AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Should there be more?”
I didn’t feel like that should be the end of it. “You should be angry and ask me a bunch of questions and maybe even storm off and leave me on the beach alone to find my own way home.”
“Should I?” he asked. “Wow. I’d be an asshole if I did that. Is that what you think of me?”
Oh God. Now look what I did.Things had been going so well, I couldn’t believe it. So I had to fuck it up myself.
“Not at all. It’s just…well…” I didn’t want to waste this beautiful night talking about my ex, but how else could I explain my behavior? “I told you I had been married.”
He nodded.
“He wasn’t so nice. Jarrod looked for any excuse to hurt me. I really haven’t let anyone get close to me since. So my comment was…”
“A knee-jerk reaction. Got it. But I’m not Jarrod. I would never walk out on you,” he said. “And I’m not angry, either. You have your reasons for not wanting me to know where you lived. I’m sure when you’re ready, you’ll share them with me.”
God, I could fall in love with you.My heart skipped a beat, and knew it was already too late. I did love Richard, even though I didn’t want to. But I’m not about to tell him that.
“Things were moving so quickly with us that I thought it was going to end just as fast.” I still wasn’t sure it wouldn’t. That’s why I needed to guard my heart as much as possible.
He reached over and brushed my cheek with the back of his hand. “Do you still feel that way?”
I don’t want to. I was about to answer when I heard my name.
“Joyelle?”
It couldn’t be. I looked up and my parents were standing behind Richard. Oh, please. Can’t Richard and I ever just be…alone?
Smiling I said, “Hi, Dad. Hi, Mom.”
Richard turned and faced them, then got up off the blanket, extended his hand to my father and introduced himself. “Good evening. I’m Richard Heart.”
“The car thief?” my mother gasped.
I flew off the blanket and said, “Mom, he’s not a car thief!”
“Deno said he was. Stole a Ferrari from some guy in Boston,” my father added.
“I assure you, I’m no thief,” Richard said. Then turned to look at me and asked, “Did you know about this?”
I nodded and said, “Deno called me this morning with his suspicions. He was going to call the police, but I told him to wait, that he had to be wrong.” And he was. “That’s why I sent you the text message this morning. I needed to…”
“Ask me if I stole the car?” Richard snarled.
My father said, “Don’t be blaming my daughter. She isn’t the one going around spreading lies. And if she thought you were a car thief, she’d have called the police herself already.”
Thanks, Dad.“He’s telling you the truth. I knew you didn’t steal anything, but I needed to be able to explain to Deno why you had someone else’s car towed for repair.”
Richard didn’t owe me an explanation, or my father either, for that matter. But he reluctantly provided one. And as Richard told us all about Tyler and what happened to his son Chance, I couldn’t hold back my tears.
The only thing you stole is my heart.
“Why don’t the two of you come for dinner Sunday?” my mother asked.
“Mom, Richard has brunch with his family on Sunday, but thanks anyway,” I said.
Richard turned to me and said, “If we leave my parents’ place early, we can do both.”
My mother, sounding hurt, asked, “You’ve met his parents?”
