AllFreeNovel
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“Pizza. And ice cream,” she adds quickly. “Lots and lots of ice cream.”
“Let’s go then.”
We spend the night like any other young couple. I pick a diner on the outskirts of town in the hope we don’t bump into anyone we know, and we eat our body weight in pizza and ice cream as we talk about the gossip that’s been whispered down the hallways at Sterling Prep, along with our upcoming trip.
Every time one of us mentions it, Hadley’s face lights up. I didn’t realize quite how much she disliked it here. I’ve always been very vocal about not wanting to be here, but she’s just got on with life like she belongs. It’s only as she’s started opening up that I realize she’s just been playing a part this whole time. It’s another thing that I think helps bind us together, and it helps me understand the connection that Remi and Ace found almost immediately after we moved. They see that in each other too.
“I wish you could come up and spend the night,” Hadley sighs when I pull up in front of her dorm building later that evening.
“I can. I’ll just sneak back in later.”
“We can’t, Cole. If we get caught…”
“Then what? What are they really going to do?”
She turns as white as a sheet. “They’ll call my parents. I can’t, Cole. I-I can’t…”
“It’s okay. I get it.”
“He called me,” she admits.
“Who? Your dad?”
“Yeah. Miss Jones went running straight to him to announce that I’d quit the squad.”
“But I thought—”
“Yeah, me too. But she’s in their back pocket. I have no idea what the connection with them really is but… ugh. It was the reminder that I needed. We need to be careful. If they get even a whiff of this, they’ll probably drag me back kicking and screaming and lock me in a basement or something.”
She tries to put some humor into her words, but I see right through them. She really is worried.
“I won’t let that happen, Dove.”
“But—”
“No,” I interrupt. “No one is taking you away from me ever again.”
“You promise?”
“I promise, Hadley. It’s me and you now.”
“I love you, Cole,” she says, staring up at me like I’m the most incredible person she’s ever met. And just like every other time she’s done it, I want to tell her that she’s wrong, that I’m not the person she thinks I am. I have to keep reminding myself that she already knows the person I am. She knows more about me than anyone else, even with the darkness I’m still holding within me.
“I love you too, Little Dove.” Reaching over the console, I wrap my fingers around the back of her neck and pull her lips to mine.
We make out in my car for over an hour before she finally breaks away, telling me that she really does need to go inside. Reluctantly, I let her go.
I don’t drive away until I know she’s safely inside, and even after she disappears, I still sit there for a few minutes, trying to get my head around everything that’s happened and how it led us here.
As I’m running up the stairs to my bedroom, I pull my cell from my pocket and find a message waiting for me.
Dove: Thank you for tonight. I can’t wait for the weekend ;)
My fingers fly over the keys, typing out my response.
Cole: Me either. I’m still hard.
Dove: You’re such a guy.
