Chapter 11

11

Holly

I wasn't homeless, thanks to Jenson, but I also now had nothing. No clothes. No shoes. I didn't even have a bar of damn soap to my name anymore. With how angry Dad had been, I should've been thankful that he hadn't demanded the clothes I was wearing, too.

I also now had no car to get to school once the fall semester was in. I didn't have a phone or a laptop to keep a check on my financial aid. I was penniless. Broke. And hanging by a fucking thread.

How had my life come to this ?

Oh, yeah. I fell in love with my hot-as-hell neighbor, who was also much older than me, which I knew my parents would highly disapprove of. I'd picked my life and my future over Jenson months ago, but none of it mattered. My choice had been ripped away from me anyway.

"Hey," Jenson said as he stepped into the bedroom. I looked up at him. He sighed and set his cup of coffee on the nightstand before grasping my face in his hands. "Don't do that, doll. Don't go inside your head, you hear me? No matter what happens, I've got you." He pressed his lips to the top of my head. "Get up. Go downstairs and make yourself a cup of coffee. Then, we're going to go the store real quick, and we'll grab you some clothes so you can come home and shower."

My bottom lip trembled. "That shouldn't be something you have to do," I croaked, a tear sliding down my cheek. That was my parents' job, and they just…dropped me. Apparently, as long as I was adopted, they felt like they could just disown me whenever they wanted.

Adopted .

Fuck, that still hurt. That they'd hidden that from me for years . My entire fucking life. Were they just never planning to tell me until it benefited them—like they had yesterday?

Jenson gently brushed the tear that fell away with his thumb. "You're mine. It's my job to take care of you. I want to take care of you, so let me do that." He gently pressed his lips to mine, and some of the tension drained from my shoulders. He was so good at that. "Now come on."

He released me, and I heaved myself off the comfortable bed, padding out of the room. Jenson sat at the bar and sipped at his coffee as I made myself a to-go cup. Once it was made, I jerked my head toward the door. "I can drink this on the way."

He stood, downed his coffee, and led me out the door, his massive body shielding me from seeing my parents' driveway. Once I was in the truck and the door was shut, I glanced over, pain slicing through my chest when I saw my mom staring right back at me, silent tears sliding down her cheeks.

I forced myself to look away. God, just seeing her hurt. Knowing she didn't fight for me hurt even more. Wasn't a mother's love supposed to be unconditional? Or did that only extend to the children they gave birth to?

"Don't pay them any attention, Holly," Jenson rumbled as he slid into the driver's seat, casting a dark look in my mother's direction. "I know what they did to you fucking hurts, but this is their loss. The pain will lessen with time," he promised.

I sighed and leaned my head against the window, shutting my eyes as he began to back out of the driveway.

Right then, it sure as hell didn't feel like the pain would lessen. It hurt like hell—an agonizing kind of pain. How was something this intense supposed to just lessen ?

"Where exactly are you taking me?" I asked Jenson later that morning. We'd gotten me three outfits and some shower stuff, and after I'd showered and gotten dressed, he then sat me at his desk, where he instructed me to order myself a new wardrobe using his credit card. I'd argued, but he refused to hear a word of it.

I mean, he also used his fingers to get me to comply, which swayed me the most. That man was capable of getting me to agree to anything when he used that magical touch on me, even when I was a distraught mess.

"I need to be on the job site today," he told me, "and I don't want you at home alone where your parents can ambush you." My chest tightened at the fierce protectiveness in his voice. "I've got a pair of boots for you in the backseat, and I should have a hard hat in my office you can use."

I grimaced at the thought of having to wear that uncomfortable piece of safety equipment. "A hardhat?"

He chuckled at the disgruntled note in my voice, a smile tilting his lips. "Yes, doll. A hardhat. As well as safety glasses and a pair of gloves in case you decide to venture outside of my office. OSHA will have my ass if you don't; not to mention, I need you safe."

"You're too protective," I teased, though I secretly loved it.

He rolled his eyes with a snort. "Not protective enough," he corrected.

It wasn't long before we pulled up to the construction site. I changed out of my flip-flops and pulled on the socks and the steel-toed boots he'd purchased me. He waited with my door open as I did so, and when he deemed me protected enough to at least make it to his office, he grabbed my hand in his and quickly led me to his office, where he set a hard hat, a pair of safety glasses, and a pair of gloves on the desk. "If you leave out of this office, those need to be on," he warned me. He pressed a kiss to my lips before tugging on his own hard hat and covering his eyes with a pair of safety glasses before disappearing back out the door.

I took a seat behind his desk and took advantage of his computer to pull up my financial aid stuff and my email once he left the office. My fingers began to tremble at the financial aid email staring me straight in the face, and something about it told me it wouldn't contain good news.

Swallowing vomit and trying to ignore the anxiety bubbling in my gut, I clicked on the email, and my worst fears were immediately confirmed.

My parents had pulled back on their funding. I was fucked. So, so fucked.

Tears blurred my vision. How was I supposed to continue college? I couldn't get federal aid. They would base everything on my parents' income, and I wouldn't qualify, even if they had disowned me.

I dropped my head to the desk, my shoulders silently shaking. Everything was falling apart, and I was helpless to stop it. I didn't know what to do. I could pay for one class at a time if I got a job, but God, it would take me years to obtain my degree.

"Holly—fuck, doll. What happened?" Jenson demanded, slamming the door shut behind him hard enough to make me jump.

He gently pushed me to sit back up, and I sniffled, swiping at the tears on my cheeks, though it didn't really matter because they just kept falling. "My parents pulled their money. My college career is fucked. Everything is ruined," I cried, my palms slapping down on my thighs.

He clenched his jaw, a storm brewing in his eyes. Suddenly, he stormed out of the office, slamming the door shut behind him. I stared at the gray door, bewildered. Was he walking away now, too? If he did, there would be no hope for me. I had no idea how to survive on my own.

He came back a minute later with a checkbook in his hand. He snatched a pen off his desk before clicking into my other internet tab, navigating the webpage until he found what he needed.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, honestly confused now. At least his weird behavior had stopped my tears. I had no doubt that I looked like a mess. My face was probably red. My eyes were no doubt bloodshot and puffy.

Jenson hadn't signed up for this kind of catastrophe, and yet, here he was, somehow fucking navigating it with expert-like knowledge.

He ripped off a check and handed it to me. I frowned at it, trying not to choke at the dollar amount he just wrote down. Then, he reached into his pocket and fished out his truck keys, holding them out to me. I just continued staring at the check. "Go to your school and turn that check in to the financial aid department."

"Jenson, I can't take this," I said, trying to thrust the check back at him. He'd lost his mind. This was too much. I wasn't with him for his money. I was with him because I loved him, and I loved how he made me feel. This… I couldn't let him pay tens of thousands of dollars for my college education.

He gripped my chin, his eyes softening as he stared down into my eyes. "You will. You're mine to take care of, remember? Let me take care of you, doll." He brushed his thumb over my bottom lip when it trembled, tears burning in my eyes again. "You're not missing out on college because your parents are being fucking unreasonable." He pressed a hard kiss to my lips and dropped his keys into my other hand. "Now go. I'll see you later on."

"But what about?—"

"I'll find a way home," he assured me. "Don't worry about me, doll."

I shakily stood to my feet before throwing my arms around his neck. Immediately, he returned the hug, burying his face in my hair. "Thank you for being here, even though I hurt you," I croaked, a tear running down my cheek. I would be so lost without him. Just wandering, always trying to figure out the next step of my life.

His arms tightened around me. "I am always yours, Holly," he rasped, pressing his lips to the top of my head. " Always ."