CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX #2
Maverick nods, his expression twisted. “Sebastian must have gotten word to him or they did hear you guys, so he ran. Either way, he was there.”
Liam clears his throat. “He really was slumming it this time. Camp bed with a sleeping bag. Basic utensils. And pretty much camping items. Unlike the hospital, this place wasn’t digital or secure.
It had files on a small desk, and a lot of maps.
If I had to guess, this is where Sebastian kept his copies.
It’s not like anyone would think to look there.
The place is a hazard inside. If there were any electronics, Black took them with him.
I’m going to scan these onto a computer and then get these originals to the police station. ”
“You should pay someone to do that,” Maverick suggests.
“Why? I’ve worked with the police before,” Liam points out.
Maverick arches an eyebrow as he hesitates to reply.
In the end, he stacks up the papers, the rubber gloves he has on, squeaking as he does.
“Because you have a family saying you are planting evidence on them. If you showed up to the police station with all this damning evidence, what are they going to think? It only takes one person to dismiss the files because they begin to believe the lie,” Maverick answers.
Summer glances at Paisley. “Your gut feeling was right. He was there.”
Paisley doesn’t look happy about it though. “We should have called my brothers.”
*** *** ***
The floorboards creak as I make way upstairs to my room, which had once belonged to Paisley, then my brother.
I didn’t even want the room. It meant walking up two flights of stairs and I could barely make it up one set when I’ve been drunk.
It hadn’t grown on me until now. Before, I missed the sounds of my brothers whispering in the next room.
I missed hearing my mum go to bed. I missed the low hum of the television from another room.
The attic space felt like a neighbouring house.
It was set apart from the rest of the house.
We’ve all complained about wanting more space at one time or another.
Each of us shared with someone at one time in our lives.
We had rooms we could have used so we didn’t need to share.
Our dad’s office being one. Mum uses it the most but it still has his furniture, his favourite chair, and the maps of our land still hang on the wall.
The dining room is a guest room, since it had a bathroom, and our grandparents always used that room when they came to stay.
Our kitchen is big enough that it could hold our extended family table, so keeping it a dining room seemed pointless.
It never occurred to me that we could fix our complaints by moving our belongings to another room. It hadn’t even been suggested.
First Jaxon left, using the factory to sleep. Paisley went next, moving into her bed and breakfast. Then Wyatt. Now we all have our own room. Well, all except the twins. They refused to be separated when given the option.
I push open the door and step inside, expecting to find Summer still lay on the bed, but only Hunter remains. I glance at the bathroom door as the door opens, revealing Summer clad in one of my T-shirts.
She eyes me, then the bathroom. “I love your en suite. Whatever materials you used, you need to tell Maddox so he can replicate it at the farm. You can’t hear anything that goes on in there.”
I snort, my eyes dancing with mirth as she slides into bed. “You do know having diarrhoea is normal?”
She shakes her head, pouting. “Not for women. Not when her man is lying on her bed listening to it.”
“I told you I didn’t hear anything,” I assure her.
It’s a lie. I heard everything, even the pained groans she made each time she farted.
I never really thought about what an en suite would do for a relationship.
They seem practical, but logically, it has to be a mood killer.
If it weren’t for Makayla cheering her on, hollering at her to get it all out, from her own room, Summer probably would have forgot I was in her room.
“You are a bad liar, Reid Hayes, but I forgive you.”
I set her drink on the bedside table before getting into bed next to her. “You should take it as a compliment. It didn’t stop me fucking you the next day.”
She snorts. “Reid, that isn’t romantic.” She lowers her head on my shoulder, dropping her arm over my stomach. “Well, maybe a little. It means whatever I do won’t repulse you from now on, because I can’t actually think of anything more repulsive than that.”
I tug her closer, pressing my lips against her head. “There’s nothing you could do that would repulse me.”
Her fingers run through Hunter’s hair, but stops when my hand begins to shake on her shoulder. She pulls back, placing the palm of her hand on my chest so she can sit up. “Are you okay?”
“Lie down,” I rasp, and move so we can face each other on the bed. Hunter keeps himself between our legs, his head near our knees.
“Are you mad?” she whispers, taking my hand.
I link my fingers through hers, entwining our hands. “No. But, Summer, you can’t do anything like that ever again.” I pause, swallowing the ball stuck in my throat. “You...”
She squeezes her fingers over mine. “I promise. I really didn’t mean to get her hurt.”
I rear back like I’ve been slapped. “It’s not that. I know you’d never hurt Paisley like that.”
“I don’t... I’m sorry, Reid. I don’t understand.”
