Page 31 of Breaking Free (Guarded Hearts)
‘I want you, James. I can’t explain why, but I do.’ ‘Fine, I fucking missed you.’ ‘I knew even when I first walked over to you that day that I wouldn’t be able to stay away from you.’
Chapter Eleven
I’m jolted awake by our door slamming open. When I look up, Maya is standing in the doorway, excitedly bouncing back and forth on her feet.
“You’re still here! Yay!” I grasp the sheets tightly, praying that she doesn’t come any closer.
Drew peeks over my shoulder. “Hey, baby girl. Give us a few minutes and we’ll be down for breakfast, okay?” Maya smiles and nods her head, and as soon as the door shuts we both start laughing. “We need to get dressed before she comes back.”
I groan as I leave the comfort of Drew’s bed and begrudgingly get dressed. We make our way downstairs and I see his mom, his sister, and who I can only assume is his dad. He has salt and pepper hair, the same gorgeous eyes as Drew, and he looks like he’s ready to go to a golf course with his outfit.
He stands when he notices me and comes over. “Hi, you must be Holly.” When Drew’s dad hugs me, I want to be happy and relish in the fact that his family is accepting me. The pain is still there, though, and it fucking hurts. I hate how unbelievably screwed up I am. I catch Drew looking at me.Oh my God, did he notice?
I pull away from his dad so I can catch my breath. Drew places a hand on my back, but I can still feel him staring at my face. Watching.Shit, is he putting it together?“Nice, to meet you, Mr. Walker.”
“Nonsense, you can call me Adam.” I smile at him and sit down at the table.
Drew’s gaze follows me until his mother asks him something. I’m too distracted and anxious to pay any attention to what they are talking about.
“What do you think, babe?”
I turn to look at him, snapping out of the daze I’m in. “About what?”
“My parents want to go to the country club today. They asked if we wanted to go with them.”
I smile at him, hoping to ease the obvious tension in his eyes. “Okay, sounds good.”
We finish breakfast, and while we’re waiting for everyone to get ready, Drew pulls me into his room. “You need to tell me what’s going on, James. Why you have the anxiety, why you look like you’re in pain half the damn time. You need to tell me what the hell is going on.”
Fuck.I run my hands through my hair. “Drew, I can’t.”
“No!” he yells, but then stops, realizing where we are. His voice is low now, but still loud enough for me to know he is pissed. “That ‘I can’t’ shit isn’t going to work anymore. You need to tell menow.”
“Okay, just not here. When we get back to your house.”
He seems to think over my proposition before he nods and then walks out of the room. I sit down on his bed and rest my head in my hands.I’m completely screwed.
Things would be perfect if there wasn’t so much tension between the two of us. I know his mom has noticed by the looks she keeps throwing our way. We have lunch, and then spend the rest of the day in the pool and playing with Maya. A few times I think Drew forgets how mad he is, but those are few and far between.
When his mom invites us back for dinner, he says no because he wants to get to his show early tonight. At this, rate we’ll be home be five and his show doesn’t start until eight.Plenty of time for talking. Damn.
He doesn’t speak to me for the entire forty-five minute car ride. I don’t know if he thought it would make me feel guilty, but it doesn’t. It just pisses me off. How dare he be mad at me for keeping secrets when he has his own—like Sarah and his reason behind his control issues. If he wants to knowmysecrets he better be damn ready to tell mehis.
We walk into his house and he immediately heads for the living room. I follow him like a child going into time-out. When I sit down, he just stares at me expectantly. I’m definitely not making this easy for him. After a few minutes of silence, he sighs. “I need you to tell me, James.”
“You first.”
Drew narrows his eyes at me. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“You first. You want to know my demons then tell me yours. I want to know who Sarah is and if she’s the reason that you crave this control over me.”
“No!” He stands up. “You donotget to turn this shit around on me! We are talking aboutyourfucking issues right now!”
Tears sting my eyes but I force them back. “That’s because we are never allowed to talk aboutyours!”
“You really want to know, James?! Will it help you sleep better at night to know that Sarah is fucking dead! That she died because of me?! That’s what you wanted, right? You wanted my fucking secret? Well, now you have it!”
Shit.“What do you mean she died because of you? What happened?” I stand and put my hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down but he shakes me off.
