Page 65 of Somewhere You Belong

I need to get out of here. I feel the words on the tip of my tongue, bound to come out if I stay here for one more second. But I’ll be damned if I taint this night for him or his family—for us.

I know I could share my own struggles with the loss of my parents.

I know I could apologize again for the fact that his dad isn’t here.

But all I can focus on iswhohis dad is and how this man has played a pivotal role in why my parents aren’t alive and why I’m in Carrington Cove to begin with.

We’re finally starting to get along. My feelings toward him are shifting.

But now?

Now everything is one big clusterfuck and I need to process it.

This information about his dad changes everything.

“So—” he starts, but I cut him off.

“I’m sorry, Dallas. I need to go.” I twist away from him, walking as quickly as my heels will allow and leaving him confused, I’m sure.

“Willow!” he calls after me.

But I don’t turn back around. I walk back through the door I came out of earlier and hunt down Astrid as quickly as I can.

“Astrid?”

She spins around from her conversation with a few other women to find me practically hyperventilating. “Willow? What’s wrong?”

“I’m—I’m just not feeling very well. I hate to do this, but I need to leave.” I twist to the side, glancing toward the stage where Dallas’s family is seated at their table, their mother wiping tears from under her eyes, and my heart crumbles once more.

“Oh. Okay. Do you want me to come with you?” She moves to reach for her purse from the table, but I stop her.

“No. I’m fine. Please stay. I just need to know that you’ll be able to get home.”

“Yeah, I’m sure Penn could give me a ride.”

“Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Again, I’m so sorry.” I grab my purse, trying to hide the tremor in my hands as I do.

“It’s okay. I hope you feel better.” She rubs my arm before I turn to walk away.

With a tight-lipped smile, I head for the front entrance, feeling Dallas’s stare on me as he comes back inside, but I don’t dare look in his direction. I just keep moving forward—out of the crowd, out to my car, and back toward my house—Dallas’s dream house that his father gave to me.

Once I’m settled inside, the walls that were starting to feel like a home now feel like they’re closing in on me, hiding secrets under the drywall and in every nail holding the place together.

Just when my heart was beginning to open up to the possibilities and people here in Carrington Cove, yet another revelation has stirred emotions that I don’t want to deal with.

However, nothing could have prepared me for the visitor I received later that night, another person tangled in this web I’d been drawn into that made the plot thicken even more.

Chapter thirteen

Dallas

“Dude, I think that counter is clean.”

“Huh?” When I turn to the side, I see Penn staring at me with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“You’ve been wiping that same spot on the counter for about five minutes now.”

“Fuck.” I toss the towel in the bucket nearby and let out a heavy sigh.

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