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When it’stime to leave, I guide an inebriated Hope toward the car while Kristy hoots from behind and my brothers chuckle.
Thankfully the boys are inside, so I freely give everyone a middle finger before shutting the car door.
“Zach, I…don’t feel very well.” Hope rests her head on the headrest as I slide next to her in the back seat of the car.
“You better not pass out or throw up in my car, Hopper.” I try to conjure a stern voice as William starts the car.
But my words have no effect on her and she burst into giggles. Even though I’m not pleased at this fuckup, I have never seen Hope this laid back. Tonight, for the first time, she looks her age.
A few minutes in the drive and her eyes starts to close.
After Will drops us right in front of the elevator, I guide her inside the waiting car. When I place one arm around her waist to support her, she immediately rests all her weight on me. Her hands lock around my neck as she falls into my chest. The delicious scent I’ve been trying so hard to avoid all day is right under my nose. Her curvy body nestled perfectly against mine is fucking torture.
I know I am a sick bastard but being away from women for months has me on edge. My fingers tighten around her waist and a moan slips from her mouth.
“Fuck.”What the hell am I doing?
I pull back a little and try to create a sliver of space between our bodies. But every inch I pull away, she pushes back, leaving nothing about herself to my imagination.
“How did it happen?” She shivers before hiding her face in my jacket.
But I can only pay half attention to her murmuring. In my mind, I’m counting the number of steps from the foyer to our bedroom.
Thank God Ray is not here. I can just put Hope to bed and spend the night on the living room couch, far away from her, from the lure of her.
“How did it come to that?” Hope whispers in a tipsy voice which is kind of cute and sexy.
Don’t think about sex and her in the same sentence, you prick.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” she continues as I pull her to our bedroom. “He was not supposed to leave me like this, all alone.”
My hands around her arms guiding her to the bed halt.
Fuck! Is she talking about Ray’s father?
So far Hope has been tight-lipped about that fucker.
“Who left you, Hope?” My stomach churns as I ask the question.
“He said he’d help me, he would support me. I was supposed to go to culinary school.” Her fingers dig into my jacket. Something like a vise tightens around my chest as her chin trembles.
Is she crying for Ray’s father? Is she fucking missing that man?
“Who, Hope?” With my hands holding her face, I force her to look up at me.
She holds my gaze and tears leak through her eyes. A sad smile plays on her lips as she says, “You must think I’m the biggest loser on this planet. Everyone in your family is so…elegant.”
If only she knew who I really am, she wouldn’t be sitting here. I wipe her face with the pads of my thumbs as tears continue to race down her cheeks and ask again, “Who left you, Hopper?”
“Dad. He promised that whatever happened, he would stay with me. I wasn’t supposed to be a single mom and caretaker of the house on the same day. I was still a teen.”
Her sniffles are like multiple knives cutting my skin. It breaks my heart to see her like this. This woman in front of me is so different from the Hope I have come to know over these past months.
“But you are doing so well.” I tuck her hair behind her ear when she looks up.
“Am I?”
My chest constricts watching her tearstained face.
