Chapter Twenty-Nine #3
“None of this makes any sense.” I grab my bag and head home to find out what the hell is going on.
Before I take off, I text my mom and tell her I’ll be by the rec center to pick up Micaela, but she says Marco has her.
She dropped her off to him a couple hours ago because she had a meeting she needed to go to.
I send her an angry text because seriously?
She knows I don’t trust him and she goes and leaves Micaela with him without even letting me know.
She texts back she’s sorry and that it was an emergency, and I immediately feel bad because she is already doing me a favor by watching my daughter.
If she had to drop Micaela off to Marco, it had to be for a good reason.
She wouldn’t just do that for no reason.
I send her back a text apologizing and thank her for watching Micaela.
When I walk through the door Marco stands and looks at me confused. “I didn’t expect you home yet.”
“Yeah, well, I found something out today and figured I should come home and give you a chance to explain.”
“Okay…” Marco takes my hands and pulls me onto the couch next to him. I pull my hands out of his and back up a bit so we aren’t touching. He frowns and says, “Talk to me.”
“You said you weren’t cleared. You lied.” He flinches but quickly composes himself.
“No, I said I couldn’t fight. You assumed that meant I wasn’t cleared. I just didn’t correct you.” I glare at him because really…lying by omission. Will this man ever learn?
“So, you can fight.”
“No, I can’t.” He shrugs and hits play on the television to continue watching whatever he was watching, trying to end this conversation.
Not happening.
Grabbing the remote, I click pause and toss the control to the other side of the couch.
“Don’t ignore me, Marco. Why can’t you fight?
” The look he gives me is one I’ve never seen before.
It looks like he’s scared, which is crazy because Marco is one of the strongest people I know, at least physically anyway.
“Marco,” I say again.
“Fine! I’m fucking afraid, Belles!” He scrubs the side of his face with his hand and I keep quiet to let him continue.
“I’m afraid I’ll go back to getting high.
I’m afraid of the pain. Then there’s the fact that one of my best friends is lying in a coma because of my fighting.
I spent the last four years training with him and now he’s in a goddamn coma.
I’m a dad now and I’m trying to make shit right with you.
Look what happened a few weeks ago. I had a shot of liqueur, and yeah, I know I can drink if I want to, but it’s not smart.
I’m just trying to stay above water right now. ”
In this moment, my heart breaks for this man. He has been through so much his entire life and the only time he was truly happy was when he was fighting and now the one thing that makes him feel whole is the very thing he’s afraid of.
I crawl into his lap to be close to him, suddenly missing Marco and our friendship.
We might be living in the same house, but we have been a million miles apart lately.
His words of admission remind me how fucking human he is.
His entire world imploded the night of that accident.
Then there was the pain and drugs and what happened with us.
He turned to the one thing he swore he never would do, the very thing that killed his mom. And now he’s associating fighting with everything bad that’s happened.
“Hey,” I whisper. Marco’s hands hold onto my thighs lightly, his face looking down between us. “Hey,” I repeat. This time his face lifts and I can see the tears. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I hug him as tight as I can. We sit like this for I don’t know how long before I pull back.
“Are you still in pain?”
He shakes his head slowly.
“You’ll get through this.” I give him a small smile before getting up. As I go to swing my leg over to the other side, Marco’s hand grabs my thighs tighter, sending an electrical charge straight to my center.
“Marco…”
“I need you, Bella.” He pulls me close to him and nuzzles his face in my hair. “I miss you so damn much. It’s like I was given a sample, but when I went to order the full portion, it was sold out.”
I roll my eyes and laugh softly but go along with his analogy. “No, it was more like you had the perfect, homemade, cooked to perfection meal right in front of you and you walked out without finishing dinner.”
I don’t hear Marco, but I feel him shaking with laughter. “I was stupid, Belles. I’m so hungry.”
“Yeah, well, maybe next time you won’t choose a drive thru over a home-cooked meal.” It’s meant as a joke but Marco stiffens and I feel bad for throwing that in his face. I know he didn’t do anything with Janell or any other woman for that matter. “I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t apologize. I’m going to earn your trust back, Belles. But not just your trust, I’m going to earn your mind and your body and your heart. One day, you will be completely mine and I will have earned it.”
Silly boy…if he only knew—he already owns me, all of me, every piece of me: mind, body, and heart.