“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here. Go to your room, Bella.”
“Watch it!” I threaten. “Treat her like the fucking adult she is.”
“Like you have been, you fucker?” He turns his eyes back to her. “I said get to your room. Your Mother and I will be speaking to you about this. Right now, I can’t stand to look at you.”
“That’s your daughter, George. You show her some fucking respect. You can make digs at me, I expect that, but you make one more fucking dig at her and I will bury you.”
“Fuck you, Reed.”
I hand her my keys. “Go wait in the car for me, baby. I’ll be out soon.”
“Don’t you dare take another step towards that door, Bella.” My brave girl doesn’t even look back as she carries on down the stairs and out the front door.
She chose me.
Without even a single glance backwards, she put all her belief, her trust, in me.
Fuck, I love her so much.
“Get back here,” he shouts after her. When she doesn’t acknowledge that she’s even heard him, he turns back to me.
“You piece of shit,” he spits. “What have you done to her? You’ve poisoned her.”
“No, George,” I murmur. “She’s just finally realizing she’s not a little girl anymore. She’s a grown fucking adult and she’s acting like one.”
“Acting like one?” he splutters. “Her sneaking around and making out with you is not acting like an adult. It’s fucking childish and it’s not who she is.”
“Goddamn it, George. We’re not just messing around. You think I would risk everything — risk my friendship with you — to mess around?”
“No,” he whispers, the color draining from his face. “Tell me you didn’t, Reed. Tell me you haven’t slept with her. Not you.”
Fucking hell!I’m not going into detail about what we have and haven’t done.
“I love her, George. I am completely and utterly in love with her.”
“You bastard; she was a virgin.”
Well, shit.I definitely could have done without him knowing that.
“I’m not getting into details about our relationship with you, George. Neither of us wants that and I respect her too much to ever discuss anything with anyone.”
“How could you? I trusted her with you, I thought she was safe with you. Oh my God…the panties — no,” he gasps.
Yeah, I'm nottouching that one.
“She is safe with me. You know me. Fuck! I would never do anything to hurt her. Damn it, George, I’d rather cut off my own arm than hurt her.” I take a deep breath, raking my fingers through my hair. “You think I wanted this?” I half shout. “You think I wanted to find the girl I’ve known for nearly two decades attractive? You think I wanted to fall for my best friend’s daughter? I fought this with everything I had, George. But, Christ, she’s amazing. You know how fucking incredible she is. How could I not fall in love with her?”
“Love? You don’t know what love is. You saw a fresh piece of pussy and you pounced,” he snarls, his lip curling in disgust.
I clench my fist at my side, far too tempted to knock that look off his face for the way he’s talking about my girl. His own daughter.
“This is your last warning, George. You talk about her with anything other than the utmost respect she deserves and I will lay you out.”
He shakes his head at me, his eyes cold; there’s nothing in his gaze to show the eighteen years of friendship we have, and I know I can’t talk to him now. Not like this. Not tonight. He needs time to cool off, and to think.
“I’m going to go for tonight,” I continue before he can interrupt, his mouth already opening to make some, no doubt, snarky comment. “But we’ll be back tomorrow. We can all sit down and discuss this with everyone present. Valerie deserves to hear what we have to say as well.”
I don’t wait for an acknowledgement or a response, knowing I won’t get anything actually worth hearing from him — not tonight, if ever.
