Authors: Jasmine Carolina
“I appreciate you inviting me, baby, I really do. But I have to respectfully decline. When Skylar’s sixteen, twenty-one, thirty, and even fifty, I want her to look back on her childhood and talk about how every year, it was just you and her, up here in your secret place, celebrating her birthday alone. I don’t want her to look back like I do and end up resenting you for the fact that you met someone and let that person intrude on
your
special alone time. Whether we stay together forever or not, I’m adamant on this.”
Hayden blinked at me, a slow grin spreading across his face as he shook his head slowly. He pulled me forward and kissed the top of my forehead.
“You’re something else, d’you know that?”
I pulled my lips to the side, not sure how to respond. “Why?”
I watched as he ran his hands through his thick hair and then stayed put on the top of his head, closing his eyes like he didn’t know how to explain himself. I could see the thoughts raging through his head, could practically see the wheels turning as he recommenced chewing on his lip. Then, I saw it: the light, playful boyish grin that I’d only seen a few times in the short span of time that I’d known him.
We were silent like that for a long time, neither of us saying a single word or moving even a fraction of an inch. We just gazed at each other, and I wondered if he expected me to break the silence, or if he was planning on doing it sometime soon. Finally, Hayden’s hands moved from his hair to drag slowly down his face. I sat up straighter, trying to prepare myself for what he was about to say.
“Because,” he said, as though that word explained everything. I must have made a face, because he chuckled and exhaled a sharp breath before speaking again. “….because. Because you’re exactly what I need. You’re exactly what
Skylar
needs. You think of the things I don’t. I could never see things the way you do, because my parents are still together. So thank you. You have my heart, Michele. But you also have my daughter’s, and when something comes up, it’s like you consider her first, me second, and yourself last. That’s why I love you.” He pulled me so that I was laying down again, twining his fingers into the hair at the back of my neck. “And I don’t know if we’re going to stay together forever Michele, because forever’s a long time. Hell, for a long time, I didn’t even
believe
in the concept of forever. It’s uncertain, like leaves in the wind. There one day, and gone the next. But I do know that right now, in this moment with you, forever isn’t such a foreign notion anymore. Forever with somebody…forever with
you
finally seems attainable. Forever with
you
is what I’ve spent my entire life waiting for.”
With those words, I was stunned silent, gazing at this man who was baring his soul to me,
again
, and telling me that he wanted forever with me.
And with those words, the dam within me cracked, a splinter at a time and then burst open completely, and I knew in that moment that I’d fallen head over heels in love with Hayden Jax.
Chapter Eighteen
The following day, Summer Van Leer dropped Sky off at 10 a.m., because we’d informed her that we had plans with Nic and Colin at noon.
When she got in the car with us to head over to the beach house, Skylar
still
couldn’t stop talking about her birthday party. We were on our way to the Westwick family home—I still couldn’t quite bring myself to call it Nickayla and Colin’s home just yet—and Sky was talking both of our ears off. Hayden had tried giving her his tablet to watch Netflix, but she wasn’t having it. She wanted to talk, and she was going to keep talking until she was heard.
“Daddy, can I invite all of my friends from day care to my party?” she asked from the backseat.
“Yes, Skylar.” Hayden gripped the steering wheel tightly, on the brink of exploding.
I rested a hand upon his knee and grinned at him.
“Michele, do you think Caleb and Rhys and Julian wanna come to my party?”
I turned to face her, plastering a smile on my face. “You know what, cutie? I think they would like that. When Aunt Livie finishes your invitations, I’ll give one to their mommy so they know you want them to come.”
She clapped her hands and kicked her legs, an ecstatic grin spreading across her lips. “Yay!”
I giggled lightly as Hayden pulled into the driveway. We had only pulled in when Brody came barreling out the house and down the stairs. I narrowed my eyes at him, and then turned to face Hayden.
“I’m so sorry. Nic and Colin told me he wasn’t going to be here,” I said, my voice dripping with remorse.
“S’okay. We’ll have a great time, Brody or no Brody.” He leaned over and placed a hand on the side of my face as he gave me a sweet kiss. “I love you.”
I smiled, heat rising to my cheeks as I tried to avoid the fact that I couldn’t say the words back to him.
Hayden climbed out of the car without another word, and I followed suit. I closed the door behind me while Hayden took Skylar out of her car seat. Hayden waved me forward, letting me know that he had everything covered—we’d brought a heaping tray of potato salad and a homemade cheesecake for our lunch.
Acknowledging his wave, I sauntered up the stairs and tried to brush past Brody, but he took my hand and stopped me. “What’d he say?”
I shook my head, indicating to him that it wasn’t the time to talk about his proposition. But he followed me inside, and dragged me by my hand through the house, past the kitchen, and toward the hall closet. “Brody, what the actual fuck? You don’t need to manhandle me, you know!
He opened the door to the hall closet and guided me inside, and I crossed my arms over my chest. I couldn’t believe he even had the nerve to yank me aside when I’d just shown up with Hayden.
“So, when do we get to go on our first date?”
I shook my head and averted my gaze. “We don’t. I’m sorry, Brody, but it’s not going to happen.”
He took a step back and glared at me, appalled, like I’d just told him I’d committed murder or something. He leaned against a stack of coats, crossing his arms in front of him.
“Just like that? The other day, you were all for going on a date with me. What happened?” His face fell. His expression was bleak, the pain evident in the way he regarded me and the way that he spoke.
“Hayden told me that he loves me,” I admitted, shrugging my shoulders as though this would explain away everything. “That’s what happened. He told me he loves me, and after that, I knew that I couldn’t.”
