Something Like Winter Read Online Free Page B

Tim couldn’t blame him. The car was pure sex. He
turned the steering wheel before committing involuntary
manslaughter, then zoomed down the street and around the corner,
laughing with mad power. When he looked over, his father was
holding on to the door handle for dear life, complexion even paler
than usual.
    “ Let’s take it easy,
son!”
    “ Sorry.”
    Tim brought the speed down
before turning on to the main road. This was too cool! Maybe his
parents were a little preoccupied most of the time, but they sure
knew the right way to compensate.
    “ Thanks,” he said again. “I
honestly wasn’t expecting this.”
    “ I hope not,” his father
said, but added, “A man should have his independence. Turn here. I
need to go to my office.”
    Tim was dying to gun it,
but he didn’t want his dad to regret giving him such a souped-up
car. He stayed on his best behavior all the way to the generic
office building where his dad’s company was located. The parking
lot was empty on the weekend, so he pulled right up to the door.
Tim wanted to wait in the car while his father went inside,
unwilling to be separated from his gift. Hell, he might even sleep
in the backseat tonight! But his father wanted him to come along,
so Tim grudgingly killed the engine.
    Once inside, they walked
past the reception area and a row of cubicles to a hallway where
the real offices were. When they reached a door as nondescript as
the others, Thomas dug a key from his pocket and handed it to
Tim.
    “ As I said.
Independence.”
    Tim’s stomach sank. His
father was giving him a job. He could see through the window in the
door that the room beyond was empty, but he took the key and used
it anyway.
    “ This is more a necessity
than a present,” Thomas said.
    Tim opened the door and
stepped inside, unsure what to say. His father filled the silence
for him.
    “ This was your mother’s
idea. I had the carpet taken out so you wouldn’t get paint on it.
We can always lay it again when you move out, but try not to get
paint on the walls.”
    A studio? Tim felt so
relieved that he laughed. He wasn’t against getting a job, but he
didn’t want to work for his father. “Cool! So I can move all my
stuff in?”
    “ Anytime you
want.”
    Tim turned in a circle,
viewing the space in a new light. “Can I cover up the window in the
door? I don’t want people looking at what I’m doing.”
    “ That would be
fine.”
    Tim stopped short of asking
if he had the only key. He could always go through his father’s
keychain sometime and snag any duplicates. Tim was never fond of
showing his paintings to other people, and he was planning one that
would raise uncomfortable questions if anyone saw it.
    “ Ready?” Thomas
asked.
    “ Yeah. Thanks. This is
really good.”
    They talked cars on the way
home, conversation coming effortlessly. Once back home, the adults
poured drinks and discussed subjects that bored Tim to tears, but
this made it easy to slip away.
    Loading up his car with
painting supplies, and feeling more free than ever, Tim headed
toward his new studio. He could hardly wait. There was so much he
needed to get out of his head, ideas that hounded him until they
were released on canvas. Or in some cases, images that he needed to
exorcise for his own well-being.
    In the backseat was a
canvas with a rough sketch. The dark eyes were apparent, but the
shape of the face around them was drawn in light lines hard to see.
If someone were to look close enough, they would discover the
features were male, even though they shared traits with his
ex-girlfriend. Except in the drawing Corey was older, enough so
that when he made a pass at Tim, it wouldn’t have felt like his kid
brother was hitting on him. Old enough that Tim might have given
Corey a different answer.
     

Chapter Three
     
    Tim shifted in the hard
plastic seat and resisted moaning in miserable boredom. Had he
really wished for the school year to begin? At the front of class,
a thin woman with