep down, she knew that family dinner was special to Mom, but it lost the ‘special’ aspect when it wasn’t being utilized. It was more like a mandatory interrogation of a crime that hadn’t been committed.
    Dad look ed directly at Audra. “Is there something you’d like to share?”
    His tone and look wa s a mixture of sarcasm and withering tolerance.
    “No , but I wish we’d actually spend more time together. Jim is going to graduate this year, and I want to spend as much time around him as possible,” she said.
    Jim look ed at her then with confusion, but she continued, “I’m going to miss him when he goes to college. I don’t want to spend our only designated family time discussing something that comes on a report card.”
    “We ’re both honor students,” Jim added.
    Dad put down his utensils as his nostrils flared. Mom smiled at Audra and Jim.
    “We just want to know you’re being educated well. Depending on our work schedules, maybe we can do more together ,” Mom said.
    “My schedule is hectic enough as it is ,” Dad stated.
    “You can’t make time for your children?” Audra ask ed innocently.
    Dad grunt ed but wouldn’t respond. The rest of the meal was eaten in a strained silence, but glances from Mom and Jim caused Audra to smile inside. She had kept her word to Jim about not saying anything, but also made it clear that Dad couldn’t do anything harsh like sending him away. Jim just had to keep his side of the bargain and allow her to live a little. And Mom seemed delighted to spend more time with them as a family.
    T he only person against spending more time together seemed to be Dad, but she couldn’t figure out why. Even though family dinner was mainly Mom’s idea, he never seemed to be against the designated meal together. Audra thought back to the weekends that the family had shared together but couldn’t even make a handful of memories. She knew that she had been distracted with high school and sports, but she never wanted to lose touch with her family. She wondered if Dad was more okay with being away from them than he should be. Why wouldn’t he want to be with them?

Chapter Five
     
    Stephen was practically bouncing