Chapter 30 Heath
HEATH
Hope is sitting with my parents in the living room — a sight that shoots instant worry through my system.
In seconds, I cross the room and stand beside Hope.
My gaze searches every inch of her face and drowns in the depth of her eyes—that look calm but tension is streaming through her muscles.
She is sitting straight and her fingers are fidgeting with each other, which is always a sign that she is spiraling.
“Rose, are you okay?” I ask her softly, cupping her chin and tilting it up. “Did something happen? Did they do something? Tell me.”
Anger makes my skin hot, and my head fills with dangerous thoughts. I don’t spare a single look at my parents knowing it’d lose it.
I’m worried about my girlfriend.
The girl I fucking love.
She takes a moment to answer. “I’m okay,” she says. Then she adds in a low, quiet voice, “I had to tell them.”
My eyebrows pinch. “Tell them what?”
She gulps. “Why I’m here and why you got arrested.”
My body goes rigid as a stone, but I force myself to stay calm.
“You didn’t need to,” I murmur, gently brushing my thumb over her cheek.
For fuck’s sake.
My parents did it. They cornered her and forced the truth out of her.
Turning my head, I send them a glare. “You just couldn’t fucking help yourselves, right.”
Mom looks at me with puffy eyes. “What?”
“You had no right to talk to her.”
She appears perplexed.
“When I said I didn’t want to tell you, it fucking meant I didn’t want you to know. You talked to her when I wasn’t home to get to me.” I leave Rose and take a step towards my parents. A hand wraps around my wrist and pulls me back.
“Heath!” She comes around and stands in front of me. “Don’t.”
She stares at me with those soft, innocent brown eyes that make my knees weak.
Fuck. Does she have any idea how much they affect me?
“I told them. They didn’t force me.”
I find that very hard to believe.
“It doesn’t matter. You don’t need to explain yourself to them. They don’t need to know.” I grit out.
She squeezes my wrist and steps closer to me. “Please, calm down.”
“I’m calm,” I grumble.
Of course, I’m not calm. How can I be?
Mom crumbles at my accusation. “We didn’t force her. We’re just trying to help.”
A frisson of heat burns through my chest. “We don’t need your help. Stay out of our business.”
“But—”
I shoot her a deadly glare and she shuts up.
They know.
They fucking know.
My fingers curl into fists and shake with tremors that are hard to stop. I can’t believe they did it. They were sniffing around me just to know the answers they wanted and when they didn’t get them from me they went to the person who’s close to me.
The strike of betrayal cuts so deep and close to my heart it makes the back of my eyes burn.
I thought they were getting to know me.
How stupid I was.
Rose squeezes my hand tightly, pulling me back from the abyss of darkness that whispers my name. A dense, thick cloud swirling in anger, sadness and grief that loves to follow me around.
“Please, calm down.” Her bottom lip trembles and it breaks my resolve like a lightning strike hitting the ground and destroying everything in its wake.
My emotions settle down as my attention narrows on her.
“They just wanted to know. They didn’t force me.
I told them because this is their house and I’m someone who’s intruding—”
“You’re here because I brought you here. I want you here. You’re not intruding.”
“That’s not how I feel,” she murmurs.
I twist my wrist out of her hold and lace our fingers together. “You are safe here. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”
She nods. “They are not at fault. Please don’t be mad at them.”
I press my lips together in a thin line in disagreement.
“Heath.” Mom stands up and near us. Instinctively, I bring Rose behind me.
“What do you want?” My anger returns in full force.
She watches me with such an intense look in her eyes, it feels like she can see right through me.
And I hate it. I fucking hate it. I don’t want her to get close to me.
Because when she leaves, it’s going to hurt.
I refuse to let myself surrender to that pain and loss.
Especially, when I know it’s inevitable.
“I just want you to be okay,” Mom says.
“I’m okay.”
“You’re in trouble.”
“I’m not.”
Her eyes momentarily drift to Hope, and that fucking action coils tension around my muscles.
“You need to take her home. Her parents must be worried.”
I scoff. “Worried is the last thing they are.” Fury is laced in my words.
Looking at my girlfriend she asks, “Hope, does your mother know that you’re here?”
My blood boils at the mention of that woman.
“No,” she replies.
Mom glances at me.
“She should go home before her parents come knocking on our door,” Dad says from his perch on the sofa. “She is underage. It would be a problem if they figure out she’s here and you’re involved.”
