You Were Always Home (Homecoming #3)

by C. Lymari

  Grabbing her wrist, I brought it up so I could suck her fingers into my mouth. I repeated the words she had said earlier.

  “Perfection.”

  Juliet took her hand from my mouth and brought both of them down on my shoulders, and because she was so wet for me, she slid down with ease. My hands came to her waist as I guided her to move fast, and I pushed up so I could fuck her deeper. She was trying to be quiet because her moans sounded like mewls.

  “Jake.” She moaned my name like a prayer.

  Every time I thrust deep in her, I remembered all the times I wanted her and couldn’t have her. I inhaled her scent and took in her cries. When she cried out my name with her release, I finally let go. And with my cum marking her in every which way, I finally let go of that past that still haunted me.

  Her chest was rising and falling, her heavy round tits in my face, my cum leaking out of her.

  Pushing her hair out of her face, I repeated, “Perfection.”

  The next morning, I woke up with Juliet wrapped around me. Both of us had fallen asleep on the couch. I was so close to professing my love for her; honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t.

  “Kids, breakfast is ready!” My mom’s loud voice woke Juliet up.

  “Oh, God.” She jumped up and wrapped the blanket around herself, leaving me buck naked. I got up, so I could look for my boxers. Now that it was daylight, I didn’t know who could see me from outside.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled as she got herself dressed. “You think they know what we were doing?”

  “I’m pretty sure they know.”

  “Jake!”

  I looked at her, and her face was already red. “Do you want me to lie to you?”

  “Not anymore,” she mumbled.

  “Fuck, you’re cute.”

  She smiled at me, now fully dressed. “Aren’t you lucky?”

  “Yeah,” I replied more quietly.

  I’d been too busy trying to figure out what kind of woman she’d become, I failed to realize where the sass and cockiness she used to have had gone. Our past had finally caught up with us, and it was past the time we talked about it.

  When we made it to the kitchen, Ma was bouncing off the walls with delight. She loved chaos: the house a mess with wrapping paper, Rosie giggling with Blake while Jess helped her make pancakes—it was heaven to her.

  Clark walked in, yawning. “Ma, I’m starved.”

  “Oh, no. I was about to call you so you could stop by for some syrup. We’ve run out.”

  Clark groaned.

  “I can go get it,” Juliet chimed while she beamed at my mother.

  “Oh, no, honey.”

  “Please, I want to stop by my place and get a package.”

  “Fine by me. Get the good kind, Jules, not the generic brand,” Clark said as he sat down.

  “Clarkie!” my mother yelled.

  “Dipshit.” I smacked his head.

  “I don’t know why you guys are yelling at me; none of you like it either.”

  Juliet had her jacket in her hands. “Aunt Jemima. Got it.”

  “Let me get my jacket,” I told her

  “No, stay. I want to get your present.”

  “Hurry back to me.”

  Her eyes shone when she smiled at me. “I will. I’ll be quick. I left my phone charging, but I don’t think I’ll need it.”

  I walked her to the door, glad the snow that had fallen last night was already melting with today’s sun.

  I kissed her goodbye, not knowing it would be the last time.

  40

  Juliet

  Why was I so nervous?

  Oh yeah, because I was about to give Jake the paintings he’d given to me, and I was sure I would blurt out “I love you.”

  The box was in the seat next to me, the syrup next to it. None of the shops were open since it was Christmas morning. I didn’t think anyone realized that; I knew I didn’t. Luckily, I had some syrup at home. I was driving through Main Street when I noticed cop lights behind me.

  What the heck?

  I pulled over, not knowing what I’d done since I was sure I wasn’t speeding. Still, I was nervous because hello, cops flashing lights.

  When Dex tapped my window, I didn’t know what to expect.

  “Hello, Officer.” My voice came out shaky. “Did I do something wrong?”

  Dex gave me a forced smile. “Ma’am? I’m going to need you to follow me to the station.”

