“I’m not calling them.”
“Then I’m calling them,” I argue, and the shrug she gives me makes my heart crack.
“Fine. I’ll deny anything happened. I’m clumsy and I tripped over my own feet, hitting my face on the edge of the counter.”
My jaw falls open, staring at her in disbelief. How can Al say that?
I move to kneel in front of my beautiful girl, taking both of her hands in mine. “Al, I’m begging you. Please report this.Please,” I beg, hoping she’ll change her mind.
There’s more to this than Al’s admitting, but she shakes her head, looking away.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
CHAPTER 39
Alondra
I hadn’t heardfrom Bradley in over a week now, and I know Jack is upset with me for not calling the police, but I did follow through with going to the courthouse to file for a long-term protective order. I got a lot of looks because of my face, and the judge was quick to grant a continuance of the emergency protective order until a trial date is set where Bradley can argue against the protective order.
Jack has asked me a couple more times what Bradley is holding over my head, but I’ve refused to answer.
It was hard to explain to Ellie everything that transpired during my relationship with Bradley, but she’s thankfully been really understanding about it and wasn’t upset with me for not being able to tell her sooner. She should be mad because all I’ve been doing is running through the possibilities in my mind of what would have happened if Ellie had answered the door for Bradley instead.
I only made it two days—which was honestly longer than I expected—before Jack found out my ribs were bruised after I rolled the wrong way, and I didn’t bite back the groan of pain. He saw right through me when I refused to take my shirt off in frontof him, and by some miracle, I convinced Jack to stay with me instead of getting himself in a world of trouble.
There’s nothing good that will come from anyone confronting Bradley, especially Jack.
I’ve gotten used to waking up cocooned in Jack’s embrace, and despite wishing it wasn’t under false pretenses, there’s nowhere else I’d rather wake up than in his bed with his arm slung over my hip.
Right now, I’m not sure I could get up even if I wanted to. My internal alarm always wakes me before my actual alarm, but from all the nights I’ve spent sleeping next to Jack, I’ve learned that he doesn’t wake up before his alarm, but once he’s up, there’s no falling back asleep.
I enjoy the quiet moments in the morning before he’s awake because it’s even easier to pretend he’s mine and I’m his. There’s none of the additional shit involved with both of our pasts haunting us. If only it could be this way in real life.
My phone starts to vibrate next to my pillow, and Macy’s right on time. I slip out of Jack’s grip, careful not to wake him as I answer.
“Happy birthday, bitch!” she shrieks into the phone.
In all truthfulness, I hate my birthday. I don’t like celebrating it. Dad was never there for it because it was in the middle of season, and the one day that was supposed to be my day, never was. It, along with everything else, still belonged to hockey.
Macy is obsessed with birthdays, though. It doesn’t matter whose it is, she loves to celebrate them. It’s the only time she willingly wakes up early. Macy’s goal is to be the first person to tell someone,Happy birthday.
“Thanks, Macy,” I whisper, kind of surprised that Chad is chill with her being so loud so early in the morning.
“We’ll have to go all out for this one because your twenty-first was nowhere near the celebration it should’ve been,” she says,and Macy isn’t wrong. Bradley didn’t want to go out, insisting we stay in, and it was part of the catalyst that pushed me to end our relationship.
I muffle my laugh with my hand, trying not to let the past affect me today. “I thought we were waiting until Friday night to go crazy?”
“Semantics. What are you and Jack going to do today? I am going to pull the best friend card to steal you away for lunch, but I figured you’d want to spend time with him.”
“He doesn’t know it’s my birthday,” I admit, peeking at him in the dark to see if I’ve woken him yet, but Jack is still motionless next to me.
She gasps, and it’s too early for her to be this dramatic. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just break one of the birthday rules.”
Where the fuck do people keep coming up with these rules? Orgasm rules, birthday rules—what’s next?
“It’s your birthday?” Jack mumbles, stretching, and I guess he wasn’t as asleep as I thought he was. “Happy birthday.”
“I gotta go, but I’ll meet you for lunch wherever you want. Love you,” I say, hanging up as she protests it’s my birthday, and I should be the one picking. I don’t care where we go, I just want to make her happy. I plug the phone back on the charger, lying down next to Jack, and he doesn’t hesitate to pull me closer. “It’s early, you should go back to bed.”
