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“I know. I can’t stop what other people think. But I hope for my own peace of mind he’s not that big of a piece of shit.”
“Regardless,” I said as I squeezed his thigh. “That doesn’t say anything about you.”
“I know, but fuck!” He slammed his hand against the dash as we stopped at a red light. His jaw worked and heat suffused his cheeks. I’d never seen him this worked up. This…upset. “I just can’t get away fast enough. I wish it was already summer and we could leave all this behind. If I never see my father again, I won’t be disappointed.”
Trying to smile despite the massive ball of sadness in the pit of my stomach. We’d agreed to give Denver a shot. But now, I wasn’t so sure that was what would be best for Rhys. “I bet you’re sorry you turned down the scholarship so quickly when we were at UofM, aren’t you?”
The pain in his eyes as he turned toward me speared straight through the most tender parts of my heart.
“You ready?” Jonah propped his shoulder against the door frame.
“Yup,” I grabbed my shoes to carry them out to the living room. Tonight was another date night with Jonah, but we were just doing dinner instead of using one of his presents. We’d used a couple, but he seemed to be holding onto the last ones to stretch it out.
“Where’s your overnight bag?” Beck asked as we appeared in the kitchen.
“Oh, shit. Hold on.” I handed the shoes to Jonah and raced back to my room. I had hygiene stuff at Beck’s place, but I didn’t have many clothes over there. At least not for the warmer weather now that April was here.
Ready, I pushed my hair out of my face as I joined them again. Beck slid my favorite boho bag off my shoulder. “I’ll take this to my place. You kids have fun. Not too much fun though.” He pointed a finger at us, but his eyes twinkled with mischief.
“Don’t worry, we won’t do anything you wouldn’t do,” Jonah said as he rolled his eyes. With a soft hand to my lower back, he steered me outside and away from Beck and Rhys.
“We didn’t get to give her a kiss goodbye!” Beck yelled.
“Later! This is my time now!” Jonah called back.
Laughing, I got in his car. Beck and Rhys both stood in the window watching us. Beck with a sexy grin climbing over his face, and Rhys with his arms crossed and a stern face. He winked when he caught me looking.
“You think Rhys is okay?” Jonah asked as he pulled away from the cottage and slipped his hand in mine.
These boys were hand holders and I loved it. Outside of the close connection I’d discovered with sex, this was my next favorite way to touch them.
“He’s…struggling.” I used my free hand to skim my fingers over the back of his hand. He shivered.
“That tickles,” he grunted, but left his hand in mine. I grinned, but it slowly died as I thought of how Rhys had been this week. “People at school have been assholes about the whole thing. Every time we’re together, I hear people cough into their hands and say stuff like criminal, loser, child abuser. I glare at them, but they laugh and point. If I’m hearing that, I can’t imagine what Rhys is hearing.”
“Shit, that sucks. I’ve heard stuff too, but I hoped no one was brave enough to let Rhys hear them. Fucking pricks.” Jonah shook his head. “Some of the people on the debate team tried to ask me about it but when I just stared at them and didn’t answer, they took the hint and walked away. What did Rhys do?”
“Nothing. He pretends like he doesn’t hear them and goes on like nothing has happened.” I hated conflict. I hated attention. But the way they treated him made me so freaking angry I wanted to rip them to pieces. I took a step in some girl’s direction when she was being loud enough the entire hallway heard her. Rhys wasn’t having it though. He’d shook his head and pulled me with him.
Later, when I asked how he could let it go, he just huffed out a laugh and said, “We have three weeks of school left. I’m more upset my father could be a child rapist than I am what they think. Let it go.” Then he kissed me so soundly I forgot why I had been upset in the first place.
I was still lost in my thoughts when Jonah abruptly changed the subject. “I know we were supposed to go out, but I was thinking maybe we could stay in and order take out?” He chewed on his full bottom lip as he cast a few quick glances at me. “Beck is practicing with his band tonight, so he won’t be back until later. We’ll have the place to ourselves.”
“Sure, what kind of takeout do you want to get?”
“Here,” he said as he tapped a few times on his phone screen. “Place an order for us. I love the Hunan chicken or pepper chicken.” He handed the phone to me with an online ordering app.
I finished it up and handed it back to him. For the rest of the ride, we didn’t chat about anything important. It was mostly about assignments, teachers, surface things.
“I want to walk in with you.” I undid my seatbelt as he pulled up to the curb of the Chinese greasy spoon next to the coffee shop Beck loved so much.
“Okay,” Jonah said as he furrowed his brow. “It should only be a second since we already paid.”
“I know.” I smiled. “I just want to maximize our time together.”
A slow smile spread over his face as he climbed out. “I can’t argue with that.”
He slid his arm over my shoulders as we walked up to the entrance. Now this, this felt like a date night. At school, even though he had changed quite a bit from the boy who cared way too much what people thought of him and their ridiculous judgments, he was still fairly hands off, with the exception of occasional hand holding, and quick kisses at classroom doors. Rhys was much more comfortable with PDA.
