AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We stay like this for a long time, clinging to each other without saying a word. There is no need for anything to be said. We both know what happened. Somewhere along the broken road we traveled, we turned to each other for comfort. We started depending on one another. Forgave each other. We turned the darkness between us into light.
Now the question is. Will that be enough?
My phone buzzes in my back pocket, reminding me I’m supposed to be home right now.
Ryder releases his hold on me, but only enough for me to sit up and retrieve my phone. He keeps his arms around me, his large hands sprawled out on my back and thigh.
Unlocking my phone, I find a message from my mom. “My parents are asking if I’m okay and if I’ll make it home for dinner.”
“I’ll drive you home.”
Before I can object, he is moving us around. After making me sit on the seat, he climbs over to the driver’s side and gets behind the wheel.
The engine roars to life, and he pulls out of the alley and onto the road.
“I’m sorry I left.” I feel the need to say it, even though I know I did the right thing. “I was scared, and I overheard Maddox saying he was going to take me back to the club and put me in a room with Tucker.”
Ryder curses under his breath. “I wouldn’t have let that happen.”
“I didn’t know that,” I say honestly.
“I know.”
“Have you been watching me?” I had a feeling he was, something in the back of my mind telling me he was close, but I chalked it up to dreaming for the most part.
“Yes,” he admits shamelessly and without further explanation.
“Why didn’t you talk to me?”
Just as I ask, we pull up in front of my parents’ house.
“You should go inside,” Ryder tells me, avoiding my question.
“Come with me,” I offer, but it sounds more like a plea. “I told them the truth, and they know I stayed with you.”
“Do they know what I made you do while you stayed with me?”
“It was my choice to stay with you. I had sex with you willingly, and we both know I enjoyed it too. But that’s not something they need to know.”
Ryder glances toward the front door, his fingers gripping onto the steering wheel tightly, before he turns his gaze back onto the road ahead. I can tell he is thinking about it. He wants to come in, but something is holding him back.
The past.
It’s the same thing holding me back too. Our past can’t be erased, no matter how we feel about each other now.
“Go inside, Penny.” He tells me, calling me by my name. It sounds foreign coming from his mouth, and I wonder why he chose this moment to say it.
Maybe because this is goodbye?
The thought of never seeing him again leaves a dark, empty space in the center of my chest.
“Go,” he repeats, still looking ahead as if he can’t bring himself to look at me.
Climbing across the seat, I lean over and place a kiss on Ryder’s cheek.
He doesn’t move or say anything. Simply looks ahead, his eyes trained on some imaginary spot on the road.
“Bye,” I murmur and climb out of the truck. As soon as I close the door and step onto the sidewalk, he drives off.
I watch his truck disappear when he takes a turn. The road turns blurry, making me realize I’m crying. Wiping the tears away with the back of my hand, I keep staring at the road, hoping he might change his mind. Wishing he would turn around and pick me back up.
But he never does.
He left, and I’ve never felt so alone.
