Page 99 of Sweet Little Thing

“You coming inside before you fall apart? Because if Mack and Marty hear you out here crying, they’ll get involved. Not sure you want that.”

I didn’t want them involved. Explaining this to anyone else wasn’t an option. Besides, it wasn’t my secret to tell. I wouldn’t betray Stone by sharing it. He’d abandoned his child when he was only a child himself. The one thing that kept that from being an excuse was that Stone was a man now—a successful one.

Fiona stood there watching me. Leaving might be the smartest thing for me to do. It would bring an end to this painful day. But I couldn’t do it. I needed Stone to talk to me. He had to help me understand. I needed a reason why he would do this. How he could do it. I wanted to believe he had a solid reason. One I could understand. I just couldn’t believe he could be so heartless to his child. There had to be more.

Because of that, I wouldn’t leave. Stone deserved a chance to correct this. It was possible Jasper didn’t know the facts.

When I began walking toward her, Fiona sighed with relief.

“Thank God. I’m too tired for the drama that would have caused had you walked out of this building.”

I paused. “What do you mean?”

Fiona closed the door and turned to walk around me. “Stone would have come barreling after you like a crazed man. I don’t know what’s going on with the two of you. But that man sounded more desperate than I’ve ever heard him. No, let me be clear. I have never heard him desperate. He doesn’t show emotion. That was a first.”

But he did show emotion. I’d seen it. The selfless things I had seen him do. They didn’t fit with the man who had a child and left him with an abusive father. I was missing a piece. I knew it. I had to be.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

I doubted I would be eating again anytime soon. My stomach couldn’t handle food in its current state.

I held back a grimace. “No, I’m fine.”

“Do you want to talk about it or be alone so you can cry and shit?”

“I think I need to be alone,” I told her honestly.

She tipped her chin at me. “Thought so. Come this way.”

I followed her across the living area, turning left to stop in front of a closed door. “That’s the room Shay uses. It’s far enough away from Chantel’s room that she won’t hear you crying when she gets home and start asking nosey ass questions. I appreciate you not wanting to talk about it. Relieved actually. But she loves drama.”

She opened the door, and the room was smaller than the two I had seen in Stone’s apartment. I wondered if this was what Presley’s room had looked like.

“Thank you for this.” I sighed as I walked inside.

“No worries. Make yourself at home. This place is similar to Stone’s, so you can find the kitchen if you get hungry.”

I tried to smile in acknowledgment, and Fiona closed the door without saying anything else. I waited a moment, then let my legs give out as I sank to the floor and wrapped my arms around them. Rocking back and forth, I cried. It didn’t ease the ache. Nothing but Stone could do that. The simple fact that he had been worried about me only made the tears come harder.

I couldn’t stop loving him even if he was damaged from his childhood. Even if he wasn’t capable of truly loving someone. I didn’t see how he could love me if he couldn’t love his son. There was a disconnect that I feared would always be there.

Chapter

Sixty

Beulah

Loud music woke me up.

When I opened my eyes, the cream-colored fluffy rug was under my cheek. I’d fallen asleep on the floor last night. Stretching, my body felt stiff and abused. Not from the hardwood floor—I’d slept on worse. My aches and pains were from the drain all my crying had caused.

Sitting up, I winced from a sharp pain in my left hip. Maybe the hard floor got a few slugs into me after all.

I sat up in the dark room and a blanket pooled in my lap. Someone had covered me up and turned off the lights last night.

Looking up at the ceiling, I wondered if he was home. What was he doing today? When would we talk?

The floor vibrated with noise from the other room, and it felt like someone was jumping.

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