AllFreeNovel
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“It is. I didn’t belong in LA with my mom or later with Aunt Julie. I don’t belong with my dad or at school or even here in King City. I don’t belong anywhere.”
Jason tilts my head up and pins me with a hard look, his blue eyes blazing when he states, “Hey, you belong with me. There’s nowhere in this entire world I could possibly be that feels as right as when we’re together.”
Butterflies surface in my stomach, and I try to look away, but Jason holds me in place. I hastily wipe a tear that escapes. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying.”
“You’re allowed to feel your emotions, Siena.”
“I know, but I don’twantto let Dario make me feel like shit. My own fatherhatesme. He said looking at me makes him physically sick. He kept comparing me to my mom, and he’ll never even bother getting to know the real me because of that. I don’t want that to bother me, but it really does. Why am I so unlovable?”
Jason wraps his arms around me and pulls me to his chest. The force of it pulls us off-balance, and I fall half on top of him on the bed. He doesn’t do anything to adjust or push me off him, instead settling me into his chest.
He smells like cedarwood and spice, and his arms tighten around me as he says, “You are not unlovable.”
“That’s the third house I’ve been kicked out of.” It’s not a complaint or something that can be left up to interpretation—it’s a fact.
Jason’s sigh is understanding. “Sometimes that’s for the best. Sometimes we’re better off without certain people in our lives, even if it makes us a little sad at first.”
“Who are you better off without?” I ask, my fingers playing with the soft fabric of his shirt.
“Lots of people. But the people I have in my life now more than make up for it. I wouldn’t change a single thing.”
He has amazing people in his life, and I’m grateful to be one of them. I can’t stop myself from asking, “Did you have an absolutely horrible excuse for a dad too?”
“Sure did. My dad tried to kill me.”
He says it so casually and tonelessly that a small laugh escapes me. “You’re always trying to break the tension with some ridiculous joke. Thank you.”
Jason chuckles, brushing my hair away from my forehead as I settle back against his chest. “One day you’re going to be so shocked when you realize I’m usually being completely serious.”
“Are you being serious right now?”
“My father’s in jail.”
I push off his chest and shift to look down at him.
He’s lying with his head on the pillow, looking up at me with this little unbothered smirk, making it impossible to tell if he’s joking or if he’s just so unbothered by it all that it truly doesn’t matter.
“Did he actually try to kill you?”
“Yes. My brothers, too, and Aiden’s fiancé, Thea.
Multiple times.”
My jaw drops. “Holy crap! What? Why? Are you all okay?”
He reaches for my waist and skims his finger along the skin that’s exposed from my shirt riding up. Tingles immediately trail behind his finger, but I force myself not to shiver at the contact and to stay focused on the conversation.
“We’re fine; he’s locked up now. It’s a really long story.”
“I’d love to listen if you want to share.”
His lips tug up at the side, and his finger continues tracing unidentifiable patterns on my skin. “With you?
I’m happy to share. But that’s a shitty story for a different day, and we have enough sadness for today.”
He doesn’t feel like rehashing the past right now, and I’m not going to push him. He’ll tell me in his own time.
“Well, I’m here whenever you want someone to listen.”
