“Nathaniel Essex, Ashley Layne, I was not asking you if you wanted to come to this party, I was telling. You do not have a choice. Sometimes, I understand we don’t always want to do the things our parents ask us to do and that it’s frustrating.” Her tone had mellowed into a sickly sweet…gentle parenting voice. I shuddered. “So we’re going to take those messy, angry feelings, and do you know what we’re going to do with them? Hmm?” I swallowed, glancing at Nate. He winced, his jaw tight. “Whisper them to our hand and hold on to them for later?”
