Page 65 of Allison

“I’m right here, sugar,” Worm assures her. “They haven’t harmed me.” She nods as more tears fall. He pulls her down for a kiss. One that conveys all the things he is feeling and wants her to feel, in this moment: that he is real and here with her, his concern for her and everything she’s been through in the last three days, his love.

Wait! What? Love? Is that what he’s feeling for her?The thought has him pulling back. He needs to clear his head. He isn’t ready for love, marriage, and all the things that go along with that line of thinking. He has his own family to take care of. His mom and his sisters. He can’t be thinking of anything else. Not until he knows his mom has her shit together enough to take care of herself and his sisters. Speaking of them, he hasn’t called to check on them since he left to come here.

Allison looks a bit startled at his abrupt end to the kiss, but she doesn’t question him about it. She rolls away from him to the other side of the bed. “I’m going to take a shower. What time do we leave?” He closes his eyes. He has hurt her. He didn’t intend to do it, but he has. He should try to explain himself, ease her concerns, but he can’t bring himself to do it. He doesn’t want to give her false hope that they can be more than what they’ve been. Friends with benefits. The mere thought of those words turns his stomach. Allison is more than that, but he can’t allow himself to think that way. Leigh, Amber, and Sadie are depending on him. He is just one man. He can’t be everything to all of them.Can he?

Allison slips out of the bed taking the top sheet with her, wrapping it around herself. She doesn’t look back as she heads to the bathroom. It occurs to him he hasn’t answered her question about when they are heading to Jacksonville. “Our flight leaves at one fifteen,” he says just before she steps inside the bathroom. She pauses, listening, then nods before closing herself off to him.

Dammit!Worm berates himself. He has fucked up. He has hurt her after they’d had an amazing night of making love…no, not that, sex. It was just sex. He jumps up from the bed that still smells like Allison and sex. He needs to get away from the reminder, clear his head. He grabs his jeans off the floor and shrugs them on. He runs his hand through his hair. He is making things worse for her instead of better. He shouldn’t have slept with her last night. It’s only blurring the lines that he needs to set with her.

Wandering into the other room, he sees the leftovers of their meal last night. The meal that had led to the second-best sex of his life. His eyes drift closed as he recalls every touch, every little sound that had escaped her as he’d pleasured her and himself. He shakes his head to erase the memories, but he knows they are forever burnt into his mind.

He needs advice. He pulls out his phone and pulls up his favorites. It’s a long list that not only includes his family, but every one of his teammates. They would all be willing to help him with his situation, but he doesn’t want to ask one of the men who has a steady woman. He knows they will try to convince him to give Allison a chance, to give love a chance. That isn’t what he needs to hear even if it’s what he wants to hear. He has a responsibility to his family, first and foremost. He can’t allow an infatuation with the gorgeous woman to keep him from his duty.

He calls Mercury, who he knows avoids entanglements with women like he’s avoiding leprosy. Of all of Worm’s teammates, he feels certain Mercury will help him keep a clear head when it comes to matters of the heart…uh, sex. Yes, matters of sex and not letting the sex mess with his brain. Yeah, that’s what he needs Mercury to tell him, to keep him grounded and focused on his obligations to the team and family.

“Cooper,” Mercury answers. His familiar voice calms Worm’s frayed nerves, which he has allowed to run rampant. Worm takes a deep breath, to steady himself. All of his teammates know him as well as or better than he knows himself. Mercury will know instantly that something is wrong with him. Worm is suddenly having second thoughts about discussing what’s going on with him. He had just let his worries over his family get him all worked up and imagine problems where none exists, right?

“Worm, you alright man?” Mercury’s question drags Worm out of his head again and back to the present.

“Yeah,” Worm answers, flatly. He runs his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry I don’t know why I called.”

“Something is up,” Mercury states, matter of factly. “Just talk it out with me, you’ll feel better.” Worm rolls his eyes. Of course, Mercury sensed something is troubling him. He sighs, knowing the damage is done and Mercury won’t let it go until he confesses what’s caused him to call his friend out of blue at—he glances at his watch—six am on a Sunday morning.

