Aussie: A Bad Boy Second Chance Romance (13 page)

“How much?” I asked.

She hesitated, cocked her head to the side a little, and her eyes narrowed as her mouth formed a straight line, as if she were trying to signal me something: You don’t want to know and I don’t want to tell you.

“I can handle it,” I said.

She looked down at her hands clasped tightly together. “Close to a million.”

Okay, so maybe I couldn’t handle hearing it. The air rushed out of my lungs. I sat forward, and looked down at my shoes.

This is the part where I could have—maybe should have—become angry, but…I didn’t. It was just shock. Pure shock. And the thought kept coming back to me about what I might’ve done with that money, all the wrong things, almost certainly.

“I’m sorry to be the one telling you this,” Aunt Jackie was saying. I think she was almost relieved to have gotten it off her chest.

I snapped out of my reverie, coming back to the real world. “No need to be sorry. Thanks, Jackie. I’m glad you told me.”

She took a deep breath and sighed.

I said, “I can’t imagine what it was like holding that in all those years.”

She just shook her head. “I feel for Dawn. This is going to be rough.”

“Speaking of that,” I said, “please don’t tell her I was here. I’m going to have to think how, or if, I’m going to tell her all of this.”

Aunt Jackie sat up in her chair. “She knows, Luke. I told her an hour ago.”

I got the phone call from Aunt Jackie while I was driving to Luke’s apartment. Luckily, I was almost there. If I hadn’t been as close as I was, I’m not sure I could have kept going. I was close to pulling over on the side of the road as it was, my eyes blurry from tears.

I pulled into the parking lot and sat in my car. I was still trying to process the news.

My parents, the two people who raised me to respect other people, their rights, their property, the two people who hammered into me that I do the right thing were basically thieves.

My stomach churned. I wrapped my arms over my stomach and hugged myself. It was overwhelming, more than I expected to hear.

The betrayal.

The ones who had taught me life lessons, the most important people in my life… they were fucking disloyal and deceptive.

I unfolded my arms and gripped the steering wheel, trying to cage the anger that was bubbling up inside of me.

They took advantage of Luke. Their greed and desperation carved a trail of lies.

I debated whether I should go inside. Things felt...somehow different. I’d have to tell him. I couldn’t keep something like this from him. It wouldn’t be fair. I wasn’t even sure how I’d find the words.

All I could think of was how painful it was going to be watching his reaction.

I decided to finally go inside. I got my bags from the backseat, brought them up to the apartment door, then went back and got the rest from the trunk.

When I realized he still wasn’t there, I texted him. He mentioned I’d have to hop the fence and go in through the sliding glass doors. I hoped I could handle it. If not, I’d wait in my car.

With extra effort, I wedged my foot where the hinge of the gate was and scrambled up and over. I dropped with a thud on the other side. It hurt, but I didn’t break anything. I stood up and brushed off. Sure enough, the sliders were unlocked.

When I opened the door, everything looked the same but felt totally different. I went to the front and opened the door to get my bags. If all of this crap wasn’t going on, I would have brought them to Luke’s room—now our room, supposedly—and unpacked. But I couldn’t do it. I felt like an intruder. I felt guilt transferred from my parents to me, and that I shouldn’t be there.

I texted Luke and asked him how long he would be.

After ten minutes with no response, I called him.

“Hey,” I said, my voice extra soft without planning it. “I made it inside. I’m at your place.”

“Our place,” he reminded.

My stomach and chest tightened. “Right. Our place.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. That little tingly feeling before I start to cry developed in the back of my throat. “I’m okay. Why?”

“You sound different.”

Shit. He heard the stress in my voice. Now…I should tell him now, I thought. Don’t hide it from him. “Maybe I’m just tired.”

I couldn’t do it. I also couldn’t do the “There’s something we need to talk about when you get here” thing. I hated when people did that to me, telling me they needed to tell me something, but it had to wait.

“I’m exhausted too,” he said. “Maybe an early night?”

God. It wasn’t going to be an early night. It was going to be a long night, maybe the longest of my life.

