Chapter 12

ChapterTwelve

SAWYER

The next time Chloe wakes up, I grab the giant fluffy robe I got her for Valentine’s Day last year and wrap her in it. She’s still sleepy as I do but insists that she doesn’t want to stay in bed all day. Once I’ve got her bundled up, I grab the thermos of tea I made for us and take her to the back patio.

Our place is close to the city but has a beautiful outdoor space we transformed after we moved in. I’ve already got the wood burning in the fire pit and brought some blankets out here in case she gets cold.

“What’s all this?” she asks once I bring her over to the couch.

“We need to talk, and I don’t want to do in there.” I nod toward the house. “That’s always been our safe place away from everything, and I want to keep it that way.”

“So we’re going to argue outside?” She looks confused, but there’s a hint of a smile that I don’t miss.

“We’re not going to argue. I’m going to tell you everything, and if you want to get mad and yell at me, you have every right. I just want to protect the peace we’ve created in our home. It’s sacred to me, and so are you. I want our kids to run around this house and feel that same love. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s important to me.”

She threads her fingers through mine, and I feel her squeeze them. “Okay.”

“The day you moved to the city was poker night.” She nods, and I take a deep breath. “Before you got there, Paul was on one of his tangents about his dad getting married and giving away all his money.”

“My mom?—”

“I know, just let me explain.” I hand her a mug of warm tea and then put a blanket over her lap.

“You’re right. Keep going.” She holds the mug and takes a sip while I start again.

“Even before that night, I’d started pulling away from these scheduled get-togethers. I liked a couple of the guys from college, but Paul was brought in through a friend of a friend, and I never liked him. Luke would beg me to come to poker night, and it wasn’t like I had much else going on. It was hard to make excuses not to go, but the more I went, the worse it got.” I sit back against the couch and pull Chloe’s feet in my lap. “So the night Paul hosted at his place, he invited his friends and Luke and me. Luke got a flat on the way and didn’t make it, so I was stuck there with Paul and several guys I barely knew.”

Chloe is watching me, and I hate what I’m about to tell her.

“It wasn’t only alcohol getting Paul worked up. I walked in on him and one of his buddies doing lines in the bathroom.”

“Are you serious?” She looks genuinely shocked, and I nod.

“I didn’t say anything to you because I told myself it might have been a one-night thing. But I know I only convinced myself of that because I thought you might not want to be with me because of it.”

“Why would I not want to be with you?”

“What if you thought I did that kind of stuff too?” I shrug and squeeze her hand. “It wasn’t right for me to keep that from you, and I’m so sorry, Chloe. I was afraid I’d ruin any chance with you. It was selfish, but I’d never felt anything like that before.”

“I can see why you’d think that.” Her brows pull together like she’s considering it. “I don’t know what I would have done, but that would have scared me. Especially in the beginning.”

“So he was hyped up and going off about your mom and then you. Then he threw out the bet.” I swallow hard and keep going. “He said that he knew you were a virgin and wanted to see if he could ruin you. He said that if one of his friends fucked you then it might piss off his dad enough to break up with your mom.”

“Oh my god.” She puts her hand to her mouth, and her eyes widen.

“He said whoever got you first could use his yacht for the summer.” I’ve tried for years to forget the whole thing because those memories enrage me. It makes me want to pull his eyes out of his skull even now.

“That’s all I was worth?” Unshed tears fill Chloe’s eyes, and I pull her closer.

“Look at me,” I tell her as I take her chin in my hand. When her eyes meet mine, I stare into her soul. “He’s a piece of shit, and that’s why I was there at the door. Not to win a bet but to protect you. I didn’t trust any of the fuckers in there, and it wasn’t a joke. Paul meant it, and they took it as a challenge. That’s why I stayed by that door until I saw your driver pull up. I couldn’t risk anyone else even speaking to you.”

She nods, and the tears finally fall. All I can do is wipe them away and then kiss her cheeks.

“I told him that his bathroom secret was safe with me as long as he never said anything about the bet. I guess seeing me take his job at the company was enough to make him not give a shit anymore.” I think about his behavior at the party and how he’s only gotten worse. “Or his habit is so far gone that he’s not thinking clearly about the information I have.”

“You never made a bet about another woman before me?” Chloe asks, and I shake my head.

“No, never. At least not with me. He might have done something like this before with his other friends because honestly they didn’t seem as shocked by the bet as I did. That was the one and only time he ever said that around me, but I wasn’t actually included in the bet.”

“Wait, but you were by the door.”

“To keep them from getting to you. He didn’t include me, and I sure as fuck wasn’t about to take part in it. He said it to the guys at the poker table. I was in the kitchen by myself trying to think of an excuse to leave since Luke wasn’t coming. Paul made the bet with them before I walked in the room, but I heard everything.”

“Then why did he say you were part of it?”

“To hurt you,” I say and then brush my thumb over her cheek. “Which hurts me more.”

“Why?” She sniffs and then shakes her head. “Why would he want to hurt either of us? I’ve never done anything to him except exist.”

“You threaten his place with his father. Or at least you do by extension of your mother.” I put her mug of tea on the table before I take her hands in mine. “I should have told you sooner. I’m so sorry that I kept it from you. The longer I held that secret, the harder it got to admit. Although I didn’t have any direct part in that bet, I was there, and I went after you. There’s no doubt that’s what it looked like to all of them when I greeted you at the door and then stayed on your heels all night long.”

“You really did.” She sniffs again as another tear falls, but she smiles this time, and my chest warms.

“The other night in the restaurant, I didn’t know how to tell you the whole story right then. I wanted to explain it to you but?—”

“But I ran out on you.”

“You had every right to, and I don’t blame you for it. It would have been a shock for me to hear, and I don’t know that I would have reacted any better.”

She reaches for me this time, and without hesitating, I pull her onto my lap. Her knees go on either side of my legs as she straddles me so we are eye to eye.

“I’m sorry I ran.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. Can you forgive me?”

She nods, and before she can say another word, I press my lips to hers.