Page 92 of Breaking Emily's Rules
More like heart first.
She was dangerous. Like a full-blown addiction. The giving of killer orgasms shouldn’t give a girl insight into his mind, but she’d done it. Like a ninja she’d broken through his defenses and next she’d try to fix him. He didn’t need her to fix him. If something was broken, he’d fix it himself.
Had always been that way, and always would be.
Of course, she was right, too, which severely pissed him off. With all he’d had to deal with in the aftermath of Dad’s death, Stone hadn’t allowed himself any time to grieve. And while James Mcallister had always been his personal hero, he’d been forced to deal with the fact that his father made plenty of huge mistakes. And left Stone with the emotional mess to clean up.
Too bad he couldn’t be angry with his old man right now, but if he could, he’d ask what the hell he’d been thinking. Sarah deserved a goodbye. He drove savagely through town, all rolled up now since it was past six on a Sunday night, and gripped the steering wheel till his knuckles were white. The truth was something he didn’t want to face, but he was also not a coward.
No retreat. No surrender.
He pulled off the side of the road and went for his cell phone. “Hey.”
“Stone?” Sarah answered. “Is everything all right?”
“No it’s not. It’s horrible.”
“What happened?”
He didn’t know where to begin. “You were right. I should have—I should have called you and Mom. I should have ignored what Dad told me to do. Sometimes when people are sick, they don’t always make the best decisions. And I—”
“It’s okay—”
“Let me talk. I wish now I would have told you everything. He didn’t want you to see him that way. It isn’t easy to watch someone slowly wither away from a strong and able man to a living corpse. It was ugly. Painful. Hard to watch someone you love die and not be able to do a damn thing about it.”
“Especially for you, I imagine.” Her voice was soft.
“But no one has the right to take that choice away. He was wrong. You should have been told. Mom, too. She was married to the man for ten years. I’m sure she still cared about him.”
“She used to say James Mcallister is the kind of man you never forget.”
“Anyway, I’m sorry, Sarah. If it means anything to you now.”
“More than you know.”
He dragged a hand through his hair, pissed beyond words. He’d failed this mission. “Nah, it’s not good enough. But it will have to do.”
“It’s life, Stone. None of us ever get out of this alive.”
Stone choked on a laugh. “Is that supposed to be a joke?”
“Just one of the many crazy sayings I remember from Dad.” She laughed.
“He was the king of them. I thought it sounded familiar. It’s not any funnier coming out of your mouth.”
“Can I ask you something? Are you really leaving town? Because, from what I’ve seen so far, you fit here. This is a small place, and everyone I meet seems to know you. Danny from the Emporium, the barista at The Drip and the waitress at the diner. They all say you’re a good guy.”
Yeah, he’d done a great job of playing the part. Saving the airport jobs. Flying for Pilots and Paws. For a while, at least, he’d succeeded in putting his own desires in the background knowing all along he’d be back to his life soon enough. But he’d just done the last thing he’d ever wanted to do. Hurt Emily.
“No. I can’t stay. I’m going back to the air force.”
“And—doessheknow that?”
How the hell did Sarah know? He thought about the fact that he already had firsthand experience with how the people in this town couldn’t stop talking.
“Yeah. She knows.”
And on that note, Stone hung up with Sarah and drove home to get properly smashed.