I let go of her hand to run my hand over her jaw until I’m cupping the back of her ear. “I’m talking about you. Nothing can happen to you, Summer.” Her lips form an ‘o’ shape, her pupils dilating. “You can never risk yourself like that again.”
Tears fill her eyes, threatening to spill. “Reid Hayes, I have something I need to tell you and you can’t run.”
My eyebrows pinch together, wondering what on earth she means. “I can’t?”
“It’s a secret,” she rasps, her voice trembling.
“I won’t tell anyone,” I promise, feeling my heart race once more. I don’t understand why, but clearly, something inside of me does.
“Oh, you can tell anyone and everyone. I don’t care.”
“How’s that a secret?” She pushes me back until I’m flat on my back and she’s kneeling over me. The pastel colours in the tips of her hair brush along my neck as she leans down. “Careful, your chest.”
A tear falls, dropping onto my cheek, contradicting the nervous smile on her face. “I love you, Reid Hayes.”
I gently move her until she’s the one lying on her back. I sit up, twisting my body until I’m facing her, looking down.
Because holy fucking shit.
She just told me she loves me.
It’s not an ‘I love you’ mid orgasm. It’s not my mum kissing my forehead and telling me. It’s not my brothers back slapping me and telling me, ‘I love you, bro’. It’s Summer.
Holy fucking shit.
For the first time in my life, I didn’t want to hit the brakes. I wanted to hit the accelerator.
I’m not running from her. I’m not freaked out by those three words. I don’t feel a shudder run down my spine in a horrifying way like I always presumed I would. I just...
Fucking hell. It feels right.
Her pale blue eyes turn misty with unshed tears as she stares up at me.
“I think I love you too,” I reply, my voice husky, with a slight hitch to it.
I groan at my choice of words instantly.
Instead of being angry and smacking the shit out of me, her eyes light up in a way I’ve only ever seen them do around her family and Freya.
Although at a closer glance, it may be slightly different.
There’s just something wholesome about how she looks at me.
Like I’ve made all her dreams come true.
She arches her brow at the same time her lips twitch. “You think?”
I lower my gaze to her mouth, unable to hold her eyes a moment longer without being lost in them.
I shrug. “I don’t know. I love my mum. I love my siblings and family.
I’ve never loved anyone else. I...” I clear my throat, and reach for the hem of my T-shirt she’s wearing.
“But that feeling I get when one of them gets hurt? For you, it’s twenty times worse.
That churning in my stomach at the thought of losing them?
Instead of it threatening to bring me to my knees and choke me, the thought of it being you, I feel like I might actually die too.
” My throat tightens with nerves because I’ve never had to do this before.
After listening to her screams, hearing the metal grinding and the not knowing if she was okay, I have to do this.
This might be new for me. I feel like I am fucking it up, and I dare not look at her eyes to find out.
Instead, I lower my voice and continue. “You are the only person I want to be around. You are the person I reach for or think of when I go to sleep, and it’s the same when I wake up.
You make me a better person. I’ve never felt like this.
.. Like I’ve found something I didn’t know I lost. That might not make sense,” I state, then shake my head slightly, trying to clear it.
“Maybe this will. My heart races at the sound of your voice. I see you, and I’m frozen for a fraction of a second, bewildered that you’re with me.
And fuck, when you touch me, I feel it everywhere.
I’m always thinking of you. It never goes away, even when you’re with me.
I don’t just see tomorrow with you, I see everything with you.
So yeah, I think I love you. If that is what it means to love, then I love you. I love you, Summer.”
“Reid,” she chokes out and I snap my head up, meeting her gaze. Tears fall down her cheeks. “Reid, that’s love. That is love.”
I lean down, capturing her lips because fuck, I cannot get enough of this woman. I run my hand over her cheek gently, moving further back, mindful that her head has a small wound when I run my fingers through her hair.
When her arms wrap around my neck and she tries to tug me closer, I pull back, unwrapping her arms from my neck, but not before I press a kiss to the tip of her nose. “You need to stop before you hurt yourself.”
Her eyes glisten as she lowers her hands to my biceps. “I love you, Reid. I’m really glad we found each other.”
Fucking hell, this woman. I bite my lip to stop the embarrassing whimper threatening to slip though.
“I love you too,” I whisper, and my limbs begin to shake. “Tonight, I just want to hold you, okay?”
This is it. This is what I’ve been so scared of all my life.
I teased my brothers for what they had. I made fun of them under this misconceived notion that they were missing out on something.
Yet when I look into Summer’s pale blue eyes, I don’t know what I was scared of because she is the best thing that ever happened to me.
My brothers really had everything all along.