“Then I suggest you pull out of me.”
He sighed with disappointment as he withdrew from me, and we got dressed. Well, sort of. He was back in his sweatpants, and I put his shirt back on. I couldn’t find my thong, and I was worried that if I bent over too much to search the bed, I’d tempt him to the point of being late to a breakfast Roe had taken the time to go get for us. The shirt was long enough to cover me almost to the tops of my knees. I had worn shorter dresses, so I figured just wearing the shirt was fine.
We walked out holding hands. Roe and surprisingly Reid were sitting at the dining room table, eating what looked like burritos. They both took in my bare legs as I rounded the table.
“Burritos for breakfast?” I asked as I sat in the chair next to Reid.
“They’re breakfast burritos,” Roe said as he slid a giant, foil-wrapped burrito toward me.
As I went to take it, Reid grabbed my wrist and looked over my raw, slightly swollen knuckles.
“She iced it for about twenty minutes last night before she fell asleep,” Wyatt said as he sat across from us.
I pulled my hand from Reid’s grasp. “I’m fine. I’m more hungry than anything.” I dragged the burrito the rest of the way to me and unwrapped it.
“I wonder why that is,” Roe teased, glancing at Wyatt, who grinned before quietly biting into his burrito.
“You had her moaning so loudly, I’m surprised you didn’t wake Noble,” Reid said.
“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” Wyatt said.
I’m just going to eat, I thought as I bit into my burrito. There were eggs, sausage, potatoes, cheese, and salsa inside. It was delicious.
“He didn’t get home until after four. Nothing’s waking him up,” Roe said.
We ate in silence for a few minutes, enjoying our meal, until Reid asked, “Are you returning to school tomorrow?”
It took me a second to realize he was talking to me. I nodded as I chewed.
“Have you thought about what might happen?” he asked.
I set my burrito down. “Yes, and I honestly don’t know what will happen. I worry about Brandon, mostly. The last time I saw him, I shoved him off me and ran.”
“If he approaches you at school, do you think he’ll do anything?” Wyatt asked with a hint of worry in his voice.
“I don’t know. He loves his golden-boy reputation, but I’ve seen him drop that act before when angry enough,” I said as I fiddled with the hem of Wyatt’s shirt. “But I’m not who I was a few weeks ago. I won’t react submissively out of fear anymore.” I sighed at how silly that sounded. It had only been a few weeks, but I had changed so much. “Don’t get me wrong, I’mstill scared. I’m just…” I trailed off as I tried to find the best way to describe it. “I’m not in it anymore. I was so strung out and crippled by fear and pain all the time. Now I’m out. I’m free to feel, breathe, and see things without the fucking leash my mother had wrapped around my neck. It doesn’t matter if anything happens tomorrow. It won’t change anything. Iwill notgo back.”
They were quiet. Reid set his hand on my thigh and slowly rubbed back and forth with his thumb. “I know you won’t go back. I’m concerned what he’ll do when you refuse.”
“I’ll be with her as much as I can,” Roe said.
“And when you step between her and him?” Reid asked. “Are you ready for the fallout?”
I was also concerned about that.
“I know exactly what might happen, Reid,” Roe snapped, sounding beyond mad. “And to be honest, I don’t fucking care. You two are like my brothers and I’ve always wanted you to be happy. You both hate the club because your dads were two fucking assholes who did you and your families wrong. But my dad isn’t an asshole. Sure, my mom left us because she couldn’t handle the shit the club dragged him into, but I don’t have the same hatred you two have. I just don’t want to become a member.”
Roe’s words and the anger carried with them told me this outburst had been brewing inside him for a while.
“You twowant to leave Summerhaven,” Roe said as he looked from Wyatt to Reid. “I liked the idea of something new, so I was all for it. Yes, I’m kind of smart. But I didn’t try for the Kendry scholarship four years ago because it was something I dreamt about. I knew that wherever we ended up, it would be great to have a lucrative career. So we can have a nice life. Everything I have done has been for us. Because we promised to stick together wherever we decide to go and whatever we decideto do.” He dragged his hands through his black hair. “But Lottie is something—someoneIwanted.Mywant with my whole body and fucking soul. I share her with you two because it’s what she wants and because it keeps us all together. Don’t sit there and ask me to do nothing if that bastard tries to touch her. I’m tired of hearing that when it comes to her, I have to choose one thing or the other. Not joining the club and leaving Summerhaven was the main goal. It doesn’t matter how it’s done. We’ve been saving money for years. When school ends, we pack up and just go. We can go where Lottie wants. I don’t fucking care.”
“What about MIT or Stanford?” I asked.
He shrugged. “If I get into them, great. If I don’t, there are other colleges. There is more than one way to do things in life. The end goal is to be happy, and I’d be happy with just being your assistant.”
I tried not to smile. “You just want me to sit on your face.”
“Sounds like a fulfilling career to me,” Wyatt said, lightening the mood.
