There is no easy way out of this, and no way to turn back now. I’m in too deep. I’m too close to my goal.
And when Victoria finds out what I’ve done…what I’m continuing to do…and what I still plan on doing, she’ll never forgive me.
I know all of that, yet still I cannot stay away from her.
It’s like I’m an addict, and she’s my preferred brand of heroin.
Even though we’ve been together almost twenty-four-fucking-seven over the past few months, sometimes that doesn’t feel like enough.
I’m a fucking goner. Head over heels in love with a girl I can never truly have and who willhateme when she finds out the truth.
I hear Victoria’s phone ringing in the other room. Not wanting to eavesdrop, but simply not being able to help myself, I go to the bathroom door and crack it open to listen to her conversation.
“It’s okay, Sue. We’ll figure it out,” Victoria tells her in a voice that’s supposed to sound calm and collected, but even I can hear the panic and doubt in her tone. “I don’t know…I know…we’ll just have to…I’ll think of something and call you back.”
When I emerge from the bathroom, Victoria is sitting on the edge of my bed with a worried look on her face. She’s biting her thumbnail, taking out her frustration on that poor nail.
When she looks up at me, I see a sense of relief fall over her face. And once again, I feel like a fucking scumbag. Victoria looks at me like I’m her saving grace, but that couldn’t be any farther from the truth right now.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her softly while sitting down on the bed next to her.
Victoria takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “That was Sue from the soup kitchen. At some point last night, there was a water leak. It ruined the dining hall ceiling and triggered the main breaker. Without power to the refrigerator, all the food they had ready for the big Thanksgiving meal is ruined.” She puts her head in her hands. “I don’t know what to do, Damon.”
Her voice is so despondent that it makes my heart ache for her. Victoria really cares about that place and the people in it, and that, in turn, makes me care, which is something completely new for me.
“So, we’ll replace the food,” I offer.
“It’s not that easy. You’re talking about a ton of food that hundreds, if not thousands, of people donated over the past week or so.”
Grabbing her by the shoulders and turning her to face me, I tell her, “Victoria, we’ll replace the food and take care of the water damage. I’m going to help you fix this. All of it.”
Tears shimmer in her eyes as she wraps her arms around me and tugs me close to her. “Thank you, Damon,” she breathes. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
Holding her close, I feel the guilt slithering up my spine.
“Ditto,” I whisper into her hair. I hold her a little tighter then, afraid to let her go. I know there will soon come a time when I have to let her go for good, and I don’t know how I’ll ever survive it.
This girl is going to be the death of me.
CHAPTER 24
VICTORIA
WHEN DAMON TOLD me he would help me fix it all, he wasn’t kidding. After several phone calls, we have people helping us tear out the ceilings while local grocery stores are bringing in truckloads of food to replace everything that was lost.
Sue couldn’t be happier, and she keeps running around the kitchen with tears in her eyes and the biggest smile on her face that I’ve ever seen her wearing.
I would have asked my father for help since he has more money than he knows what to do with, but he loathes places like this and chastises me often for volunteering here. He thinks my time would be better spent at parties and mingling with the rich and famous rather than actually helping people who need it.
But we got it done without his help, and I’m proud of the fact that I didn’t need to depend on him for this.
With his sleeves rolled up, Damon is getting his hands dirty and hauling ruined pieces of drywall into the alleyway behind the soup kitchen. His muscles bulge and strain against his shirt, and I can’t help but sneak peeks at him. He looks like a Grecian god, with his olive skin covered in a sheen of sweat as he works.
He catches me staring as he comes back inside the door and flashes me a sexy, knowing grin. “You’re gonna get it later,” he mouths to me with a wink, and I can’t help the blush that spreads across my chest and up to my cheeks.
Fanning myself, I turn away from him and get back to work. I’m helping another girl sweep up the small pieces to put into a wheelbarrow.
The water leak made quite the mess, but the dining hall is looking better and better with every hour that passes.