“I’m just making a mountain out of a molehill. I called to have you talk me down,” Worm laughs at the ridiculousness of his confession. He really is losing it.

“I doubt that,” Mercury says. “Just tell me what’s got you concerned and we will work this out.” Mercury, always the calm rational one. Just the man Worm needs.

“I need this to stay just between you and me, okay?” Worm asks.

“Of course, if that’s what you want,” Mercury answers immediately.

“It’s just…I don’t want Wallace on my case, you know?” Mercury snorts out a short chuckle.

“Yeah, I can understand that,” Mercury agrees. “What’s happened? You went to meet Emma’s cousin in Denver, right?” Worm is nodding, then realizes Mercury can’t see him.

“Uh, yeah. Something happened to her while she was missing and I just felt like I should meet her, even though Dude had said he would accompany her all the way to Jacksonville. I shouldn’t have come, though.” He sighs heavily. The weight of everything that’s happened in the last week hitting him like a ton of steel. He drops to the couch, his hand running through his hair again. Has it only been a week since he met Allison for the first time?

“What happened?” Mercury prods. “Did you sleep with her?” Worm closes his eyes. Here goes everything. He needs to get all this off his chest. He needs to tell someone.

“Yeah,” Worm admits. “It’s not what you’re thinking.” He rushes to head off where Mercury’s mind is surely going. “I didn’t take advantage of her, at least I didn’t intend to. Fuck! This situation is Fubar.”

“Just calm down and tell me everything from the beginning.” Mercury’s calm demeanor helps Worm to focus. He does just what Mercury has suggested. He begins by telling him about meeting Allison at the airport when he’d picked her up for Wallace’s wedding. How he’d been struck by her beauty, but thought she was a stuck-up California yuppie.

Then he’d gone on with how they’d hit it off during the days before the wedding and had had a rendezvous after the ceremony. Mercury already knew about her disappearing for three days, but Worm gave more details about how it had made him feel than he’d intended.

Mercury’s quiet support while he let it all out spurred him on to give more than he probably should have. Worm finishes with an edited version of what has transpired over the last few days, including the jewelry he’d given her. Allison doesn’t know, but that jewelry isn’t costume like he’d told her, and it cost a small fortune. It would have cost more if he’d had to pay for the tech that is embedded inside it, plus full price for the 24-hour monitoring.

Thankfully, Tex and Daisy’s brother-in-law had cut him a break on those parts. He’d intended to tell Allison about them and how if she was ever taken again, she wouldn’t be alone. They’d be able to find her using the jewelry, but it hadn’t seemed like the right time to tell her all of that. Now that he’s hurt her, he doesn’t want to tell her for fear she’d throw it at him and he’d have no way to keep her safe.

Worm finishes his tale with full details of how he and Allison had woken up this morning. He relates his fears and how he’d hurt her when he’d pulled away from her. Through it all Mercury has remained quiet, listening without passing any judgement.

“So, what I’m hearing is, you think you can’t be loyal to your mom and sisters while also exploring a relationship with Allison?” Leave it to Mercury to put it in plain English which leaves Worm feeling like he has definitely made a mountain out of molehill.

“Well, yeah, that’s it in a nutshell,” Worm admits. “I have enough to worry about making sure Mom is working, the bills are getting paid, and the girls are staying in school and out of trouble while I’m thousands of miles away, you know?”

“I know you’ve been under a lot of pressure, Worm,” Mercury states. “I can’t imagine how hard this has been for you, but you aren’t alone. You know that any of us will help you with your family, right?”

“Yes, I know, but they are my responsibility. I owe it to my dad,” Worm continues. “He was the best dad anyone could ever ask for. He loved my mother and us kids so well. I have to honor his memory. Keep them together and going, no matter what sacrifices I have to make to be sure that happens.”

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