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“What did you do this time?” Lyndsey yells at him as he chases me out the door.
“It wasn’t me this time,” he yells back.
Stumbling down the steps of the porch, I make a beeline straight over to the garden beds and empty the entire contents of my stomach onto an array of flowers.
“Ava,” I hear Lyndsey’s voice call out. The world around me spins as vertigo takes hold, and unable to keep myself upright, I collapse onto the soft grass. Lyndsey’s chocolate-brown hair falls into my line of sight, and her arms wrap around me as I lean forward, my whole body racking with sobs.
“What happened?” Eric barks at Logan then places a comforting hand on my back.
“She just caught Mason and Hadley in bed together.”
“What the fuck?” Eric roars, removing his hand and shifting to get to his feet. “I’m going to kill him!”
“No!” I cry and grab hold of Eric’s arm. “Don’t leave me, Eric. Please!”
His expression softens at my despair. “I won’t leave you, baby girl.” He pulls me from Lyndsey and places me on his lap, wrapping his arms around me tight. I bury my face into his neck and hold on to him for dear life.
“We need to get her out of here,” Lyndsey says to Eric.
“I will take her home,” Logan offers.
“No, you won’t,” Lyndsey snaps at him. “I will take her home.”
“I… don’t want to… go home,” I choke out between sobs. My mother is absolutely the last person I want to deal with right now.
Lyndsey rubs my back soothingly. “I’m taking you to my house, babe.”
“Come on. Let’s go.” Eric hauls me up and carries me to Lyndsey’s car. Getting in the back seat, he secures both of us in our seat belts, then pulls me back into his arms.
* * *
I don’t remember fallingasleep or how I even managed to, but I wake up to Eric laying me down on Lyndsey’s bed and pulling the blanket up over my shoulders. As I bury my head in the pillow, willing sleep to pull me back under, I feel the light caress of Eric’s lips kissing my cheek. “I will call you tomorrow, baby girl. It’s going to be okay.”
The mattress lifts as he shifts off the bed. I hear the faint whispers of him talking to Lyndsey before the bedroom closes, and his departing footsteps fade off down the hall.
The blanket lifts and the bed dips as Lyndsey crawls into bed behind me, getting under the covers, then wrapping her arm around me and holding me in a comforting embrace.
The image of Hadley and Mason together plays over in my mind on repeat. The memory is so vivid, my chest tightens to the point of physical pain, and I release a desperate sob, praying for some form of relief from the unbearable agony.
“It hurts Lyndsey. It hurts so much.”
“Shh. I know,” she whispers, holding me tighter. “I’ve got you, babe. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here, and I’ve got you.”
ChapterTwenty-Seven
MASON
Arhythm of pain pounds through my head like a beating drum. Slowly opening my eyes, I grimace when the bright morning light streaming through the bedroom window burns my retinas with the intensity of a blazing sun, and I quickly snap them shut, seeking out relief.
A wave of nausea hits me, forcing bile to burn a path up my throat, and I swallow against the harshness of my parched throat in an attempt to fight it off.
Peeling my eyes open again, I blink several times and look around at my unfamiliar surroundings.
Where the fuck am I?
Racking my brain to try to figure out what happened last night and how I ended up here, scattered images of talking to Hadley then trying to find Ava filter through before everything turns black.
Feeling a weight on my chest, I lift my head and look down, expecting to see Ava’s blonde hair but my heart stalls when I see the rich red locks sprawled out over my chest in front of me. It’s then that another vision assaults my memory.
