He reaches for me, and I don’t fight his embrace. “I couldn’t stop what that asshole did to you Ellie, and I’m so afraid you’re going to let boys keep breaking your heart.” He sweeps my hair back from my face. “You deserve the world. You are beautiful, and worthy, and you are the strongest person I’ve ever known.”
His words wash over me like aloe on sunburn, taking the sting out of the past few years of grief. “I’m sorry I’ve been tough on you. I’m sorry I’ve been invasive. But you’re right. You’re a grown up now, and you can make your own decisions. If that boy is your decision, well, I’ll support it and do my best to get to know him.”
A fresh wave of tears crashes into me. “Thank you, Daddy.”
“But if he hurts you, I don’t care who his big shot, rich guy father is. I’ll fucking kill him.”
CHAPTER32
Ares
Apersistent knocking on the passenger window snaps me out of a deep sleep. A blurry glance at my watch tells me that over an hour has passed since I left them at the graveside. Out the window, my girl looks exhausted huddled against her dad’s side.
I unlock the car, and he pulls open the door, standing back so she can hop inside.
“Are you still okay to take me home?”
I’m surprised, but I’d never say no to her. “Of course,tesoro.” I risk a glance at her father, who nods.
“See you at home.” He gets into his truck but waits for me to move before starting the engine. He follows me at a safe distance, and I can’t help but feel like my driving is under scrutiny right now. On one particular stretch of road, Eloise inhales a sharp breath, her nails squeezing into my hand.
“Tesoro?”
“I’m fine. Don’t stop.”
She doesn’t look fine. In fact, she looks like she might throw up in the footwell of my SUV.
“Should I pull over?”
“No!” Her shriek is pained. She leans forward, head in her hands, and rocks back and forth.
Screw her dad. I gun the gas and get us the hell away from whatever the fuck that was. After a mile or two, I touch her back.“Tesoro?”
Her tear-stained face turns to me. “That’s why I rarely go to the cemetery. That road. That’s where… w-w-where…” Tears stream down her face all over again, and I want to pull the car over, haul her into my lap and hold her.
“Oh, Eloise.” I stroke her face with one hand as I control the car with the other. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know exactly where the accident was.”
I feel like an inconsiderate asshole. It didn’t even occur to me when she screamed that she was reliving her trauma. She shakes her head at me, but it does nothing to uncurl the tightness stabbing my chest.
“I need to get better about traveling on that road. I know I do, I just… It’s so hard.” She swallows loudly. “My therapist said it’ll take time. But every single time I’m on that road I can hear the car smashing. I can smell the leaking gasoline, the blood. And I canfeelthe pain.”
Her hand drifts to her face and she falls silent, staring out the window lost in her thoughts and tears and grief. When we get back to her house, her dad pulls into the driveway right behind us.
“You staying?” he asks as we walk toward the front door.
I hadn’t planned to, but now that he mentions it, it’s pretty late, even for me. “I don’t want to impose."
Mr. Downing snorts, opening the door. “You’ll sleep in separate rooms. I’m not ready to face the fact my baby girl is canoodling.” He grunts. “With a stripper.”
Clearly, I have some work to do to gain the man’s respect, but this is a huge step forward. Abuelita always tells me not to look a gift llama in the mouth. That’s not how the original saying goes, but she likes to be authentic. Using llama means she can claim she invented the phrase. I’m not going to be the one that tells her that’s not how things work.
I wait for an exhausted Eloise to follow her dad into the house before I bring up the rear, mostly in case she collapses from all the exertion of the evening. Tonight hasn’t gone quite how I planned, but I guess I’m having a sleepover at my girlfriend’s house.
CHAPTER33
Eloise
“Eloise?” Ares shakes me awake. He’s standing next to my bed. My bed, in my home.
