Page 79 of One Night With You

“Okay. I’ll do that. Do you want one of us to go with you?”

“No, I’ll be fine. Just let Kingston know? I hate leaving him like this.” We needed to talk about so many things, but right now I needed to help Trix and my business.

“He’ll understand. Knowing him, he’ll probably just show up to help out. In fact, if you need any of the Montgomerys, we’ll be there.”

My heart swelled, because I knew she was right. She would be there. I gave her a quick hug, then went to grab my bag, before running to my car. I had parked on the other side of the building from where Aria’s car was, so I didn’t even see the others, and I didn’t get to say goodbye to anyone else. I made my way down the road, surprised to see that the closer I got to town, the icier the roads were getting. Apparently, the storm was hitting faster than I thought. Once I got to a safe place, I texted Phoebe to let her know so everyone was aware of everything that was going on. Though I was sure that somebody was watching the weather. I put on my windshield wipers as it began to rain, annoyed about mostly everything at this moment. I wanted to be relaxing, I wanted to just be with Kingston. But instead, I was dealing with this.

But this was fine. I was professional, and I would be fine.

Lights came around the bend, blinding me since they had their brights on. I squinted, trying to see the road, as they swerved into my lane, most likely catching on ice. Heart racing, I gripped the steering wheel and pumped the brakes like I was taught, my father’s voice echoing in my ears, but it didn’t work. There was nothing for my tires to latch on to, the ice underneath spinning me in circles. We were on a large stretch of road, the mountains behind us, fields and a lake nearby,but without streetlights, I couldn’t tell, and then everything happened at once.

The sound of metal against metal, my own scream, and then it was as if time stood still, my car careening off of the road down the grass and fields, and at the last moment, my headlights shone on water, and I slammed on the brakes, trying to stop.

But it was too late.

And it was all I could do not to scream louder, as my car slammed right into the icy lake, and the front wheels began to sink.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” I kept saying to myself, knowing that I wasn’t okay. Words came to me in short bursts as everything happened at once.

I was still conscious. I would be fine. I just needed to get out of this car. I went for the door handle, but it wouldn’t open. The driver had barely grazed my side of the car, but it was enough to have screwed up the door.

Hands shaking, water beginning to fill the bottom of my car, I kept working on the door latch, but it didn’t budge. I was sinking in an icy lake, and nobody knew where I was.

I pushed and I shoved, and I finally let the tears fall.

18

KINGSTON

“Istill can’t believe that Aria wants to be with that guy “

I reached out and squeezed Crew’s shoulder, just as angry as he was. “There’s nothing you can do. She knows who he is, and she still wants to try to fix him. But I really hate that guy.”

“You’re not the only one who hates him.” Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking. “I need to go talk to my dad. At least…I just need to see him.”

“I can’t deal with this right now, not with Raven…shit. Aria won’t listen to me.” And with that, Aria’s twin walked away, leaving Crew and me to deal with the mess.

“So Travis is just going to sleep in the car while we wait until Aria leaves? Seems like a dumbass move.”

I shrugged. “Honestly, as long as he’s not driving, I don’t care.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Crew growled, and I raised a brow as he went over to Aria, the two of them whispering in rushed and hushed tones to one another.

I was done with that for now, and now I just wanted to get to Claire. Trying to tell the woman that you loved that you loved her when everyone was pulling you in a thousand different directions was harder than it should have been.

I made it inside, and looked around the area, watching my family and friends laugh and dance, with some of the children sleeping on shoulders, ready to go home. This was what I loved. This was the family that I had grown up in, and the family that I was always going to be part of. I had known what this feeling was my entire life. I hadn’t realized it would be the same and yet so radically different for Claire.

I had been blind because I had been waiting for things to make sense when they weren’t supposed to. There wasn’t going to be a huge sign over my head saying I love you. There should be, and maybe one day I would make one in bright lights so she would understand that I was a fucking idiot, but for now, it was all I could do not to just run around the damn building in search of the woman that I loved.

“Hey, Kingston,” Phoebe said, pulling my attention from my spiraling thoughts.

“Hey, Phoebe. Do you know where Claire is?”

“That’s why I wanted to find you. There’s a huge issue with one of her distributors. A roof caved in—everyone is fine—but Trix needs help.”

“What the hell? Claire’s going to go help with a caved-in roof?” I asked, wondering if I had heard correctly.

“No, she’s not going to the distributor. She’s going to the event hall to help Trix with figuring out a plan B or something. She said she would call you when she got there and call us if she needs help. And I growled at her to make sure that she would do it.”

---