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“I’m fine, Bay,” I managed to answer. “Just go back to the party.”
I wasn’t fine, I was anything but fine. That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to portray that though. I needed to be strong. I needed to keep it together, just long enough until I made a plan to get the hell out of here.
The timer had been set, and now the seconds were ticking by, threatening to explode the bomb that had just been thrown onto my doorstep.
It was now or never. I had to escape. I had to get us out of here before he came back, because his promise was just that, a promise, but it was also a threat. A threat that I knew he would follow through with.
* * *
RAFAEL
I wasn’t sure how long I’d stayed there for, staring at her front door and willing it to open. I waited until I saw her outline move from against it, listened as the sound of her footsteps moved up the stairs. Reed’s soft cries rang out, followed by Kian’s, and every part of me wanted to get inside that damn house.
The instinct to make them all feel better—to let them know they were safe—was so consuming, I actually stepped forward.
But then I halted, second-guessing myself. She didn’t need me. She didn’t want me.
I rubbed my hand down my face, backing away one step, then another, and another. She’d told me to leave her alone, and in that moment, there was no way I could refuse her. I had to walk away, for now at least.
She needed time and space. That was what I told myself as I spun around and walked to my brother’s house, ready to celebrate his birthday with my parents. Mom had come out of the house for the first time in years. Her confession to us was clearly helping her, but that didn’t mean I could forget everything that had happened—the childhood I had.
Sitting on the sofa, I nursed a beer, staring at the wall and not really taking part in anything. I was being a party pooper, but fuck, I couldn’t help it, not when the woman next door was taking over my every thought. Not when I was pretty sure who that guy was.
Fuck. If that was her ex…I’d let him walk away. I didn’t know the ins and outs, and part of me never wanted to, but deep down, I craved to know it all. To know everything I could about Peyton. Had I just made a mistake?
I pulled in a deep breath, taking another draw of my beer when Romeo entered his living room, his cell at his ear. “Yeah, I’ll pick it up today. When do you close?” I leaned forward, listening to him. “Eight?” A quick glance at my watch told me that it was already 6 p.m. “Yeah, no problem. I’ll be there.”
Romeo pulled his cell from his ear and stowed it away in his jeans pocket as he stared right at me. “What’s up?” I asked, secretly hoping it was a job that he was going to send me on, at least that way I could keep my mind occupied for a while.
“Peyton’s car is ready.”
I cracked my neck to the side, slowly putting my beer on the table as I stood. “I’ll go get it,” I told him, not hesitating for even a second. Fate had stepped in. That was the way I was looking at it now. Peyton wanted me away from her, but she didn’t have a choice if I had to hand her car keys back, right? She’d have to see me, and then I could ask her just what the hell happened today.
“You sure?” Romeo asked, his gaze veering back to the kitchen where Bailey was playing host. She and Dad had talked for hours, their relationship probably being the best one he had right now.
“Yeah.” I headed toward the door. “It’s your party, big bro. You need to stay.” I paused, pulling on the door handle. “Where is it?”
He reeled off the address and I left, walking toward the garage that was only ten minutes away by car but at least an hour walking. I didn’t care though because it gave me time to think, time to process everything, and once I’d paid the bill and gotten inside Peyton’s car, I’d made a decision, one that she wasn’t going to like…at first.
She was trying to push me away, that was crystal clear now, and I’d stupidly let her. I mean, yeah, okay, it was only for a few hours, but I hadn’t read between the lines. A fatal mistake that I was about to rectify.
I pulled into her driveway, feeling my shoulders tense as I turned her engine off and exited her car. Making sure it was locked, I then sauntered over to her front door, rapping my knuckles on the wooden surface twice, remembering how it was only last night that I was standing here, waiting for her to answer. What had transpired after that was something I would never forget—something I wanted to repeat over and over again.
There was silence on the other end, not a single movement inside the house. A quick look at my watch told me that the boys would have been in bed by now but—fuck, what if she’d left? What if this morning had freaked her out so much that she knew she couldn’t stay.
My eyes widened, my body turning to look at her driveway…she couldn’t get anywhere, not without her car, which meant she was inside.
So I knocked again, this time saying, “It’s me, Peyton.”
I despised calling her by that name, my tongue hating the way it curled around the letters. But calling her by her nickname just didn’t feel right, not in that moment.
“Go away, Raf,” her voice told me, her tone fed up.
“Can’t.” I grinned, holding the keys in the air as if she could see me. “I have your car keys.”
Two seconds, that was how long it took for her to open the door a crack and hold her hand out. “Give them to me,” she demanded.
“Nope.” I put them in my pocket, placing my palm on the door and pushing.
