Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
I couldn’t sleep that night. It was because I was alone.
I hadn’t been all day. The guys had stayed with me until Bram returned in the evening.
Vivian didn’t get home from work until minutes after Bram had returned.
Mac had work at Noble’s until ten, then went to a party after to hang out with the guy she had been seeing for the past week.
Reid had asked me not to tell Mac what had happened. Bram had asked that I not tell both Mac and Vivian. With Reid, I agreed right away. Mac didn’t need the stress of this. She had already admitted she had a hard time handling it. I questioned Bram, though.
“Is it all right to hide things from your wife?” I had asked him.
“It’s never all right to do that,” he had said. “But she asked me to. She understands the lengths I will go to protect my family. When you showed up a week ago the way that you did, she knew those lengths would be tested. All she asked is that I do my best to not let her see it.”
“The violence?”
He had nodded. “She’s strong in her own way, but she’s a soft and gentle woman. Her ex-husband took advantage of that. For me, it’s one of the reasons I fell in love with her. So if she wants me to lie to her about this to protect her peace, I will.”
It was now midnight. Mac was still out. Bram and Vivian had gone to bed.
The house was quiet. Any time there was a little noise, I’d jump.
Clay was gone, but I couldn’t get the moment he’d come around the corner out of my head.
Who would Mother send next? Would she come herself?
She knew where I was and I didn’t know how she knew.
I trusted that Bram would protect me. My dilemma right now was that he was upstairs sound asleep, and I was wide awake downstairs. If something happened, would he hear me if I screamed?
I thought about children in movies going to their parents in the middle of the night because they were scared. For a split second, I thought about going to go get Bram, but I was too embarrassed to do such a thing.
“You’re an adult now, Lottie. Be brave.” Rolling my eyes, I got up and turned on the light in the bathroom, locked my bedroom door, and double-checked the closet to make sure it was empty.
Before getting back into bed, I went over to one of the armchairs and pushed it up against the door.
The little knob lock wasn’t enough for me.
As I got settled back in bed for what I assumed was going to be a long night of zero sleep, I grabbed my phone Roe had bought me.
I logged into my socials. I had a lot of notifications and messages.
Over a week’s worth. I began going through the notifications first. I was tagged in a few photos at Brandon’s party.
I was just in the background. One of them managed to capture me talking with Roe.
It looked like the moment he was checking me out in the black dress I’d borrowed from Mother.
I had a few comments and likes on some of my photos I had posted a while ago.
One person who’d liked a bunch of my photos stood out.
I tapped on Wyatt’s name and scrolled through his page.
A lot of his photos were of Reid, Roe, and him.
Some were of his old car at different stages of him fixing it up.
I came across a photo I ended up hitting the heart button for.
It was just him in it. He was smiling so brightly, and you could clearly see the different colors of his eyes. It was a great picture.
Not even a minute later, my phone dinged and a text showed on the top of the screen.
Wyatt: Can’t sleep, joint thief?
Me: No.
Wyatt: Because of what happened today?
Me: Yeah.
Wyatt: Would you feel better if I was there?
Me: That’s a silly question.
Wyatt: I’ll take that as a yes.
Me: It doesn’t change anything.
Me: Will you text me until you go to sleep?
Wyatt: Of course. I always enjoy our conversations.
Me: You’re just waiting to see if I bring up something inappropriate.
Wyatt: Only because of how much it catches me off guard. You look and act so proper 99% of the time.
Me: Maybe I should start dressing sexier. Then my words won’t be such a shock.
Wyatt: I’m fully supportive of that possibility.
The corners of my mouth twitched.
Me: So less chiffon and lace and more latex?
Wyatt: How about more to all? But Roe might faint.
He had managed to fully distract me with his flirting.
After a half hour of texting back and forth, I wondered if he’d fallen asleep. It had been a few minutes and he hadn’t replied. I was bummed, but I understood.
Then my phone dinged again. I quickly opened our messages.
Wyatt: I’m outside your window.
I glanced toward the window. The blinds were closed. I got up and peeked through them, finding him standing outside in the dark.
He waved with a smile.
