“Angel,” I whisper into her ear. “You’re worked up over nothing. I promise. You don’t have to worry about going anywhere, because I am staying right here with you. And there is nothing you can do to stop me.”
She swings around in my arms with such force it knocks me back a step. Her eyes fill with fury. Her lip quivers. I wait for her response with wide eyes and a breaking heart.
“I can’t have you do that. It isn’t fair.”
“You don’t have a choice, it’s done. I already told them I wouldn’t be coming in August,” I lie, trying to gain traction and attempting to right this night one final time.
She shakes her head and closes her eyes. “It’s over, Hunter!” She states loudly as if she doesn’t believe the words herself.
“Excuse me?” I ask stupidly, as my body shakes the more her words sink in.
Her eyes open. Tears fall freely as she stands on shaky feet in front of me. “I’ll always choose what’s best for you, even when you won’t choose it yourself.”
“Angel,” I beg. My hands reach out to grab her close, but she slaps them away.
“We’re done! Through! Finished!” She yells as sobs take over her. I stare at her, dumbfounded, completely not believing what is happening.
“You don’t mean that, Rochelle,” I say, trying to fix whatever is broken. “You can’t mean that. Come on, Angel. We can fix this. Sure, okay, maybe you can’t go and you still want me to. I get that, with your mother and everything. But then let's at least make it work. We can make it work, Rochelle.”
“No!” She shouts. She starts to walk away, but I am quick to catch up to her side.
“You’re telling me you could just walk away? Leave me and everything between us forever?” She stops abruptly and looks at me, tears stream down her face before anger sets in and she takes off again. “I call bullshit, Angel!”
“Stop calling me Angel!” She screams as she turns to face me. She pushes me once, then twice. And I let her because if she is going to walk away, I need to feel her one last time. Even if it means feeling the anger, the hatred, the fear she’s holding onto deep inside. “How can I be your Angel when what you’re asking is for me to make you give up your dream?”
“You’re my dream! I’m not leaving you, Rochelle. Not now! Not ever! You think a few thousand miles is going to change any of that, you got it all wrong! There is nothing, and no one, that can ever stand in my way of always coming back to you.” I reach out for her and this time she lets me pull her into my arms. Wrapping one arm around her waist, I hold her tightly against me, afraid she will try and take off once again, and then use my other hand to wipe away her tears.
“You’ll regret this,” she says quietly, talking about a choice that could fuck up my entire future.
But hell, she’s my damn future. I won’t let anything change that. As she pushes away from my chest, I reluctantly let her go, knowing she’s right. I might regret it. But I could never ever regret choosing her, even if it means giving up what I thought mattered most once upon a time.
“And so will I,” she whispers before turning and running.
I let her go. I can’t fight a battle she was determined to make me lose. I can’t win a war in one evening that has only just begun. But what I can do, is pray. Pray her road always leads back to me. And when it does, prove her wrong by making her see together is where we’ll always belong.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Hunter
Killing my bike, I kick the stand into place and take off my helmet. It’s been three days since Rochelle’s “attempt” to break us up on the beach, and my heart has been a wreck ever since. Giving her the space I felt she needed, I waited until day two to contact her at the shop. By noon today, when she still wouldn’t talk to me, I took a ride through the grapevine to clear my head. As I headed back down into LA, I ended up circling through the Hills and oddly enough found myself at Ed and Sylvia’s house.
Coming through the gates, I passed a taxi just leaving. Focusing on the rearview window of the cab, I couldn’t for the life of me make out who was in the back seat. Standing at the front door, I attempt one last time to see who it is as the cabbie punches in the codes for the gate. The door behind me opens as the cab drives off and out of sight.
“Weird, I tell you,” Victoria greets me, giving me a hug. “Hell, I didn’t even know they still had cabs.”
I look back over my shoulder. “Who was it?”
“Not sure. Came to see Dad and Mom. I was up in my room but…”
“I saw who it was,” Tiffany’s voice spills through the doorway as she walks out on the front porch. Victoria rolls her eyes and looks at me annoyed.
“See why I was hiding in my room?”
“Huntie,” Tiffany purrs. She strolls up to me and pushes out her bottom lip in a pout. “I missed you the other night at the big LBS annual sorority party.”
The night makes me think of only one thing. A velvet box still sitting in my top drawer, and a promise I am dead set on making to a woman who won’t talk to me, see me, and is hell-bent on making sure there is nothing between us anymore. That party was the night my world took a turn for the worse. I fear it won’t ever be the same again.
“Rex was there,” Tiffany says as she grabs a hold of my arm. “After I saw him I was hoping you’d be right behind him. I spent the whole night trying to find you.” She pouts her lip out one final time as her father rounds the corner and finishes a conversation with Edward. “Please tell me you dropped the whole Cinderella routine, trying to make an honest woman out of someone who doesn’t deserve your time, because I’ve never been more ready to pick up where we left off.”