I glare at him. “She isn’t leaving.”
He watches me for a moment. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“Fuck the right thing. I don’t care.” I protest.
His lips press together in disagreement.
“They are right,” Hope murmurs. “It’s time I go home.”
My jaw ticks and my body seems to be pulling apart at the seams just at the suggestion of hearing those words.
Take. Her. Home.
That house is a building, not a home.
“I know you don’t want to do it, but it’s the right thing to do,” Mom suggests in a soothing, calm tone, hoping to placate me.
I run a hand through my hair, the strands flying in every direction with how frustrated I am.
No one in the room knows that today of all days, I can’t take her home because I’ve planned a date for her.
Last night when she said that she wanted to go to an aquarium, I couldn’t sleep the entire night.
I kept thinking about how that’s the one place she wants to be at.
As soon as morning arrived, I grabbed my things and went to Sebastian to plan it all out.
Only to come home and find out that my parents had cornered my girlfriend and made her spill out the secrets that I had no plan of sharing.
And on top of it, they’re asking me to drop her home—the last place I want her to be.
“We should go,” Rose repeats.
Not saying a reply, I grab her hand and pull her out of the room. I take her to the garage. We stand next to my car but I make no move to open the door. Because I don’t want her to fucking leave.
“Thank you for letting me stay—”
“Don’t say it.”
She cups my cheek. The action makes me shudder. The touch of her warm skin makes me meet her eyes.
“You are always so good to me. Sometimes, I think, I don’t deserve it,” she says.
“You deserve more. Far more.” I lean down and kiss her. Immediately, my body relaxes, the tension evaporating and pleasure settles into my bones. They ache with the need to do things to her that only reside in my head.
Last night was enough. She was enough.
But I want more. I always want more when it comes to her.
Holding the thread of restraint, I pull back and press my forehead against hers, breathing hard.
She has her eyes closed and her hands are pressed against my chest.
“I was going to take you out on a date today,” I confess.
She looks at me shocked.
“I had it all planned out.”
“A date?” She whispers. Then a tiny smile blooms on her face. “Really?”
I nod and pull her closer by her waist. My hands fit so perfectly over those curves that I can’t help but trace. “Yes.”
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
She sighs. “If you don’t tell me, what am I supposed to wear then?”
I grin. “You’d look beautiful no matter what you wear.”
She flushes.
I tuck a few strands of her hair behind her ear and let my fingers linger by the side of her cheek. She shivers a little and a low gasp leaves past her lips. I love seeing how much I affect her.
I touch her and she softens.
I kiss her and she melts.
I hold her and she relaxes.
Those little things make me fall for her deeper, knowing I’m the only one who makes her let her guard down so she can let me in. Her trust is the most precious and valuable thing I own.
“Don’t go home. Go on the date with me.” I plead.
She frowns. “What about my parents?”
“I say let them fuck off but I know you’re not that kind of person.”
“My mom must be worried.” She pauses for a moment. “I think.”
I can see that she is second-guessing herself. Even if I convince her to go on the date with me, she won’t enjoy herself. Her mind would be lingering towards her home and her parents.
“I can take you back if that’s what you want.”
She nods quickly.
I help her inside the car and then get in myself.
Once we hit the road, I entwine our fingers and set our joined hands on her thigh. Every now and then she squeezes my hand and every single time I look over to make sure she is okay.
She is not.
One look at her face and I can tell.
It takes us ten minutes to arrive at her place. I park the car around the block and cut off the engine.
Hope makes no move to step outside which only makes me worried about her.
I give her hand a gentle squeeze and she faces me.
“I’m coming with you.”
A look of panic washes over her face. “No, you can’t. My parents will get so mad.”
“I can’t let you go inside alone.”
She shakes her head. “You can’t come with me. My dad… he’ll hurt me and my mom will get so mad at me. She doesn’t like you.”
In other words, she is saying she hates me.
Fucking great.
Both of her parents resent me.
“What if you don’t come out?” I ask, rubbing circles on the back of her hand. “What if something happens and you need me?”
Doubt crosses her face but she gives me a weak smile. “I’ll be okay.”
That’s not fucking enough.
“I’m coming in if you don’t text me in five minutes.”
Rose gets out of my car and starts walking down the road. My gaze stays locked on her like a hawk. I can’t look away from her thinking that if I do something might happen to her.