Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
ELIZABETH
Another Adventure
“I didn’t want to say anything in front of your parents,” I tell Jayson as he walks me to my car, “but I’d like for us to go see Elizabeth Ann soon.”
The last hour sitting on the back porch and drinking coffee went by way too quickly, but I didn’t want to stay too long. Like I told Jayson, baby steps. He needs them, and I need them, too.
“Just tell me when. I’ll buy the plane tickets. I owe you that much.”
He seems to think there’s a universal tally card of his past mistakes that he has to check off, one at a time.
Knowing the reason for his absence on Elizabeth Ann’s birthday the last few years, he gets a free pass for instant forgiveness.
I regret that I spent all that time angry with him when he was suffering, and no one knew.
“With school starting soon, it’ll get busy at the house. Maybe Labor Day weekend?” I suggest.
“Done. I’ll book the flight tonight.”
“Jayson, you really don’t have to pay for the tickets. I have a ton of frequent flyer miles I can use.”
“Still going to.” We stop next to the car in the driveway. He shoves his hands deep inside his pockets, his silver gaze never straying from my face. “Thank you for coming. I’d like to do it again.”
I fiddle with my car fob. “Of course.”
“Can I call you sometime? Just to…maybe, like, talk?”
“I’d really like that.”
He glances at my house, his expression darkening. He and Ryder were the first to find me and my family that awful morning. I wonder what he sees when he looks at it.
“Anyone living there now?”
“Not at the moment. Jayson?”
As soon as he’s able to tear his gaze away, I launch myself at him, my arms going around his neck. For a second, his hands spasm with uncertainty before his arms come around me. We just hold each other, letting our embrace speak the words we’re too afraid to say out loud.
I kiss his stubbled cheek. “See you on Sunday.”
Jayson takes a step back, giving me room to open the driver’s side door and get inside the car.
He stands motionless on the driveway as I back out, and I watch him in the rearview mirror as I drive away.
I slow down when I pass Ryder’s house. An elderly woman I don’t recognize waves at me from the front porch. I wave back.
When I get to the stop sign at the end of Fallen Brook Drive, I let the engine idle and drop my forehead to the steering wheel. Seeing Jayson again was good…and confusing…and heartbreaking.
What he had to endure alone leaves a hollow ache in my chest. I’m so damn proud of him, proud of the years he’d spent rebuilding himself.
However, all I can think about is how I wasn’t there to help him through it.
The boy I once loved had fought battles I never even knew about, and that realization stings more than I care to admit.
Gripping the wheel, I let memories of Jayson and me flood my mind, sweet and sharp all at once—the way our friendship so effortlessly transitioned into lovers, the way we thought our relationship was unbreakable—until it wasn’t.
All our next times , we had told each other, never thinking that one night could shatter everything…
if that were the only truth to our demise, but it wasn’t.
Because I loved Ryder, too, and that love was unshakable. Undeniable. It was forever.
My phone chimes, and I check to make sure that no one is behind me before I pull it out of my pocket.
Fallon: Text me when you’re done.
Me: Just left and in my car. What’s up?
Fallon: I want to take you somewhere.
Another adventure. Fallon is full of them.
Me: Hint?
Fallon: What would be the fun in that?
Me: Pick me up at the house?
Fallon: Montgomery place is closer.
Me: See you in twenty.
When I arrive at the Montgomery estate, Fallon is waiting for me in the circle driveway next to the tiered fountain. As soon as I cut the engine, he opens my car door and takes my hand to help me out.
“Hi.”
Seizing the back of my neck, he pulls me in for a possessive kiss that I’m all for.
“Just wanted to remind you.”
My thoughts are immediately frazzled because, holy hell, that kiss . “Remind me of what exactly?”
“That I love you.”
“Jesus, Fallon,” I reply, because the man literally makes me swoon.
He looks down between us, playing his fingers with mine before weaving them together. “How did it go?”
I know I need to traverse the topic of Jayson with him very carefully.
“Good.” I prevaricate over whether I should tell him what Jayson told me in confidence.
What he went through—is still going through—is not my story to disclose.
But if I learned one thing from my past, it’s that relationships built on secrets and good-intentioned omissions stand on shaky foundations.
“He explained why he hadn’t been to Elizabeth Ann’s gravesite the past few years. He, uh…”
Fallon stops the rest of what I was planning to say with a soft kiss. “Whatever he told you is none of my business, Kitten. That’s between you and him.”
At his easy out, I release the nervous breath I’d been harboring. “Thank you.”
We both look over when someone shouts, “I never thought I’d finally see the day. Miracles really do happen. About damn time, too!”
Aurora rushes down the steps of the columned portico, and I let go of Fallon’s hand to meet her halfway. We crash together in an exuberant hug.
I love the friendships she, Harper, Tati, and I have formed over the years. They may be Fallon’s half sisters, but they’re my sisters, too.
“Welcome back!” I enthuse.
She rocks me from side to side before pulling away, her smile big and bright. “Seems like I missed a lot while in Utah. He was so nervous the other day about your lunch date…oh my god, are you blushing?” she exclaims when my cheeks flush a tattletale red.
“Women my age do not blush. It’s a hot flash.”
