54. Chapter 54
Chapter 54
After the meeting with Lauren was over, David walked Paige to her car in near silence. She held his hand in a tight grip the entire way and when they reached her driver’s side door, she let go and wrapped her arms around his waist.
Under normal circumstances, he would’ve welcomed the embrace, but these weren’t normal circumstances, and he had to force himself to return it.
“I’m so sorry all that happened to Jacob,” Paige said, her voice soft.
He didn’t say anything, because all he could think about was him and Paige enjoying the weekend, having bed-shaking sex … while Jacob was being emotionally and physically abused by an asshole, whose assholery would maybe only get him … probation.
“But he’s going to be fine,” she continued, then pulled back to meet his gaze, seeing how wrecked he looked. “We’ll make sure of it.”
David could hardly look at her as he nodded. The fact that she’d used ‘we’ and not ‘you’ should’ve been cause for celebration, because it meant she was committed to his son’s well-being. However, it only made David feel worse and the need to put some distance between them became grossly real.
“I’m glad I was here, so you didn’t have to go through that alone.” Paige blinked rapidly a few times, a sure sign that she was trying not to cry, before giving him one of her I’m pretending to be okay smiles. “Would you like me to come with you to your mom’s house? To be there when you talk to her?”
The thought of her coming with him right now and offering support while he talked to his mom, freaked him out, and he was enough of a mess as it was. “No. Thank you, but I should probably talk to her alone.”
“Okay.” She put her hands to his face and held on. “But if you need me for anything—and I mean anything—call or text me, all right?”
“I will.”
Raising up to kiss him goodbye, Paige put everything she had into it, because at that moment, she wanted David to know he didn’t have to navigate through this nightmare alone, that she was going to be by his side, no matter what.