“You couldn’t. You couldn’t what, Mich? You couldn’t what?” He advanced on me, his hands moving wildly in front of his face. “You couldn’t
what
?!”
I almost burst into tears right there at the sound of fury mixed with agony in his voice. Instead, I held myself together, because I couldn’t let him know that he was affecting me. There was no mistaking the fact that I was hurting him, but I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t take back what I’d already said, or the fact that I was pretty sure I was falling head over heels for Hayden, or the fact that I could see two options in front of me and only one of them continued to look appealing.
“I couldn’t continue to pine over you. I couldn’t continue to pine over someone who’s known me their entire life and still can’t tell me the three words I’ve always needed to hear, when there’s a man before me who’s known me all of two seconds and he has no qualms about telling me he loves me every chance he gets! I couldn’t lie to you about wanting to give you a chance, when my heart’s yelling at me not to!” I dropped my head in my hands and screamed. “Oh, God, is that what you wanted to hear?! Are you happy now?! I’m not happy with hurting you, Brody! God dammit!”
His hands dropped to his sides and they balled into fists. He stood there, shaking and fuming in silence for a few moments, and then, wordlessly, he wrenched the door open and stormed out, leaving me stunned and completely still in his wake.
I reached my hands up and raked my hair back as I groaned.
I just wanted a few moments to myself to think things over, but apparently that was too much to ask, because a few moments later, a loud ruckus was taking place, and the only thing separating me from it was the door to the hall closet.
I gathered my wits and opened the door, taking off into the living room where the commotion seemed to be taking place.
“You son of a bitch!” Brody’s voice boomed. “You couldn’t let her out of your sight for more than a second, could you? You just
had
to ruin the
last
chance I had to win Michele back, didn’t you?”
I staggered into the living room, my heart pounding on overdrive. Hayden was standing in the center of the room, glancing between Brody and I with an expression so lethal I honestly thought he was going to pounce. “What the Hell are you talking about?”
I sprang into action, racing forward and standing in front of Hayden. I held both of my hands out, palms up, trying to hold them both at bay.
“You know what I’m talking about, you selfish prick! Mich was going to go on a date with me—multiple actually, and you wouldn’t let her!” Brody’s entire face shook from the rage behind his words. “What kind of hold do you think you have over her anyway?! I was her
first
!”
Hayden glared at me, his eyebrows shooting up in question. “What the Hell is he talking about?”
I started shaking, feeling like the situation I’d put myself in could and would only get worse from where I was standing. I turned around and faced Hayden, placing my hand against his chest. “We’ll talk about this later, I promise. Just
please
calm down. Please?”
He blinked at me, his jaw working violently as his eyes drifted from my face to Brody’s and back again. I reached my hand up to graze his arm, and he shrugged me off, stepping forward and advancing on Brody. “Michele can make her own decisions, Brody! I don’t tell her what to do or try and keep her from her life. A
man
can admit when it’s over. A
man
can admit when he’s lost. I don’t tell her who she can and cannot see, and I most definitely
never
told her that she couldn’t give you another chance. A
man
doesn’t do that! Oh, but wait, you do, don’t you? Every time you’ve hurt her, you made it so that she could never move on from you in her hometown because anyone she came in contact with felt like they had to answer to you. And when she comes to a different town and tries to move on, you show up and try and manipulate her emotions so that she’ll give you another chance. Well guess what? You’re not in Harlow anymore, Dorothy. You’re in Big Springs, and you don’t get your way because you’re some pretty boy. Michele is a grown woman. If she decided not to take a
billionth
chance on you, she came to that decision on her own. She doesn’t answer to you, and neither do I.” He dropped his voice to a lethal whisper. “You say you’re her first? Guess what? I plan on being her
last
.”
“Hayden, enough!” I exclaimed.
He turned on me and glared at me, and with that one look, I was silenced. I knew that there was no getting myself out of this situation.
“You won’t be her last anything, mother fucker! She’s mine! Always has been, and always will be!” Brody’s posture had gone rigid after Hayden’s spiel, and I wasn’t sure which of the two of them was going to attack first.
“Why don’t you let Michele choose that for herself, chickenshit? You afraid she won’t choose you?” Hayden grinned widely. “That’s it, isn’t it? For the first time in your life, you can’t get your way, and it
infuriates
you! That’s fucking perfect. You’re threatened!”
“You think you’re a threat? You
really
think you are?”
“I
know
I am, especially from the fact that after she was on a ‘date’ with you yesterday, it was
my
bed she ended up in.”
It happened so quickly that I almost missed it. Brody grabbed my arm and wrenched me backward, sending me flying to the floor. Furious, Hayden reached down to help me up. The minute I got to my feet, he started worrying over me, and Brody got him with a sucker-punch to the jaw. Quicker than I ever could have anticipated, Hayden released my arm and turned around and sent Brody to the floor with a one-two punch that echoed across the entire room.
He was on top of Brody within seconds and they were trading punches.
“STOP IT!” I screeched. “STOP IT!” I looked to Colin who was struggling to break them up. “STOP THEM!”
Callum and Rory were in the living room then, both of them helping break the fight up. Brody was on top of Hayden, but it was clear that Brody had finally met his match. Hayden was responding to each punch Brody gave him with a harder one of his own.
Cal grabbed Brody and pulled him to his feet, pinning him against the wall and holding him there with his forearm pressed against Brody’s chest. Hayden was being pinned down by Rory
and
Colin, and his face was beet red.