She snort-laughs, then lowers her voice. “Seriously, I’m so happy for you both.”
Fallon presses up behind me, and I instinctively reach for his hand and wrap it around my waist. “How was the camping trip?” I ask her.
Her face goes all smirky as she looks at us. “Good. But enough about me.”
Laughing, I reply, “I only asked you one question and got a one-word response.”
“Well, your life is way more interesting at the moment.”
“We’ve got stuff to do.” Fallon pulls me away and marshals me toward the garage.
“Like date stuff?” she vibrantly exclaims.
“Goodbye, Aurora,” Fallon says.
“Cookout at the house on Sunday,” I holler.
“I’ll call you tonight—if you’re not otherwise preoccupied!”
If I wasn’t blushing before, I am now.
“Sorry about her,” Fallon says, placing a possessive hand to my back as we enter the massive five-car garage through the side door, the familiar scents of motor oil and rubber greeting me as soon as we step inside.
Overhead lights automatically flicker to life, spotlighting the sleek lines and glossy paint of the hypercars parked in neat rows.
I may gawk at a few of them. “Is that a Pagani Huayra?”
The times I had come here to visit Aurora or Trevor, I never ventured beyond the main house, so I’m seeing all this for the first time.
It reminds me how Fallon and I grew up in vastly different worlds.
The wealthy playboy and the small-town girl.
Yet, he and I make sense because of what we both survived.
Pressing his thumb to a keypad, a door to a small cabinet clicks open, and he grabs something from inside. “Want to drive it?”
Is he kidding? Yes!
“Absolutely not,” my common-sense brain decides to say. That car is worth over five million dollars. No way in hell am I risking getting even a scratch on it.
He chuckles at my adverse reaction that contradicts how I’m staring at the beautiful machine with longing. “We’ll take the Porsche.”
He opens the passenger door for me, and I slide into the buttery leather of the bucket seat and buckle up. The interior still has that new car smell.
Fallon folds his long legs when he gets in, the engine purring to life at the push of a button.
Out of habit, I mess with the radio to find some decent music. “So, where are we going?”
He flashes that dimpled smile my way. “You’ll see.”
The garage door lifts, and he takes off. Ryder instilled in me the love of fast cars. There’s nothing more exhilarating than speeding down a wide-open road, the windows rolled down and music cranked high.
“If we’re going to argue, I’d rather do it now before we get to wherever we’re going.”
His eyes shift my way, then back to the road. “What are we arguing about exactly?”
I nervously chew on my thumbnail. Fallon reaches over and takes my hand away from my mouth, then holds it in his while it rests over the gear stick.
“I invited Jayson over on Sunday.” I notice the tight set of Fallon’s jaw when I say it. “Look, I know you?—”
“Can’t stand the guy?” he interrupts.
We whip around a corner, the centrifugal force causing my belly to swoop in a good way.
“Not what I was going to say.”
“Have you told Marcus?”
I know Fallon isn’t happy about it, but I love how his first instinct is to think about my children.
“Not yet.”
He drums his thumb against the steering wheel to the bass beat of the music. “Taking myself out of the equation, Jay showing up isn’t going to go over well with several people.”
I consider his concern seriously. “Aurora and JD don’t know him and have never met him, Daniel and Drew won’t care, and I’ll talk to Meredith and Trevor tonight.”
“What about Austin?”
My mouth hangs open to let a response out, but I immediately close it because I hadn’t even thought about that.
Austin was Marshall’s younger brother, and if there is one person’s name that could trigger Jayson, it would be Marshall.
But Austin is nothing like his brother and shouldn’t be forced to carry that stigma.
Just like Fallon shouldn’t carry Peter’s.
“I’ll handle it,” I reply.
I become distracted when we get to downtown Highland.
Where brick and mortar used to live has been replaced over the years with towering skyscrapers of glass and steel-reinforced concrete.
Traffic slows down considerably on the congested streets, while busy foot traffic ambles down the sidewalks as people try to get to their destination.
“Are we going to the museum?” I ask as we near the natural history museum.
Highland’s art district is a favorite of mine and the kids.
Four full blocks that encompass the natural history museum and planetarium, the children’s museum, the science discovery center, the art museum, and the performing arts theater.
The youth center that Fallon and Aurora built together is located several blocks west.
“No, but I’ll take you after if you want to go.”
“After what?”
He chuckles, and the sound hits me right between the legs. I am in so much trouble with this man.
“Almost there.” He eases onto a roundabout, then veers off at the first connecting road.
“Almost where?” No more skyscrapers, just more buildings I don’t recognize.
“So fucking impatient,” he replies, but there’s no heat to it, only humor and amusement.
He pulls up to a meter, parks the car, and turns in his seat. “We’re here,” he says, gesturing for me to look out my window to the right.
“I still have no clue where—” And then I see the sign on the front of the building, its bold sans serif font making me go a little queasy. Studio M/X. “You’re not serious.”
“I am.”
“Fallon, I can’t.”
“You can.”
I gape at him. “You’re out of your mind.”
He grips my neck and reels me in for a kiss that would be unsuitable for public display. My mind goes blissfully blank, and I moan when he takes the kiss deeper.
He lets go, and I slow blink.
“Get out of the fucking car, Kitten.”