“I can’t! I won’t! Stop!” Words flew out of my mouth. I didn’t even know what I wanted him to stop. I wanted the whole goddamn world to stop. Without a thought, my fist formed, and I was punching his bicep and his chest. “Move! You have to let me be!”
“No!” He stood unflinching in front of me, taking a beating not meant for him. “Em, hurt me. Do what you need to.”
That was Price. Selfless, compassionate, the opposite of my mom. He was like my dad, the only constant I’d ever known.
Unable to stop myself, I hit him once more and then fell back on my butt, landing in a pile of leaves.
Price dropped down next to me and cradled me like a baby. “Listen, I know you’re hurting, but please don’t push me away. I’m here for you. Not only Bev. I’m. Here. Too.”
At the sound of her name, I looked up to find Bev. “Where is she?” Hysteria crept up my throat. “She’s a good friend. Did you make her go? Did she leave?”
“She is a great friend,” he said softly, swiping my hair behind my ear. “She’s more than a good friend. But she saw I’m with you, and she went in to sit with her mom. She knows I can take care of you ... that I want to take care of you.”
“Oh. Sheila must be devastated too. She couldn’t do a thing ... to help my mom. She must be dying over it on the inside. More than the cancer already is—”
My words cut off when Price placed his lips on mine. It wasn’t a lustful kiss. It was consoling, comforting.
“Shhh,” he whispered, our mouths no longer fused, but still close enough to tickle each other. “I know this is bad timing, but I have to tell you this. I love you, Emerson. We didn’t expect it to happen or to find it when we ran into each other that first time, but we did. I know you care for me more than I ever dreamed you could, and my feelings for you run two-, three-fold yours. I promise you that.”
“What?”
My head jerked back, and I looked into Price’s eyes. His hair was a mess, and his suit was getting wrinkled and dirty as he knelt with me.
“I love you. And none of this means anything. Not your mom or my dad, or their shit. Of course, your pain ... it means everything. And I’m here for you. Come back with me. We can stay at a hotel with Tuck. He misses you. I can’t breathe without you.”
“That apartment. I never want to go back there.”
“I don’t either,” he said softly into my neck. “We can go to the hotel on the next block. Don’t be mad, but your dad is there. I had him come up. He called me a little while after you walked out, afraid that you might run. He loves you. I love you. We want you to understand you’re loved.”
“I don’t want him to see me like this.”
“He doesn’t care. He loves you so much. He’s giving you space, even though he doesn’t want to. But he knows you’re grieving, and he’s okay with that.”
Exhaustion overwhelmed me, and I let my forehead rest on his shoulder.
A few hours later, I woke up in a strange bed, in an unfamiliar room, wearing nothing but my bra and panties. Strung out didn’t begin to describe how I felt.
Tired, lost, cold ... A shiver ran through me, and my whole body shook.
“Hey.”
A voice came from the side of the room, and I turned. Price sat on a couch in what was obviously a hotel suite.
“Let me turn the heat up. You’re cold,” he said quietly. He stood with purpose and moved to the thermostat.
“When did I fall asleep?” I tried to sit up in the bed, but only fell back into the stack of down pillows.
“In the car. Johnny helped me get you up here, but only I took your clothes off.”
He didn’t wink or smirk. The words were matter-of-fact, as if I would think he would allow another man to see me nearly naked.
Price
Imet the ass in the lobby. He’d begged me to do so.
Emerson was still wrung out and sitting with her dad—there was no reason to force my dad on her at the moment.
“Price,” he said in greeting, pulling me in for a hug.
