I definitely need all the comfort I can get in this moment.
“What—what is he coming here for?” I ask.
Rowan’s jaw ticks as he tosses his phone onto the couch cushion beside him.
“Says he’s bringing things for you.”
“That sounds bad,” I whisper.
“Yeah,” he huffs. “That’s one way of putting it.”
“He’s not—he’s not going to hurt you again, right? Or take me away?”
“He shouldn’t,” Rowan says with a shake of his head. “Dad specifically ordered him not to, but you know how much of a wildcard he can be.”
Speak of the devil and he shall come, or whatever the saying is, because Jett bangs on the trailer door right that second.
His telltale knock shakes the walls of the trailer. I hate it. I hate him.
“I think it’s best if you stay out here, that way he doesn’t have a reason to come drag you out or anything, okay, Sugar?” Rowan murmurs, standing from his seat on the couch and squeezing my shoulders reassuringly.
“Okay.”
Rowan’s gaze darts between my wide, panicked eyes before he sighs and leans down to brush a soft kiss against my forehead.
If this were any other time, if the panic of Jett still banging at the door of the trailer weren’t threatening to swallow me whole, I probably would’ve started bouncing on my toes.
But in this moment, I can’t properly appreciate the fact that Rowan just kissed me on the forehead.
No one’s ever done that before.
I want him to do it again.
“I’m fucking coming!” Rowan snarls, turning his back to me as he stalks to the door.
He wrenches the door open, standing squarely in the doorway and preventing me from seeing Jett’s face from where I’m at.
“About time, shitstain,” Jett huffs. He pauses, seeming to take Rowan in before he lets out a sharp bark of laughter. “I leave for a month and suddenly your balls drop? Hell of a glare you’re wearing, baby bro.”
“Don’t call me that,” Rowan snaps.
“Which one, shitstain or baby bro?” Jett sneers. “’Cause from where I’m standing, both of them fit.”
“Just give me whatever you’ve brought for the omega andleave. You know you can’t do anything to me right now.”
“How ‘bout you step aside and let me get a good look at her. It’s only fair I deliver the things she’s wearing to the person wearing them.”
Rowan stands tall, but that only seems to piss Jett off, because he pushes past Rowaneasily.
A small sound of protest leaves my throat when I see Rowan stumbling back. It was a hard enough shove to move him out of the doorway, but luckily, he’s able to find his balance quickly.
Hopefully, that’s the only sort of physical contact Jett has with him. Rowan’s ribs still ache from time to time, especially on chilly mornings, after the beating Jett gave him a month ago.
“Ahhh, there she is,” Jett sneers, his gaze cutting to me.
I just blink at him, like a deer caught in headlights, my feet frozen to the floor.
Jett slings a backpack I didn’t realize he was carrying off his shoulder, opening the top pocket and tossing me a crumpled pile of lace. I stumble forward to try to catch it.