“Sure,” I said.

“I’ll see you in about twenty minutes.”

I got one of my bags and brought it to the bedroom. I started unpacking, putting some of my things in one of the empty dresser drawers and then on a shelf in the closet.

What if Luke wanted me out? Maybe he wouldn’t want me here anymore? I knew he wouldn’t
blame
me for what happened, but what if having me around was a constant reminder of what they’d done? Even if he was okay with it, would I be? How could I put that much stress into his world? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.

I took my clothes out of the dresser drawer, off the closet shelf, and put them back in the bag. I had no business unpacking, making this my new home, when I didn’t know if Luke would even be able to look at me.

My mind was buzzed with disastrous scenarios. I sat down, then got up, then paced. Finally, I poured a drink to try and relax. I hated waiting. Especially when it was such a serious matter.

I must have gone to the window ten times to check the parking lot for his car. When he finally pulled in, I went to the door. I’d have to tell him as soon as he came in. No waiting, no hiding it, just spit it out. There was no avoiding the conversation.

I heard the key slide into the lock.

I drew a deep breath, ready to tell him everything.

But I didn’t do any of that. I opened the door when I heard him coming up the steps. I peered around the corner, seeing him walking toward me. We exchanged simple hellos, but both of our voices sounded different.

When he walked through the door, I took a step back, preparing myself.

He moved toward me quickly, wrapping an arm around my waist, pulling me into him. His other hand came up to the side of my face. His palm rested on my cheek, while his fingers slipped into my hair. The slow, deep, passionate kiss stopped me in my tracks.

When his mouth separated from mine, he said, “I know everything.”

My eyes flung wide open.

“I was at Jackie’s. She told me everything,
and
she told me she’d just talked to you.”

My head dropped to his chest. I started to sob. I felt his hand on my back of my head, lightly stroking my hair. I managed a few words. “I’m so sorry.”

He slipped his hand under my chin and raised my head. Through blurred eyes, I saw him smiling.

Smiling? He was smiling about all of this?

“You have nothing to be sorry about. You didn’t do anything. You didn’t even know.”

My eyes darted away from his.

He ducked his head to the side. “Hey. Don’t worry, Dusk. We’re going to be fine. Promise.” And then something caught his eyes. He looked over my shoulder. “You haven’t unpacked yet?” He walked over to the bags, slung two over his shoulders and held the other two in his hands. “Come on. Let’s get you moved in.”

*****

He promised we’d be fine, but we weren’t fine.

Over the next two days, we spent too much time covering ground that we’d already covered, rehashing everything my parents had done to him.

What I didn’t understand was how I was angrier than he was.

I insisted that we confront my parents.

He said it didn’t matter anymore, and there was no going back to change it. He wanted to move forward, and let the ash of the past stay where it was.

On my third night there, I didn’t sleep at all. Things were strained between us. I knew it was because of me.

I couldn’t let it go.

Couldn’t just let my parents off the hook so easily.

They’d done so much to fuck up his life and discredit him, while in the end they were the ones who had committed the worst act of all. All those times they told me to stay away from him for my own good, that he was dangerous, trouble, someone I shouldn’t be associated with. It burned me up inside.

When Luke woke up, he rolled and looked into my eyes. “You’ve been up all night.”

I nodded.

He shifted onto his side and looped his arm over me, pulling me closer. “You’re not going to be able to let this go, are you?”

“No,” I whispered. “I can’t see how you can, either.”

He moved quickly, moving me from my side to my back, and suddenly was over me. “This is all that matters, Dawn. You and me. I don’t care about anyone else. I don’t care what anyone says about us. I don’t care what anyone tries to do to keep us apart. I love you. I’ve always loved you…I just didn’t know it back then. I lost you once and I’m never going to let that happen again.” He paused for a moment.

My eyes welled up. He was tight-lipped and his jaw muscles clenched, as if he were trying to hold back his own tears. I watched as he gathered himself and continued.

“No person, no job, no obstacle is going to get between us. I’m so in love with you it hurts when you’re not around.”

