AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I get it,” Alex now says, breaking the silence. “It feels hopeless, like no one will understand.”
“Exactly and I worried that people would blow it off, especially my parents. ‘Get over it, Delaney’, I could hear their words play out in my head every time I thought about calling them. They wouldn’t get it and if anything, they would have been mad at me.”
“And listening to them bitch and moan at you would have only made things worse,” Alex says.
“I didn’t want advice or anyone to tell me how stupid I was being. I just wanted someone to understand, someone to comfort me, but I didn’t have that.”
“I’ve always been jealous of the relationship that Zoey and Max have,” Alex admits.
“Me too,” I chime out in agreement as Alex leans back, now lying on the mattress. I move so I’m lying next to him, swinging my leg over so it is now resting on his legs.
“Being an only child of shitty parents is weird, isn’t it?” he says, and I nod. “We don’t have anyone to commiserate with.”
“Not that Zoey or Max need to commiserate about their parents, because I was also jealous of how easy-going their parents are too.”
“Do you think you ended up in the relationship with that dick because of your parents?” Alex asks and it feels like a pretty deep question, something I’ve asked myself multiple times. While my parents were there, they worked a lot and neither one of them understood the pressures that came with going away to college. They didn’t go to college, and I knew they wanted better for me, but I just needed them to understand how nervous and scared and stressed I was.
“Do you think you hate relationships because of your dad?” I ask, avoiding his question and when he lets out something that’s a cross between a laugh and a scoff, I know I’ve scratched the surface of what makes Alex Cunningham tick.
“Oh, Delaney Hayes, you are one smart girl,” he replies, leaning over and dropping a kiss on the tip of my nose.
“So now it’s your turn. You know my story of why I love myself some one-night stands, let’s hear why your relationship with your dad is so strained.”
“You make it sound like it’s just something I’m supposed to unload on you. You have your own baggage, you don’t need to carry mine too,” Alex says, and while it’s sweet of him to think he’s protecting me, he doesn’t need to. If anything, he needs someone to hear him, someone to finally hear how he feels.
“I can handle it, Alex,” I say, kissing him softly, letting my fingers trail along his cheek, reminding him that I’m here for him no matter what.
17
ALEX
“Iknow you can,” I tell her, catching her hand in mine and lifting it to my lips. “But that doesn’t mean you have to.” It already feels like I’ve admitted way more than I should to her, more than I’ve ever admitted to anyone. I mean the whole getting her to marry me thing, what the hell was that?
I don’t know what it is about Delaney Hayes, but whenever we’re together like this, whenever she manages to get me talking, she has me saying things I never dreamed I’d say to anyone.
“Quit stalling and quit trying to protect me,” she now says, tugging her hand from my grip as she slides it slowly down my chest. “Talk to me, Alex.”
“Or…” I say, covering her hand with mine and pushing it lower.
She gives me a smirk as she props herself up on her elbow, threading our fingers together and stopping our hands from moving any lower. I give her a pout and she laughs, shaking her head at me. “You are hopeless.”
“Yeah, but you love me all the same,” I say with a grin even as internally that voice in my head is once again screaming why the fuck are you saying this stuff to her?
Deep down, I know why though. Because as much as I’ve avoided relationships my whole life and as much as I’ve tried to fight this whole thing with Delaney, I can’t fight it any longer. Because the truth is I have fallen for her, and I’ve fallen really fucking hard.
And it feels a lot like I imagine falling in love feels like too.
But I just don’t know if I can admit that out loud to her yet. Because what if she doesn’t feel the same way? What if I tell her how I really feel, say the words I’ve never said to anyone, and she doesn’t say them back? What if she runs because they aren’t what she wants to hear or worse still, she doesn’t believe me?
Fuck my life, this girl has my head and my heart all sorts of messed up.
“Again, quit stalling,” she says, ignoring my comment.
I suck in a deep breath, letting it out with an exaggerated sigh as I roll my eyes, sliding my hand down to her ass. “You drive a hard bargain, Laney, but fine, I’ll tell you.”
She smiles now, leaning in to kiss me. “Yeah, but you love me for it,” she whispers, mimicking my words as she lowers her head to my shoulder, her still naked body pressed against mine.
My heart is pounding in my chest now, but it’s got nothing to do with the things I’m about to say out loud and everything to do with those words she just said to me. It wasn’t an admission, wasn’t even anything more than a teasing comment thrown back at me like I do to her.
