Page 59 of Awakening

“That’s enough! Stop! Anthony, I’m going to be okay.” I look over at Ethan with a nod. “I’ll get my keys and we’ll go.”

I grab my keys from the table, but Ethan takes them from my hand. “It’s late. Just ride with me. I’ll send one of the guys to get your car tomorrow.” I don’t feel like arguing, so I nod and start to follow him out the door.

“Liv, you need to tell him about the guy in the middle of the highway tonight. It might be important,” Anthony says.

Ethan looks at me in question, and I say, “I’ll explain in the car.”

“And, Liv,” Anthony says, “Please know I’m always here for you. Remember what I said tonight.”

I look into his sad eyes and nod. “Goodbye, Anthony.”

Ethan

My mood during the ride home is tense, to say the least. I’m relieved she agreed to come home with me so easily, but it’s eating me alive that I found her with him. I fucking hate him.

“I’m sure you have more to say,” she finally says with a sigh. “Are we just going to sit here in silence the entire way home?”

“Do you have any idea how reckless you were tonight? I’m told you practically forced an old woman off the road when you sped through the gates.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I panicked.”

My grip on the steering wheel tightens as I think of her going to him for comfort. “I told you I won’t share you with him, Olivia.”

“He’s just my friend, Ethan.”

“Bullshit. He is not your fucking friend. He wants to take you away from me because he wants you for himself. How do you not fucking see this?”

“But I don’t feel that way about him. Not anymore.”

“What are you feeling right now?”

“I don’t know,” she says at practically a whisper.

“Because this afternoon you were ready to try with me. You saw how happy we were, and I thought you wanted us to get back to that.”

“I did. I do. I just…God, Ethan, it’s fucking overwhelming,” she says as her tears start to fall. “Then after dinner with your family, I’ve never felt like such a terrible person for something that is completely out of my control. Your mother, of all people, made me feel that way.”

“I know.” I reach for her hand. “You’ll never know how sorry I am that she did that to you. I can assure you I made my displeasure very clear.”

“You did?”

“Of course, I did.” Her question hits me straight in my heart. “Olivia, you always come first, over everything and everyone. I love you more than anything. It’ll always be you.”

“Thank you for defending me.”

“Always.” I bring her hand to my lips for a kiss. “Now, tell me about this guy in the middle of the road.”

“I was driving along, and I only took my eyes from the road for a second to look in the rearview mirror, and when I looked back at the road, there was this man standing right in the middle of the highway.”

“How far from Pinewood did this happen?”

“Four or five miles, maybe.”

“What did he look like?”

“He was about your height. He appeared to be muscular, and I could see he had short, dark brown hair, and it looked a little wavy on top. The look on his face, though, it’s like he knew me, and he definitely didn’t like me.”

My entire body tenses at her description. “He just ran off?”

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