Hearing him say it, tell me, with such abandon, left me tangled up in tears. “I love you more than anything” I finally choked out through sobs.

He leaned down and brushed his lips to mine. I wrapped my legs around his waist, tightly, locking them together, locking him against me.

That was the first time sex was more than sex.

It was as though our emotions collided in a chemical reaction, my body a glowing ember ignited by the promise he’d just made to me.

Sunlight streamed through the window behind him, and I lost sight of his face as he became a silhouette hovering over me.

Our fingers interlaced. He spread my arms open wide across the bed and lowered himself onto me. All the stress and worry and pain vanished. In an instant, it was replaced by the pure bliss of Luke inside of me.

Nothing existed outside of this room. Not even time.

Every nerve in my body was on fire as we moved together in a perfect rhythm.

“I could do this until I die,” he whispered.

My body tightened in the span of a half-second, then slowly unraveled as he spoke those words.

So much more than just sex, this was making love.

Depleted and worn, we curled into one another. I felt a tiredness that was fulfillment rather than exhaustion. I was more than content. I was whole.

*****

“Do you want me to go with you?” Luke asked.

“No, I should probably go by myself.”

It was the next morning. I was getting ready to go to my house—correction, my parents’ house -- to get more of my stuff. The sun was just rising. I knew they’d be awake.  Rather than wait until later, I decided to go early and get it over with.

Luke stood by the front door of our apartment.

“You have to be at work, anyway,” I said.

He nodded in agreement. “You know I’d go.”

“I do, but this job is huge for you.” He’d just started working for BLACKWOOD Studios. I didn’t want anything to screw up this opportunity for him.

He kissed me and told me to call or text if I needed anything, and he’d be on his way.

When I pulled up to my parents’ house, both cars were in the driveway. I turned off my car and sat there for a few seconds. The longer I sat, the more I realized I needed to just go inside and deal with this. Otherwise, I’d keep thinking up scenarios that would make it even worse. I drew up my courage and got out of my car.

The front door was locked. I still had my keys in my hand, so I didn’t have to rummage through my purse to find them. I slipped the key into the lock and it turned by itself. Or, rather, someone on the other side was turning it.

My father opened the door. “You’re back.” He said it with a soft voice and pressed lips, the corners of his mouth turned up into a half-smile.

“I’m just here for my stuff.” I stepped into the doorway and brushed past him.

He touched my arm. “Dawn, let’s talk about—”

I spun toward him, cutting him off mid-sentence. “You want to talk? Really? Okay, let’s talk. Where’s Mom?” I looked around. “Mom!”

“She’s not up yet,” my dad said. “She’s been sleeping a lot lately. A lot more than usual.”

I looked at him for a second, then yelled, “Mom!”

I heard a door upstairs open, and my mom rushed down the hall, tying her robe in the process. Her hair was a mess. Her eyes had large, purple bags under them. I could see it all the way from the bottom of the stairs.

“What’s going on?” she said. “You’re back.”

“Dad wants to have a talk, so let’s have a talk,” I snapped sarcastically. My anger boiled inside of me.

Mom came down the stairs quickly, reaching for me, trying to give me a hug.

I pulled away. “Don’t.”

“Actually,” I said, “let me get the things I came for, and then we can have this talk.” I started up the stairs.

My mom called out, “Dawn, please don’t do this. Stay.”

I ignored her, went to my room, and packed all the clothes I wanted in my suitcase. I had two boxes in the closet that held the items from my shelves that I didn’t want to leave behind. I moved to the bathroom and raked everything off of the counter into a box. I wasted no time digging through the drawers. I almost forgot my shampoo and conditioner, two expensive bottles that were almost full.

I moved quickly. Ten minutes later I lugged my stuff down the stairs, refusing my father’s offer of help.

“At least let me help you take some of this to the car,” he said. That’s when I knew he’d given up trying to get me to stay. I wasn’t sure my mother was quite there yet.

Dad helped me carry the suitcases and boxes to my car. We loaded them in the backseat and trunk. At one point he whispered, “Your mother isn’t going to take this very well.”