He heads back outside to grab another box, so I do the same.
“You still hate me for that? Did you never catch on to when I would show up?”
“What do you mean?” I inquire as I drop my box in his living room.
“I didn’t show up to every party, now did I?”
I think back. He showed up often, but not to all of them.
“Yeah? So? I figured you had club business those nights.”
He shakes his head. “No, those nights the cops weren’t called. I only ever dragged you out when I heard the call come over the radio about a house party. I didn’t want to ruin your fun. I wanted to keep you out of trouble.”
I frown, looking down at my hands. “Because my dad asked you to?”
“Fuck no. He would have lost his shit if he knew about half the times I saved your ass. No, I did that because I didn’t want anything on your record. That and Mustang was my mentor. That meant my protection extended to you.”
“Oh. I had no idea.”
He nods. “I know. I didn’t want you to know. Go ahead and start unpacking. I’m going to grab the last couple of boxes.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to respond as he heads back out the door. I consider what he said to me. I go back through mymemories and think about all of those nights, and each time he would come and pull me away.
I always thought I was a smart person, but I never connected the dots. I remember the first time Jimmy got arrested. It was for underage drinking at Chelsea Whitmore’s sixteenth birthday party. I was angry because an hour before the cops showed up, Ridge came and told me I needed to go home. That night, I went willingly, thinking my father sent him, only to find my dad not even home. I cussed and threw a fit at Ridge, but he accepted it all without complaint. When I heard about Jimmy the next day, I was grateful to have missed the cops, but still angry that I didn’t have a cool story to tell like the rest of them.
Little did I know that all along I had a guardian angel watching over me.
I didn’t want to start seeing Ridge in a different way, but slowly, I am. He’s not the man I made him out to be in my head. He’s something different. Special even. He is the man everyone else always told me he was, but I didn’t want to see it then. My eyes are wide open now.
And for now, he is all mine.
Ridge
I look around the living room at all the boxes. I only count six total, and none of them were really heavy. I don’t like that she didn’t bring a lot of her things here. It’s like she doesn’t plan to be here long. Doesn’t she realize she needs to think of this as herhome? Or is she planning to spend as little time here as possible? The lawyer only said she needed to live here. He didn’t say she had to be here all the time.
“You didn’t bring very much. Are you sure this is all you need?” I ask Rain as I set down the last box.
She looks up from the box she is going through. She gives me an odd look before she finally responds.
“I didn’t want to move my whole life in here. I figured if it was only for a couple of years, the rest can stay at Dad’s.”
I nod, not liking her answer. I want this to feel like her home. Sure, she might not live here forever, but two years is a long time. Longer than I think she realizes. It won’t go by in a blink like she seems to think.
“Well, we can always go grab more things if you need them, I suppose,” I mutter.
“My thoughts too.” I hear her echo in a low tone.
“Do you need any help unpacking?”
She looks up and snorts. “So you can go through my underwear drawer? No, thank you. I can unpack myself.”
“You really think I would be a perv and go through your shit?” I raise a brow.
She shrugs. “Never truly know someone. Maybe you are a secret freak. I guess I have two years to figure it out.”
With that, she grabs a box and heads down the hall into the room I allocated to her.
What she doesn’t know is that it used to be my personal gym. The bed in there? Brand new.
