Page 17 of Offside Angel

A desperate sob escapes from her pinched lips. “Zane…”

“You’re going to have my babies, Mira. Our babies. As many as you want.” I can’t help but grin. “They’re going to look like you and me and we’re going to love them and be together and?—”

She’s crying now and I brush my lips over the tears on her cheeks. I follow one to her jawline, her throat. “Tell me that’s not what you want. Tell me you want me to let you go. Look me in my eyes and tell me you don’t want to be with me, Mira.”

She squares her shoulders and stares at me. “I don’t want?—”

But the words die in her throat.

Her chin wobbles.

She drops her forehead to my shoulder with a sob. “I don’t want anything to happen to you or Aiden. I don’t want to be the reason you get hurt.”

“We’re already hurting because of you. The only way you can stop it is by coming home.”

Mira curls her hands around mine and holds the bundle of our fingers against her chest. She draws circles along my knuckles with her thumbs, thinking.

Finally, she looks up at me. “You have to know everything first.”

“I already know everything I need to know.”

She’s mine. I’m hers. It’s a tale as old as time and all that.

“I’m serious, Zane. I’m not going to let you risk Aiden when you don’t even know the full story.” She drops our hands and walks around me to the bed. She sits down on the end of it, her body curling in on itself. “I need to tell you what I’ve done.”

I drag the plastic chair over and drop down, my knees enveloping both of hers. I grab her hand and press a kiss to her knuckles. “I’m listening.”

7

MIRA

“I’ve never told anyone any of this before.”

My hands are shaking, and I try to slide them under my legs to hide it. But Zane holds them tighter. “Just start at the beginning.”

“For me, the beginning is when my mom left. I was little, so I don’t remember a lot, but what I do remember… She loved to sing and dance. There was always music playing when she was around. She’d throw open the windows and turn on the radio and we’d dance.”

I smile, my mind catching and stuttering on fleeting memories of holding her hands and being twirled around the living room. I’d get dizzy and fall over, giggling into the carpet. Then…

“She left me.” I sigh. “I mean, I know she didn’t leave me; she left my dad. But it felt like she left me.”

“She should’ve taken you with her,” Zane snarls. “A good mother would’ve done anything to protect you.”

“I never understood that until I met Aiden. I know I’m not his mother, but I’d do anything for him. Including…” I swallow down the knot in my throat. “Including leave him, if I had to. Maybe my mom thought it would make things better. Maybe she thought my dad only yelled at her and, if she left, things would be okay.”

Zane shakes his head. “She didn’t think that.”

I know he’s right, but it’s hard to think that both of my parents are monsters. I can’t let myself go there.

“My dad was probably awful to her. He must have been. Because as soon as she was gone, he turned it all on me.” I don’t know when I started crying, but I swipe the tears from my cheeks. “He always told me how much I looked like her. I thought it was a good thing, but I was a walking, talking reminder of what he’d lost.”

Of what he’d ruined, really.

Deep down, I’ve always thought my dad loved my mom, but he didn’t know how to show it. He could barely even take care of himself. He scared her away and looking at me made him feel guilty.

“When I was thirteen, I cut my hair with kitchen scissors and dyed it pink. I was going through a phase.” I tap my nose ring. “That’s also about the time I let my friend talk me into piercing my nose in her bathroom. Don’t recommend, by the way.”

“There go my weekend plans,” Zane says with a smirk. The smile doesn’t reach his eyes, and I know it’s just for me. He’s trying to make this easier.

---