Page 62 of All Along

As soon as Caleb is out of his truck, I throw myself at him.

“I was worried.”

He wraps his arms around me and holds me close. “I’m okay, Bunny. I’m okay.”

I lean back to meet his gaze. “Where did you go? What happened? Are you injured?”

“I think you know where I went since you sent Weston after me.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Would you have preferred I came myself?”

He growls. “Fuck no.”

“What happened? Please don’t make me regret confessing my secrets to you.”

His blue eyes darken until they’re nearly black. “You never need to regret confessing your secrets to me. I’ll be your secret keeper.”

“Except you went to visit my parents after I told you my secrets.”

He frowns at me. “You’re shivering. Let’s go inside.”

I allow him to lead me inside where we settle on the sofa, but I’m not done pressuring him.

“Why did you visit my parents? What happened?”

He grasps my hands and lifts them to kiss my knuckles. “I ordered them to stay away from you.”

“Stay away from me? I don’t understand. They’re my parents.”

“No, they’re not. Those people were never your parents.”

“But…” I bite my bottom lip. “It’s my mom and dad.”

He cradles my face with his palms. “No, Bunny, they aren’t. They never were.”

My chest feels tight and my vision blurs. Geraldine gave birth to me. She was supposed to love me unconditionally. Roger is my dad. He was supposed to protect me from all the bad things in the world. Not become the bad thing I needed protection from.

Caleb brushes the hair off of my forehead. “I need to tell you something. It’s going to hurt, but you need to know the truth.”

Help me smugglers. What now?

“Are you ready?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to hear whatever you’re going to say.”

“I’m here, Maya. I’m not going anywhere.”

All the coldness, thoughts of my parents caused, is banished by his words.

“Okay.” I nod. “I’m ready.”

“There’s a reason I never asked you out when we were in high school.”

I know. We discussed this yesterday. “You thought I’d say no.”

“I did but I knew I could convince you to say yes.”

I would have said yes right away. No convincing needed. “Then, why didn’t you ask me?”

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