  “I—I don’t understand.”

  “Juliet,” he said a little softer. “Please come to the station.”

  “I didn’t do anything wrong.” I knew my voice came out whiney.

  “Your car was reported stolen.”

  I felt my blood rush from my face to my toes. I closed my eyes and hoped this was all a dream and I was still in bed with Jake. When I opened my eyes, Dex was still standing there looking at me.

  “Wh-who reported it stolen?”

  “Your husband.” His voice came out harsh.

  I nodded. “I’ll follow you.”

  Dex stood straight again, and before he walked back to his car, he said, “I’m sorry. You should call Jake.”

  “No!”

  “Look, Jake is going to hear about this, and if he hears it from someone else, it will make him feel like a fool.”

  Dex spat the words at me. Chad had finally caught up to me. Never in a million years did I think he would take it this far. I was going to call Jake and explain to him what was happening when I noticed I didn’t even have my phone with me.

  I’d never been to the station before. The first thing I noticed was a golden plaque with Freya’s name. At the moment, it felt like it was mocking me. The second thing I noticed was Chad sitting in one of the chairs, looking distraught.

  Chief Tim came up to me. “Mrs. Albrecht, follow me.”

  I wanted to scream not to call me that; it wasn’t my name. I didn’t want it.

  “Do you know why you’re here?”

  Shakily, I nodded.

  “Chad,” I started to say, but the chief cut me off.

  “Your husband.”

  “My husband.” I whispered the ugly truth. “I filed for divorce.”

  “He said you two had a disagreement and you up and left. He told you repeatedly to return his belongings, and you failed to do so. As far as the law is concerned, you never did such a thing.”

  At that point, I shook my head in astonishment. What was he talking about? Why was I even surprised? Chad was never going to let me go until he got tired of me. He had the power.

  “Can I just give him the car back?”

  “You do realize you are being charged for theft,” he replied.

  I took a deep breath and decided it was time to swallow my pride and call one of my brothers. I was in deeper than I thought. My shitty lawyer was never going to get anything done. Hell, at that moment, it hit me that he probably never got anything in motion. Chad had power, and without my father’s backing, I had nothing.

  I didn’t care that I was arrested. I didn’t care about following orders. I got up from my chair and went outside where Chad was sitting. When he saw me, he gave me a smirk.

  Unfortunately at the same time, Jake ran into the station.

  “Juliet, baby, are you okay?” He was running toward me, but stopped dead when he noticed Chad next to me.

  “What’s going on?” Jake asked. Once he got a better look at Chad, he said, “Hey, you’re the guy from the tree lighting.”

  My breath hitched. Before I could answer, Chad did it for me. “It appears my beloved wife has some explaining to do.”

  “Wife.” Jake turned to look at me, a mixture of emotions playing across his face.

  “Jake, I can explain.” I took a step toward him, desperate to get him to listen to me.

  “Yeah, when, Juliet? When? You told me you were divorced.”

  I looked around, noticing we had an audience. Airing my dirty laundry didn’t seem ideal.

  “Ja
ke, listen to me.”

  Jake was glaring at both Chad and me. That was when my father walked in. I closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened them he wasn’t there.

  “Son.” He came to Chad, lovingly putting a hand to his shoulder. “Why don’t we go back home and discuss this behind closed doors? Maybe this time, it will be better than last time.”

  “Last time?” Jake asked.

  “She came down a few weeks ago trying to fix things between us,” Chad added.

  Jake shook his head, looking at me with disgust.

  “That’s why your cell phone was off,” he spat.

  “No, it’s not. Please let me explain,” I rushed out, but Jake was already walking away.

  “My wife thought she wanted other things in life. Turns out she was wrong. She got bored with the simpleton life and wanted the lavishness I could provide,” Chad called after Jake.

  “Then why did you report her car stolen?” Jake stopped, turning to look back at me, wanting to believe me.

