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I honestly don’t know what I would have done without him. I step over to Tori and lead her away.
We drive home in silence. As soon as we arrive, she’s asking for my phone so she can talk to her parents. There are some tears as she assures them she’s fine. Once the call ends, she heads into the bathroom.
I stay in the living room, running my hand through my hair in agitation and wishing I knew what she’s thinking right now.
Tori comes back out thirty minutes later. She’s showered and changed into one of my shirts. She looks much better and I’m glad. My eyes snake down to the first-aid kit in her hand. She brought it over to the house a few weeks ago. I raise an eyebrow in question.
“I need to change your dressing and check your wounds.”
I stare at her for a moment before speaking, “I’d prefer it if you rested. You’ve had a long day,dolcezza.”
“Carlo, don’t fight me on this.”
I sigh softly before sitting down and letting her do her thing.
“Did you go to a hospital?” she questions as she looks at the wrapping around my ribs.
I shake my head. “We have a doctor on call. She patched me up.”
“Well, she did a good job,” Tori sniffs.
Once she’s done checking my wounds, she asks me to order some food so we can eat. She’s acting weird and I’m starting to get a little worried. I stare at her warily, waiting for the other shoe to drop. There’s no way in hell she has nothing to say about what she witnessed at the hotel.
I clean up the kitchen after our meal. When I return, she’s curled up on the couch, staring blankly at the TV screen. I watch her for several seconds. Her dark hair’s in a messy bun and her face is devoid of make up, and yet she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever set my eyes on. After what happened today, I’m never letting her go again.
Topher once said to me that falling in love feels like getting a carpet pulled out from under your feet. You have no choice but to fall. Gravity pulls you under. No matter how hard you fight it, it’s always better to just accept the way you feel. Even if it might hurt.
Falling in love with Tori doesn’t hurt, though. Instead of feeling a carpet swept out from under my feet, it feels like free-falling from a cliff and into a body of water. It swallows me whole. I feel it in every heartbeat, every pore, every fiber of my being.
I love her. And I can’t lose her. Even though a part of me knows she’s trying to pull away. I can feel it.
I walk over to the couch, standing in front of her. She looks up at me, and whatever she sees in my expression has her sitting up.
“You need to talk to me, baby,” I say gruffly. “I can’t know what you’re thinking if you don’t talk to me.”
“I thought you were a mind reader,” she mutters.
My expression doesn’t shift. Finally, she sighs, hugging her arms around her body. She pats the space beside her and I sit down, instinctively pulling her to me. Relief racks through my body when she relaxes, placing her head on my chest.
“I want you to tell me about your relationship with your father,” Tori says.
I stiffen and she pulls away. Her eyes meet mine.
“You’re going to tell me, Lo. Because I saw a man today and he looked like you, but he wasn’t really you. I want to know why.”
CHAPTER23
Tori
Carlo doesn’t say a word. His Adam’s apple bobs as he continues to stare at me.
“Carlo,” I say softly.
His eyes flicker shut and he runs a hand through his hair. “It doesn’t matter, Tori,” he tells me.
I immediately shake my head. “It matters so much. You have no idea how much it matters. To me, to you. So just, please, answer me honestly. I’m begging you.”
Dark brown eyes graze over my face. For a moment, I think he’s going to brush it off and hide it all away again. Then he opens his mouth, surprising me.
