“Right,” I slowly nod my head, trying to hide my shattered heart from showing. “I’m sorry,” I whispered under my breath so softly, I barely heard myself. He lets out a long, exasperated sigh.
“I’m sorry too.”
My gaze darts to him. “You are?”
“Ya, I’m sorry I lost my temper.”
“Thanks, for apologizing but how come you didn’t come home last night? Where were you?”
“No, you don’t get to do that. Tell me why you are going to California.”
“Really? You aren’t going to tell me?”
“Fine, if I tell you, then you tell me what your mom needs you help with so bad that you have to leave.”
“Deal.” I crossed my arms across over my chest and stood up a little straighter
“I slept in my truck.”
“Nick! The temperature gets down to freezing at nighttime.”
“I slept inside the truck. And I’ve slept in worse conditions. Believe me, I was fine.”
“You didn’t have to avoid me. I wanted to talk to you about everything.”
“I’m not ignoring you now. So talk.”
“My stepdad is in trouble. Well, kind of. There are a bunch of women suing him, claiming that he raped them, and he coerced them into sleeping with him, so there’s a chance his case will go to trial and I’ll have to testify for him and tell him what a wonderful guy he is, blah blah blah, for it all to go away.”
“What the fuck!”
I flinched at the sound of his voice. It was a loud rumble like lightning just struck our house. “Fuck no! You are not going to testify for that asshole. I won’t allow it.”
“Nick, I already told my mom I would. She was in damn near tears about all of this yesterday..”
“I don’t give a shit. You aren’t going to tell the world how great of a man he is, if anything, this should be your chance to tell your mom the truth.”
I raked a hand through my hair and tugged at the ends. “She won’t believe me.”
“Then I’ll fucking tell her.”
“No, you won’t. Besides, if she won’t believe me, then there’s no way in hell she’ll believe you.”
“I’ll make her believe.” He says, and I see his jaw muscles clench together.
I groaned. “Nick, you can’t control everything.”
“Like hell I can’t. Besides, how can she not see that he’s an asshole.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a migraine come on.“Because that’s my mom, she is brilliant at ignoring the elephant in the room.”
“Then it’s time for her to wake the fuck up. You’re not going, end of discussion.” He whips around and heads straight for the bathroom but I’m hot on his heels.
“Nick I-” I nearly crash into his back when he stops dead in his tracks and then turns to face me.
“I don’t want that pedophile mother fucker near you. Or I’ll kill him myself. How could you even want to be around your stepfather? Or even go near the guy after what he did to you?”
“Be around who?”
