He waited a moment to make sure I’d gotten everything off my chest before saying, “Thank you, Covee. For letting me know you in more ways than one. I don’t… think I deserve it. But I desperately want to. I want to deserve everything you have to give me. It kills me knowing I’m not worth it.”
“Stop.” I leaned closer to him. “You’re worth it ten times over, West.”
I kissed him. He placed both of his hands on my cheeks. His warm skin on mine felt like coming home after a rainstorm. The pressure from his lips made me want to open up even more. Now that I knew he understood, I wanted him to have every part of me. Not for a limited time. Not until our rules expired. I wanted him until both of us faded into nothing. And then, in nothing, I hoped we still found our way to one another.
Chapter 34
My phone buzzedon the nightstand. A small sliver of morning light peeked through the curtains of Weston’s bedroom window. His arm laid heavy across my stomach. I glanced over at him. He was the quietest sleeper I’d ever seen. His chest barely rose. I had to lean in close to hear the air leaving his mouth.
Carefully, I removed his arm and slipped out of his embrace. He didn’t stir as I tiptoed out of the room. Ari’s called end, but then started again immediately.
“Hey,” I answered while heading down the squeaky staircase. At night, this place looked like a haunted mansion. In the morning, it looked like a palace. White furniture and huge paintings that had been masked in shadows made me paused in admiration.
“Wanna do a video chat?” Ari asked in her usual energetic voice. She’d probably been up for a few hours by now with a mediation session and a couple cups of energy drinks under her belt.
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and said, “Sure. Give me one second.”
It didn’t take me long to find my laptop and an empty room down the hall from Weston. I set up at a desk facing a window. The room looked like an office with most of the stuff underneath blankets. I removed a sheet from the desk chair and plopped down into the cushion seat.
Ari popped on my screen the instant I requested the video call. She was dressed in a nightgown, sitting with a background I didn’t recognize.
“Where are you?” I studied the vanity behind her.
“Oh, um, the dentist,” she told me. She tried to keep a serious face.
“I didn’t realize they did house calls… in their own houses,” I teased.
She waved her hand. “Girl, this call is not about me right now.”
“But you need to catch me up,” I told her as I tucked my feet underneath my butt.
“Look, he’s downstairs reading to his kid,” Ari told me in a matter-of-fact tone. “I have fifteen minutes before they’re done. So, the clock’s ticking, and I think we have bigger things to talk about other than my love life.”
I let out a sigh. “Fine.”
“Where do you want to start? Because I got your email about the coach and wow.” She shook her head and took a sip of drink from a Best Dad Ever mug. “You picked a really interesting guy.”
I nodded. “You can say that again.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Want to start with Fairfield?”
“Fairfield?” My mouth turned downward at the mention of my hometown.
“Where he went to school.”
My throat was suddenly dry. Fairfield. The town I’d been taken out of high school. I lived there for years. Weston knew that. He’d seen my photo in my dorm. The photo with me holding those bears with a cheesy grin. He’d seen that photo weeks ago and told me he’d never heard of the place.
Ari continued talking, not noticing my change of mood. “Okay, well, Weston was pretty difficult to track down before college. Nothing on his socials from anything pre-college. Which was weird. My guess is everything on social media was deleted. Thankfully, I friended some friends from his prep school and got a few interesting pics. Your usually keg stand, frat boy wannabe type of stuff.”
“Okay.” I nodded for her to continue.
“It got interesting when I found an article from what probably would have been his sophomore year in high school,” Ari continued. “About one of his classmates being in a relationship with a teacher. And, well, four students burned down the man’s house. No one was hurt, but some of them did time.”
My body stiffened. “Weston?”
She shook her head. “Nope, no evidence of more than just some slaps on the wrist for all the minors involved. The names are redacted from the court file, of course. Can’t say for sure it’s Weston but comparing what you told me about his hero complex with what happened, I’d bet money it’s him.”
I nodded, silently taking everything in.
