Page 47 of All In Good Time

Becca’s mouth opened, then closed. Her silence hurt his ears.

He stepped back and looked at the front door. “I don’t even want to look at you.” He closed his eyes and fought away the image his mind created of her hurt expression.

She was so, so silent.

He would go anywhere, just to get away from her and the hurricane of uncontrollable emotions that she ignited in him and the hell that awaited him if his father found him.

Once again, he was alone.

* * *

Her fault. Her fault. Her fault.

Every word Derek had said was right. It was her fault.

Derek’s home was never safe, and it was her fault that it was worse.

Derek had left to escape, and it was her fault he was back where he could be found.

Everything Derek said made her realize that her reasons for finding him had been selfish.

Shewanted Derek here. And now he was, but he was gone.

Once again, she was alone.

18

February 1985 | Before

Halfway between reality and a dream, Becca heard a door open and a soft intake of breath. But it wasn’t either of those that made her squirm from her blissful sleep. No, it was the audibly female voice instead.

Becca’s eyes opened and blinked against the early morning light.

“What the—”

Her head snapped to the side, and her consciousness caught up to her right after her body reacted by shooting upward.

Wide-eyed and slack-jawed, Becca’s mother stood at the doorway with a tray of food.

“You’re home?” Becca said, and it took her a moment to fully register the look on her mother’s face. Or the fact that she wasn’t looking at Becca but at something next to her.

Derek stirred in that moment, and Becca looked down at him and gasped.

Apparently, sobbing yourself to sleep makes it easy to forget things about the night before, until you’re quite literally staring it in the face. Like the fact that she fell asleep right next to Derek and that his arm was slung lazily over her stomach.

Oh my god.

Derek’s eyes opened and immediately rose to hers. He didn’t look at all surprised by their position, and his arm didn’t move. He blinked his hooded eyes slowly at her and raised a brow at her expression. His situational awareness was lacking.

“Uh.”

The moment it clicked in Derek’s head that the voice was not Becca’s, his head spun around. Becca was frozen in place, her eyes rapidly darting between Derek and her mother.

Derek’s arm stayed put.

“Oh.” Obviously, her expression and the situation were finally catching up to him.

Becca wasn’t sure if she should be surprised or not that he wasn’t as alarmed as she was.

---