Chapter 8
Jeremy
By the time Austin got me back inside, I couldn’t feel my face. It took more than a little coaxing to get me back in the door since I was so terrified that the second I stepped foot in the Bennett house again, Leah would throw something at me.
She wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Not that I would have blamed her anger. I’d strung her along for years. She wasn’t a bad person, and I’d taken advantage of the comfort she’d provided when I’d uprooted my entire life.
Mr. Bennett was sitting on the couch with a bottle of beer in hand. He looked up at us and he didn’t seem all that excited to see me either. I’d broken his daughter’s heart. He had a right to be upset.
“So, what’s the plan?”
My lungs froze at the abrupt question, but I could see where he was coming from.
I was a guest in their family home, and I could see why I wouldn’t be welcome after what had happened earlier.
My throat fought against me as I tried to swallow.
There we were, two days before Christmas, and I had to see if I could exchange my ticket to go home earlier.
It probably wouldn’t happen because traveling over the holidays is always chaotic.
There was always the possibility of looking into a hotel, but money was already thin.
I couldn’t afford to pay to stay at one for the rest of my trip.
Not to mention that Chicago was expensive as hell.
“I don’t—”
“He needs to leave.” Leah appeared at the bottom of the stairs before I could finish speaking.
“Now, let’s not rush into anything. Can he even do that? Are your tickets transferable? Is there anywhere with availability, and can he even afford it?” My eyes widened at how calm Austin seemed as he talked to his sister.
She threw her arms into the air, marching toward me before pushing me in the chest. “I don’t care. Looking at his face just makes me so... so... UGH!” She stomped back up the stairs, and we all jumped at the sound of the bedroom door slamming.
“I can check the tickets...” I mumbled, pulling out my phone to research.
There was that feeling in the back of my mind that, thanks to the snow blowing in, I was already fucked and stuck here.
It didn’t take long to find that all incoming and outgoing flights from Chicago O’Hare were either delayed or canceled.
The same was to be said about Chicago Midway.
Sometimes you got lucky and one hadn’t been as affected as badly yet. This was not my lucky day.
But if the airports were delaying and canceling flights, that also meant that even if I’d had any hope of getting a hotel room, that idea was also out the window. They’d be overflowing with stranded airline passengers.
Mr. Bennett must have realized the same thing I had when he let out a curse from the couch.
My chest tightened as my heart rate spiked.
They wouldn’t just leave me to figure it out on my own, would they?
I sure fucking hoped not. They seemed like good people, and looking over at Austin, it was enough to make me relax a little.
His phone was still clutched in his hand, but he wasn’t frantically looking through it like the rest of us.
“Stay here.”
“What?” Both Mr. Bennett and I said at the same time.
“This is dumb. It’s Christmas. I get that there’s some hard feelings, but isn’t it a little silly to make Jeremy spend the holiday by himself?” His cheeks turned pink as he spoke, and I wanted to jump at him, give him the biggest hug, and thank him. But maybe it was all a little too early for that.
Mr. Bennett stood up from the couch and approached his son. My throat constricted again because this would be the final decision. The nail in the coffin, so to speak.
“Fine. You want him to stay. He can stay with you.”
I didn’t miss Austin’s eyes widening in panic.
“You really didn’t have to do that.” The heat crept down my neck further as Austin brought over my bag from his sister’s room.
I sat on the edge of his double bed. It was slightly smaller than the queen that his sister had, but we could make it work.
I could keep my cool and my distance. The last thing he needed was for me to start humping him randomly in the middle of the night, which is what had happened in the past. It’s why I didn’t stay over with my male partners.
Austin sighed before sitting next to me. He was just close enough that I could smell his body wash, the sweet smell of citrus and bergamot, a scent that at one point I’d wanted to douse myself in. God, I’d landed myself in such a fucking mess.
“If I hadn’t, what would you have done? Slept at the airport?”
I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of my chest. “Okay, so you caught me. Let’s face it, I did something horrible to both you and your sister. Now you have to deal with me like this.”
Austin only shrugged before standing to move around his room. He picked up a few odds and ends as he paced the room, like he had no focus on what he was really doing, just trying to fill in the gaps.
Without waiting for him to talk, I kept speaking. “If you need me to, I can sleep on the floor. That doesn’t bother me. You deserve your space, especially after everything.” It was stupid that my eyes were burning. This wasn’t worth crying over, but the day had been an emotional mess.
Austin’s snort was derisive. “That’s dumb. We can share a bed. It’s fine.”
Was it? God, I really didn’t deserve any of it.
Instead of continuing to dwell on things, I stood from the bed and grabbed my bag, moving it over to the corner of the room.
Leah had tossed the few things I’d pulled out back inside, and something inside me constricted that she’d gone through my belongings.
The woman was supposed to be my fiancée, and I was hiding stuff from her. More red flags. I was such a fuck-up.
It appeared nothing else in the bag had been disturbed, so I relaxed a little.
The last thing I’d needed was for her to find what was hidden at the bottom.
She might have thought it was a gift for her and pushed things harder.
It was stupid to have packed it to begin with, but it felt like part of me was missing if I didn’t have something with me.
We’d missed lunch with all the commotion, and by the time things had settled, it was time for dinner. Mrs. Bennett had cooked, so we all made our way to the kitchen.
Leah was at the dining room table and glared at me as I entered the room.
She picked up her glass of wine and downed the contents.
Even during our earlier years in college when we’d gone to parties, she hadn’t been a big drinker, so seeing her toss back drinks the last couple of days was a little concerning.
Austin grabbed my arm, pulling me to the farthest end of the table. It was a good idea because having me anywhere close to Leah while she was still feeling so volatile was a bad idea.
The tension in the room was palpable—you could have cut it with a knife if you’d wanted to.
No one said a thing as food was passed around the table and plates were piled high.
It felt so strange to take anything, so my plate was mostly empty by the time everyone started to dig in.
Not that I felt all that hungry after everything.
Cutlery clicked against the dinnerware as everyone ate their meal, and I couldn’t even lift my fork.
I stared at the measly portion in front of me.
Next to a small scoop of mashed potatoes were three sad little green beans.
I hadn’t even managed to score myself a decent piece of the ham that smelled heavenly.
There was the stupid part of my brain that said they’d poisoned it all, hoping that I’d take a bite and croak for all the distress I’d caused.
It didn’t make any sense because if they poisoned the food, it would make everyone sick.
Unless they had some sort of antidote hanging around.
Was I being ridiculous? One hundred percent.
“Is everything all right?”
I jumped at the feel of Austin’s warm breath against my ear as he whispered to me. My face incinerated as I picked up my fork and cut my tiny piece of meat in half before bringing it to my lips.
While it tasted absolutely amazing, the best I’d had in years since moving out of my parent’s house, I couldn’t enjoy it while everyone was still watching me.
It probably made me look even worse, but I couldn’t do it anymore.
The longer I sat at the table, the tighter my shirt felt, the collar closing in on my neck and cutting off my air supply.
Without a word, I pushed back from the table and excused myself, muttering a quick apology before bee-lining for the stairs.
The second Austin’s bedroom door closed behind me, I felt like I could finally catch my breath again.
Could I really do this for a week and a half?