AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You weren’t going to think twice. You were just going to do it.”
“Yes.”
She turned around then, revealing her tearful eyes to me for the second time that day. “And the cops would’ve arrested you. They would’ve taken you away from me.”
My heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach as I blinked and turned away. “They could’ve said it was self-defense. It could’ve—”
“Okay. Maybe. But then what? Even if Seth wasn’t around anymore, you don’t think word would’ve gotten back to his friends? You don’t think Levi wouldn’t find out? God, Soldier, why do you think I’ve never said something before?”
My jaw shifted. “I—”
“Because I’vealwaysbeen scared ofwhat would happen to us. And now, with you …” She huffed and ran a hand over her face. “You didn’t want them knowing where youwere, butguess what. They do now. And if you weren’t here?Nobodywould be here to keep us safe.”
I was flabbergasted and stunned. Because, fuck, she had a point. It wasn’t a great one. I still felt she should’ve pressed charges and gotten a restraining order, but Iunderstoodnow why she hadn’t.
It wasn’t just that she was afraid of what might happen to her.
She was afraid of what might happen tome.
“Ray …” I smoothed my hand over my hair and shook my head. “Rain … I—”
“I love you,” she said abruptly,sureandsincere. “That’s what I wanted to say this morning when I only told you I really liked you. Iloveyou, Soldier. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone else … apart from Noah. And I love that you would’ve committed the worst crime in the world to protect us. I love that you want to see him go away and never ever, ever come back. I love you so much for that and for everything else you’ve done for us. But I need you here more than I need him gone.”
My mouth was dry with the revelation of her words passing round and round and round in my head.
I loveyou,I love you, I love you.
When the fuck was the last time someone had told me they loved me?
It was so long ago that I couldn’t remember who had said it or when. And now, I didn’t know what to do, what tosay. How to appropriately react without making a complete ass of myself.
“Um …” I cleared my throat and rubbed at a random spot above my eyebrow. “Wow. I …”
“I don’t need you to say it back,” she said, cutting me off. “I just want you to understand why I keep avoiding the police. Because I’m scared of what steps Seth will take next, never mind what his friends would do if he were thrown in jail.”
I had to laugh at that while my heart begged me to find a way to tell her how I felt too.
“You know, maybe they wouldn’t care,” I said, a feeble attempt at lightening the mood. “They might even be thrilled to get rid of that hotheaded asshole.”
“Maybe,” she said, quietly turning back to the open drawer to finish putting away her things. “But I don’t think I care to find out.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
GRAMPA’S SECRET
If someone had told me ten years ago that I would one day be living with a girlfriend and acting as a father to her son, I would’ve laughed in their face and told them they were insane.
Because what woman in her right mind would look at me—a six-foot-seven felon with a scarred face and shitty tattoos—and think,Yeah, that’s the guy Iwannabuild a home with?
Yet there I was. Flipping burgers and turning hot dogs on a hot day in June with Noah at my side while Ray plucked a few stray weeds from the garden full of baby cucumber, strawberry, and of course, tomato plants. A neighbor from the community—a younger woman named Julia—rode by on her bike and waved, wishing us a good night, and we waved back, wearing smiles and smacking at the mosquitoes that relentlessly bit at whatever skin they could stick themselves into. Like a real, normal family.
Despite the lingering threat of the bogeyman hanging over our heads, it was starting to feel like weactually were.
“So, your birthday’s coming up,” I said to Noah as he flipped a burger, just as I’d shown him.
“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. Like it wasn’t a big deal that he was turning thirteen.
All thingsconsidered,he was still somewhat better off than I had been when I was thirteen. And that, to me, was a big deal.