  I knew he did. I tried taking a step to him, but Chad put a hand to my wrist, the one he had broken a few months ago, and I stopped dead in my tracks with fear.

  Too bad Jake couldn’t see that. He looked at Chad’s hold on me and my inability to move and made up his mind.

  “My wife deserved a little dose of humiliation.”

  At Chad’s words, Jake left, leaving me alone with my monster. Even with all these people around, I was still scared.

  My father and husband dragged me out of the police station, and I let them, too scared to speak up for myself. We were almost at Chad’s car when Prescott arrived looking out of breath, as if he had just run here.

  Great. He was probably going to yell at me for making another scandal.

  “Let her go,” Prescott seethed.

  He looked enraged like I had never seen him before. It took a second to register that Prescott was here for me. He was here to help me. I had someone here for me. I wasn’t alone.

  “Son, go home. Let’s not make a scandal,” my dad replied in a bored tone.

  I looked pleadingly to my brother and begged him with my eyes to not listen to our dad for once.

  “I’m. Done,” he told my father before he took a swing at Chad.

  I screamed, and that was when Prescott pulled me into his arms as Chad recovered from the swing. Being mayor and a Dunnett had its perks. No one around got involved in the argument that had broken out.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Chad asked as he wiped the blood from his lip.

  “Goldstein may be your little bitch, but I’m not.” Prescott glared at Chad.

  I let my brother pull me away as I wondered what the fuck he was talking about.

  “Why are you helping me?” I demanded to know as he led me to his car. “Prescott, I can’t walk away! I’m being arrested.” My heart was still trying to beat out of my chest, but I deserved answers. “I thought I was selfish and trying to ruin your image.”

  Prescott flinched, and his hold on the steering wheel was tight. “I’m sorry I hurt you, Julie. I swear I’ll take care of everything. Let me just get you out of here.”

  “Just take me home,” I whispered as I leaned my head against the glass.

  Then I remembered that the girls were at Jake’s and I had left that damn box that gave me hope in the car.

  “My box! We have to go back. I can’t let him have it.”

  “What box?”

  “My box—it’s in the car. I need it. Please go back.”

  Prescott didn’t go back; instead, he grabbed his phone and made a call. “I need a favor.” He paused. “Look, I know how it looks. Just do me this one thing.”

  I briefly wondered who he was talking to, but I didn’t have it in me to care much.

  “She left a box in her car. Can you just get that and drop it off at my office?”

  Once we got to my apartment complex, Prescott started to speak, but I put a hand up to stop him.

  “I want to be alone. Please just let me be alone. You had no problem before.”

  Slamming the door, I went to be alone with my misery, not knowing the hell I would wake up to.

  JAKE

  Everyone was giving me a wide berth. When I came for a drink, people always stopped by to say hello. My don’t-fuck-with-me vibe must have been working. I wondered how many of them took me for a fool. They must have seen me with Juliet; to know she was still with her husband… the joke was on me. I would have busted my ass to give her everything. Turns out she still had all of it.

  “My wife thought she wanted other things in life. Turns out she was wrong. She got bored with the simpleton life and wanted the lavishness I could provide.”

  “Then why did you report her car stolen?” My heart was beating out of my chest. He had to be lying to me.

  “My wife deserved a little dose of humiliation.”

  I didn’t want to see them both laughing at me, so I left my heart shattering as I walked out the door. I motioned for the bartender to give me another shot.

  The shot got slammed in front of me, causing me to look up.

  “What the fuck?” I spat.

  Stacy was staring at me smugly. “You dropped me for her so fast, and look where it got you.”

  She then sashayed back to the other side of the bar. It was expected she would be the first to laugh at me. This was worse than when Brooke humiliated me; at least she’d had the decency to do it in private.

  “You need to stop being a dick, Carson.”

  I turned my head to look at Prescott, fixing his tie and signaling Stacy for a drink.