I pushed the blinds up and out of the way, then unlocked and opened my window as quietly as possible. When it was open wide enough, Wyatt climbed inside.
“Hi,” he whispered.
I took in his gray sweatpants and black T-shirt. He looked comfortable. “If Bram finds out you’re here—”
“He won’t,” he whispered as he closed the window and blinds. When he was done, he nodded toward the bed. “Come on. Let’s get some sleep.”
As I climbed back into bed, he eyed the chair up against the door and the light on in the bathroom.
I expected him to comment on them and was surprised when he just turned off the light in the bathroom.
He then went to my side of the bed, reached under the lamp’s shade, and flicked that light off, too.
The room went dark. He used his phone to find his way to the other side of the bed and climb in under the covers next to me.
“You really came all the way over here just to sleep with me?” I whispered.
I felt the bed shake. “I so badly want to tease you for how you worded that, but I told myself I’d be good.
” I could hear his smile in his voice. “You’re scared and can’t sleep.
Knowing that, I don’t think I’d be able to sleep, either.
The only solution for us both was for me to be here with you.
” He searched for my hand above the covers.
His fingers laced through mine as soon as he found it. “Get some sleep.”
Having him next to me made me feel safer. I wished I could lie on my side so he could hold me. That way I could feel like he was shielding me from the rest of the world. Holding his hand would just have to be enough. For now.
Wyatt snuck over the next night and the next.
On the third night, I dreamed that I was standing at the top of the stairs in Mother’s house.
I wanted to run, but all I could do was turn around.
When I did, Mother was standing there. She was staring at me like she always stared at me. Like I was nothing to her.
I knew she was going to push me before she did it. I just stood there watching, waiting, knowing what was coming, and couldn’t do anything to make myself move. Just like she had done with my father, her hands came out so fast. They hit me hard. Then I was falling.
I woke with a gasp before I hit the steps. It was still dark.
A hand went to my bare stomach, followed by Wyatt’s sleepy voice. “You all right?”
I looked in his direction and could just barely make out his outline in the dark. “Yeah. Bad dream.”
He scooted closer, lying on his side facing me. “Do you need to talk about it?”
“No.”
“Try to go back to sleep.” He nestled closer as his thumb rubbed back and forth along my skin, making me break out in goosebumps. Butterflies I thought had withered away began to flutter low in my stomach.
Roe had kissed me so much since they had brought me to Bram’s.
It felt good. It meant something. Sometimes I needed him to kiss me more than I wanted air, but I hadn’t felt aroused in the slightest. I knew it was because I’d been hurt and trying to find reasons to not jump off the Kendry Bridge. It didn’t have anything to do with Roe.
A lot had happened in the last couple of days. My ribs had been feeling a little better. Not completely, but better. It was like I could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel of discomfort, and that was a huge relief.
Bram dealing with Clay had also caused a shift.
In me, mostly. I could see a possibility of change.
If I wanted to make it more than a possibility, I had to change.
It was hard to not think that everything was all for naught all the time, but I was working on it.
I had stopped drawing the Kendry Bridge.
Now here I was, getting turned on all because Wyatt’s hand was low on my bare stomach.
Maybe I should blame Bobby and his stupid sex talk. Or maybe feeling like this was a good sign that I was getting back to who I’d been, whatever that was, prior to wanting to just call it quits. Not to say I’d been sex-crazed before.
As I thought about it, I sighed. I was pretty sure being aroused right now was going to be more of a hindrance than anything.
The entire time I’d known Wyatt, he hadn’t made a real move.
He had kissed me to stop my panic attack at a party once, and we’d had that moment at the hotel after he stayed with me all night.
He had said he liked me. Yes, a lot of things had happened to me, but the lack of any real move on his part left me with doubts.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, startling me. I’d thought he had fallen back to sleep.
“How come you’ve never kissed me?” I blurted. “I mean really kissed me.”
He didn’t respond.
“Do you even want to kiss me?” I asked. “Maybe it was all in my head. Maybe it was all the talk about having an orgy or a threesome. I must have misinterpreted everything, and you were just playing along. I—”
“Joint thief.” His hand moved up from my stomach to the side of my face. In the dark, I could only see the shape of him before his lips covered mine.