Page 52 of Just Like That

In the darkness, I was struck by how angelic she was. Her features were soft and ethereal.

She smiled softly at me. “Sometimes the king needs to fall in order to remember what it’s like to live in his kingdom.”

I scoffed to myself.

If only . . .

Hazel raised an eyebrow and gently gestured toward the stairs with her head. It was an invitation. One I had no right accepting.

I stuffed down my feelings and shoved my hands in my pockets. “Good night, Hazel.”

Even in the darkness, I could see the hurt flash across her soft brown eyes. Her lashes fluttered down, and the flush was back in her cheeks. “Good night, JP.”

My lips pressed together as she made her way to the stairs and climbed, looking back at me with a soft, sad smile.

I wanted to follow.

I wanted to take my time with her and fuck her hard until she rattled the trees as she screamed my name.

I wanted to show her that if the universe wanted me to hurl myself off the tower, I just might do it for her.

Instead, I did what I was best at—kept her at arm’s length and pretended like it wasn’t fucking killing me.

If life had taughtme anything, it was that happiness came at a price. When I was twelve, I had begged my father for a dog. He was rarely home, and Aunt Bug had agreed to help take care of it as long as my father gave the okay. It took weeks for me to gain the courage to evenaskhim if we could adopt a puppy. I was shocked when, after I presented all the reasons it would be beneficial to the family, he agreed.

Nothing had meant more to me at the time than that dog. It was a mixed breed with a dingy, wiry coat and paws that were too big for his body. I had spent every dime I’d earned mowing lawns to pay for a dog bed and food. Aunt Bug and I picked him up from the animal shelter and brought him home. MJ was ten and enamored with him. Even my older siblings couldn’t believe I’d managed to get Dad to agree to having a dog.

I was flying on a cloud as we drove home with him in my lap.

It wasn’t the first time my father had taught me that happiness comes at a price, but it was the hardest.

It took many years to realize that my father wasjealous. He couldn’t stand the loving attention with which his children showered the dog.

Within a week, the dog was gone.

Sylvie, MJ, and Whip all cried. Abel and Royal exchanged a look I couldn’t decipher. I simply stared at the empty lead in the yard that our beloved dog had been tied to.

“But I just let him out.” I couldn’t stop staring and trying to make sense of it all.

Dad had shrugged and looked at his watch like he had somewhere better to be. “I guess he got off the chain ... If you cared, you would have kept a better eye on him.”

That was my father’s only explanation. The dog had been let outside for mere moments, and it was gone. There was nothing we could do.

My happiness came at a price, but I refused to cry about it. I wanted to show my father I was tough like him—that I could handle myself. I wanted so badly for him to approve, and instead he got into his Porsche and drove away while we all stood in the backyard.

At the time I thought that was the hardest lesson.

Until today.

I couldn’t dodge the incessant feeling that just as things were going well with Hazel, something else in my life was waiting to go to utter hell.

Teddy laughed as Hazel made goofy faces at him over breakfast. She’d intentionally shoved bits of bacon into her teeth, but pretended like she didn’t know they were there. Teddy was doubled over, his arms clutching his belly as he tried desperately to tell her she had something in her teeth. Every time, she moved her finger, avoiding the bacon, and asked, “Did I get it?”

My cheeks ached from smiling.

When my eyes caught Hazel’s, a zip of energy coursed through my veins. There was something about her that was effortlessly shifting my entire world.

Ever since she’d ridden into my life, driving that ridiculous skoolie, everything was different.

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