  Bourbon on the rocks.

  “Should I be honored our honorable mayor is having a drink with me?” I was drunk. No, I was trashed.

  “This isn’t about me,” he said in a cold tone, not giving me shit about the honorable part.

  Anyone who paid attention knew Prescott was far from faithful to his wife.

  “I have no idea what you need me for,” I slurred.

  “You know damn well why I’m here. Don’t play stupid.”

  Fucking perfect. Now Prescott wanted to talk to me about his precious little sister. Damn, I couldn’t believe she lied to me. She’d lied to my face and laughed about it. I thought I loved her, and she’d played me. Nope, I didn’t think I loved her—to think it meant I was unsure about my feelings for her, and I wasn’t. I loved her. I liked looking at her in high school. I liked her in art class. I was starting to fall in love with her when I asked her on a date. But I fell hard for her the moment she walked into the shop looking for paint. The feelings were already there, they just needed to ignite again, and ignite they did. Meanwhile, I was nothing but a thrill for her.

  I’d never felt more stupid in my life.

  I never forgot her words. I worked damn hard, but I was never going to be at her family’s level. I knew how wrong I was for her, and I still didn’t care. I didn’t heed my own warning.

  “I don’t care.”

  “That’s fair.” Prescott circled the glass in his hand before taking a drink. “Just curious, was it you who painted those canvases for her?”

  That took me back a second, and I snarled at Prescott. Why was he adding to my humiliation?

  Prescott finished his drink and turned to face me. “I never took you for a pussy, Carson.”

  “What the fuck—”

  He cut me off, glaring at me with hate I wasn’t sure was entirely for me.

  “You made her happy. She would hum in her room, thinking about you. She put your paintings in the center of her wall of achievements. You. Were. Her. Center.”

  I felt like my chest constricted in size, making it hard to take my next breath.

  Prescott took out his wallet and left a twenty at the bar. “She never said it was you, but now it’s not hard to guess why…”

  I was a nobody.

  “Because I’m not like you,” I growled.

  “It’s a blessing you aren’t. Our father wouldn’t
have approved. He didn’t approve—it was you, or it was her future… If you can’t forgive her for the choice she made back then… then you don’t deserve her now.” Prescott turned around without another word.

  “She has a fucking husband. She’s been lying to me.”

  He stopped walking and shook his head. “Come on, I’ll take you home.”

  “I can find my own way back.”

  Next thing I knew, Prescott was grabbing onto my arm and pulling me up.

  “She’d never forgive me if something happens to you,” I could have sworn he mumbled.

  Prescott led me to his fancy car, and I immediately started to feel drunker as the cold air hit my face.

  The drive was in silence, Prescott speeding the whole way. Once my house came into view, I dreaded to go in again. It felt like at every corner, memories I’d made with her jumped out at me. She was everywhere. In my mind, but mostly in my heart, because the stupid fucker couldn’t understand that she’d left us.

  As I opened the Audi’s door, Prescott spoke. “Sometimes you have to see with your heart and not with your mind.”

  Slamming the door, I walked into my place.

  41

  Jake

  My ringing phone woke me up. My head was buzzing like crazy, but that took a back seat to Clark’s frantic voice on the line. None of it made sense.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I’m fucking sure.”

  Fuck me. The pounding in my head was for a different reason now. I made myself a coffee while I waited for my brother to pick me up.

  “Who called it in?” I asked as I got in the car.

  “Juliet,” he answered. My chest ached at the mention of her name. “Have you talked to her?”

  “It’s done. We are done.” I left no room for conversation. “What time did Ma drop the girls off?”

  “Just twenty minutes ago,” he replied.

  After Dex had called me to get into the station, Clark and I rushed over, leaving Jess and Rosie with my mother. After that, I went straight to Moe’s to drink my body weight in liquor.

  This shit was all sorts of fucked-up. If I felt for Rosie and Jess before, my heart went out to them right now.