This is the sequel to REACH. Before you read this, read that first...
Roy Walker becomes paralyzed after a movie stunt gone wrong. While in the hospital, he befriends an avant-garde nurse named MacKenzie, and soon both are pulled into an intense em...
Almost as soon as Roy found himself in one of the most awkward situations of his life, he found himself alone.
After a pressed phone call between MacKenzie and Peaches, who was more than happy to have the two over for brunch to discuss the prospects of hiring Beckie as her daughters' new caregiver, Beckie pulled MacKenzie out the door and into her beater of a car.
MacKenzie didn't kiss Roy like she usually did before she left the house. She hugged him instead, rigidly. It almost seemed forced
She's mad at me. She's totally mad at me.
Roy grumpily poured a cup of coffee (MacKenzie always made it weak). He immediately poured it down the sink, he found himself smiling at her quirks.
He put on real trousers, his least favorite part of the day (he thanked god for the hip control he had gained). He rubbed his face as he looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, his hair always a little messed up.
His suitcase was halfway packed. The last of the cocaine sat openly on the nightstand. He didn't remember actually leaving/putting it there.
MacKenzie hadn't noticed? Or she was purposely not bringing it up?
As Roy stared at the telephone, anxiously debating whether to give Dade a phone call regarding possibly coming back to Chickasha (Whit was out of the question entirely), Alice meekly came out of her bedroom. He didn't even know she was home.
She had her blanket wrapped around her, and she traipsed over to Roy and curled herself up on the couch. She was still in her nightgown, and her hair still unbrushed.
Alice sighed.
Roy didn't say anything. He wheeled over to the phone, but hesitated to dial.
"Ladies sure like you."
Probably had your shrewish head up against the door that whole time. Eat my dick...wait...
Roy turned to face Alice and cocked his head. "Oh yeah?"
"Even now. Like this."
"You're so caught up on the wheelchair thing."
"You don't know what this is like for me," Alice shot back.
"Oh yeah?"
"You know I'm practically ostracized at the movie company?"
"For breaking up with your crippled boyfriend, right?"
"It makes me look like a thunder cunt when you say that."
"I'm not wrong."
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"I just wish you knew what this felt like, Roy. Imagining our future, Sinclair luring me into his web..."
"I'm not sure what's worse; you breaking up with me because you can't deal with me being paralyzed, or the fact that I'm paralyzed because I did Sinclair's stunt for him and you fucked him after."
"I fucked him before too," Alice bit her lip.
"You're telling this to me now because...?" Roy said bitterly.
"Because I love you. I love you. And I hear you fucking my sister in the next room. I hear you ploughing my sister, while I lay in the bed we never slept in. And I sit on the porch at midnight because I can't fucking take it. Now nurses are hitting on you and you don't care because you love my sister."
"It's not hot having a nurse lift you out of your wheelchair."
"She gave you her number."
"Sounds like you're full of regret, Alice."
Unexpectedly, Alice pulled Roy towards her and straddled him, pressing her lips to his, and Roy didn't find himself resisting. Much like in the church confessional with Dahlia during the thunderstorm.
In fact he took it.
He didn't pull away.
He kissed her back.
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She whimpered and turned away. Roy was gaping. His heart pounded through his chest. Probably from too much coke, or pheromones, or both.
"You always tasted like black coffee and shame," Alice said softly.
Shame.
Shame, shame, shame.
"No," Roy shook his head, prying Alice off of his lap. "I'm not a cheater. I am not a cheater."
"Roy..."
"It's not cheating, it's closure." Alice began to unbutton Roy's trousers.
"Alice. That's enough." Roy grabbed her wrist, a bit too hard, and she shot her head up at him.
"Don't tell me you don't want closure, Roy. It's been one year and it seems you'll be leaving for good soon."
"I loved you so much," Roy said in a low, raspy voice.
Alice stood up, adjusting her nightgown and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
Roy wheeled back to the bedroom, picked up his keys, jacket, and the last of the cocaine.
"Please don't leave, I have so much love to give."
Hopeful, greedy eyes, adventurous fingers, sundresses, black coffee: our summer.
