Page 65 of Ramsey & Emerson

However, now that the sun was up and reality had risen with it, I wasn’t sure how my first day back at Windsor was going to go. It wasn’t even that I was embarrassed or scared, because I wasn’t. My father murdering my mother had given me a measure of strength that no eighteen-year-old girl should ever possess, so it wasn’t that. I wasn’t weak, nor did I care what other people thought.

Nevertheless, while I didn’t have any reservations about showing up to school with Ramsey this morning, I still had no idea how I was going to handle what that meant, and I also had no idea how Ramsey was going to handle it. He was unstable on a good day, and so it was possible that the littlest thing might set him off today if I began to struggle with what I was feeling.

There was also Liam and Deke to take into consideration. While Roselyn was thrilled that I was back and had been blowing up my phone all morning, I hadn’t forgotten about how Liam and Deke had played a role in what had happened to me that morning. Sure, they hadn’t done anything other than support their best friend, but it was impossible to think of that morning and not think of them also.

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if they were sorry for what they’d done. After all, they’d only done what they always did, and that was stand by Ramsey’s side. Yeah, Liam had struggled to look me in the eye, but not Deke. Whateverdarkness lurked inside Deke Marlow, I doubted that he felt remorse for much of anything.

“You ready?”

I turned to see Ramsey leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest, his dark eyes regarding me closely, and I knew that this relationship would be one that we’d never be able to hide from. Ramsey Reed met all challenges head-on, and since I was the same way, I knew that our relationship was never going to be an easy one, but I was okay with that. I was used to having a hard life, so this wouldn’t be anything new.

“Are you?”

He arched a brow, a smirk dancing across his lips. “Aren’t I always?”

I straightened as I turned to face him. “Yesterday doesn’t change anything at school, Ramsey. Those people are always going to hate me for infiltrating your little gang in a way that no one else has ever been able to do.”

Ramsey uncrossed his arms as he straightened to his full height. “My little gang?”

“What else are you guys?” I countered.

Ignoring that, he said, “You’re looking at me as if I would ever let something happen to you, Emerson.”

I choked out a laugh.

I couldn’t help it.

“Because it’s not enough thatyouhappened to me?” I asked, half serious and half not.

His chin went up, and I wasn’t sure if I had offended him with the truth or not, but it wouldn’t make a difference. Even when Ramsey Reed was wrong, he was right. He might feel bad because he’d been wrong about me, but he didn’t feel bad for what he’d done as part of his revenge. At the time, he’d felt it justified, and so it was something that I couldn’t ever see him apologizing for. Yeah, he had apologized for being wrong, but that was it. The rest of it was just a part of being Ramsey Reed, and I had to be insane to have come back here.

As if reading my mind, he said, “You had your chance, Emerson. You got away, and I was going to find a way to live with that, even if it drove me crazy.” Ramsey stepped closer into the bathroom, and I briefly wondered if we were even going to make it to school. “But you came back. Of your own free will, you came back to me. You came back to me, and if you think that I’m ever going to let you go again, you’re out of your fucking mind, baby.”

“This isn’t going to be easy, Ramsey,” I told him. “I still don’t belong here.”

“If I say that you belong here, then you belong here,” he replied in true Ramsey Reed fashion.

I shook my head. “I’ll never belong here.”

Ramsey was finally close enough to place his hands on my hips, and with just that simple touch, I was certain that we weren’t going to make it to school this morning, and I was also certain that it wouldn’t make a difference. Ramsey was just going through the motions to get his high school diploma because he already had enough money not to really need it.

“What’s really bothering you?” he asked, his brow furrowed like he was still trying to read my mind.

“I still don’t know how I feel about the entire situation,” I admitted. “What happens if I find myself wanting to burn the entire place down?”

“Then I’ll light the fucking match for you, baby,” he replied so easily and evenly that I knew he wasn’t joking.

I stared into his beautiful face as I said, “We’re still toxic together, Ramsey.”

He gave me a terse nod. “Yes, we are.”

“And that doesn’t scare you?”

“Emerson, I don’t scare easily.”

“Neither do I, and that’s the problem,” I reminded him.

“It’s not a problem if we’re both on the same side, baby,” he replied quietly, almost as if he didn’t want to spook me now that he was no longer distracting me with need.

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