I nodded my head, squeezing her hand before I got up. “That sounds good. Thanks for being here, Mia.” I padded down the hallway toward the bathroom. The rest of the house was eerily quiet, telling me that Callie and Zoey already left for the day, probably before Mia heard the news. If they knew, I’m sure they would’ve been right here with me, but it was somewhat nice just to have Mia there.
I ran a bath and sank down in the water. The warmth and the bath salts I had added helping me relax as much as I could. I closed my eyes, hoping for my brain to stop working for just a few minutes, but it was impossible. All I could think about was my mom, the relationship we had and the one we would never be able to have.
I always hoped that when I got a little older and had a good job, was married, and started having kids, that maybe she would come around. Of course, she would probably never let anyone utter the title of Grandma to her, but I think it may have softened her up a bit. Now, I would never get the chance to find out. I needed to call my dad. And Grams. They all needed to know.
I pressed my fingertips to my eyes, noticing that they were pruney and the water was beginning to turn cold, so who knew how long I had been in here. I began draining the water and stepped out of the tub, wrapping myself in a fluffy white towel before heading back to my bedroom. My feet stopped right at the threshold of my room and I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to slow my heart down that was racing when I realized that wasn’t Mia sitting on my bed, waiting for me.
“Addy.” Chris met me at the door, crushing me against his chest as I stiffly clutched the towel separating us to my body.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, turning my head away from him, though he wasn’t letting go.
“I heard about your mom.” He finally pulled back, gripping my arms as he stared down at me; his blue eyes looked so comforting right at that second. “My dad called. He spoke to Gerald and I needed to come over to make sure you were all right.”
“All right?” I repeated, giggling, but the laughter quickly erupted into sobs. “I’m definitely not all right,” I said, hiccupping as the tears continued to pour and Chris crushed me against him once again. This time, I let myself relax into him, let his comforting arms take away some of the tension that was wracking my whole body. I wasn’t sure when I would actually be all right again.
TODAY WAS THE day I had been looking forward to for a while. Della was moving in with me. After that, it wouldn’t be my stuff anymore. It would be our stuff. It seemed a little surreal but I couldn’t have been happier. I was already on my way over to her house so I could sit on the front porch and wait for her to get home from her last class. That’s how ecstatic I was about our upcoming living arrangements.
My phone rang, but I ignored it after pulling it out of my pocket and seeing Mia’s name flash across the screen. I was minutes from the house and could only assume that Mia would be there too. Whatever she was calling for, I’m sure could wait until then.
I gripped the steering wheel tightly and winced, before quickly loosening my right hand, which was covered with bruises in a mix of blue and purple. Maybe I was somewhat nervous about Della moving in. Just a little. But there was no way in hell I was telling her that. Things would be fine, but it would definitely be weird having her mess constantly at my house, maybe then I wouldn’t find it so cute. I guess only time would tell.
My hand hurt like hell, but at the same time, it felt good to know that I took care of that douchebag. Yeah, I promised Della I wasn’t going to go after Nash for being a complete dick to her. But sometimes when it came to someone that you loved, promises needed to be broken, and this was one of those times. I had been completely right when I told her he wanted to be more than friends. What a bunch of bullshit that was. But the thing that pissed me off the most was what he said to her about the abortion. Yeah, I wasn’t going to just sit by and let someone talk to my girl like that. Ever.
After dropping Della off the night before, I headed straight to his house. The little pussy didn’t even put up a fight when he opened his front door and saw me standing there, probably because he knew he deserved whatever was coming. So after introducing my fist to his face a few times, I finally felt a little bit better and told him to leave Della alone for good or next time I would do a whole lot worse. He didn’t say a word to me, but I had a feeling he would stay away.
I blew out a breath as I pulled into Della’s driveway, glad the time was finally here, and soon Della would be living with me, right where she belonged. I just needed to shake the fucking nerves that seemed intent to hang on. Why in the hell was I getting like this? I didn’t get nervous about anything.
The front door was open, even though I told all four of the girls repeatedly that they needed to keep it locked at all times. All they did was laugh at me, telling me to stop with the cop bullshit.
I headed straight for Della’s room, stopping short at the open door when I saw some guy holding her in his arms. Time ceased to exist as I did a double take to ensure that what I was seeing was actually happening. Yup, it was. Some guy had my girl in his arms. What in the hell was going on? I felt like going over there and ripping those arms off before shoving them up his ass. A white-hot fury broke through my chest, spreading all over my entire body, making me shake with anger as I stood there deciding what to do next. He was murmuring something to her that I couldn’t quite make out, and Della’s eyes were closed so she hadn’t seen me yet.
“What the fuck is going on here?” I snapped, not able to keep silent any longer. I was livid. No, livid wasn’t even the word. Della’s eyes popped open and she looked over the guy’s shoulder, stepping back a few feet once she realized I was standing there. And then I noticed she was in nothing but a fucking towel.
That fact alone about killed me on the spot.
Her eyes that were normally a clear, pale blue, were red-rimmed and still glistening with tears, confusing the hell out of me even more. Why the fuck was she crying on this guy’s shoulder? The only person who should be comforting her—or whatever he was doing—was me! Her eyes widened as she stared back at me, pressing both hands to her mouth, shaking her head back and forth.
The guy turned around and I about lost my shit when I realized it was the jackass that Della dated in high school, Chris. I swear to God, he had the fucking nerve to smirk at me before he moved back toward Della, trying to put an arm around her shoulder, but she quickly shrugged it off.
“Justin—” she began but I abruptly stopped her, holding up a hand before pulling it through my hair and bending over at the knees. I felt like someone sucker-punched me in the stomach, like all the wind had been knocked out of my lungs. Sure, I messed shit up before between us, but things were different, at least I thought they were.
“I don’t want to hear whatever lame ass story you’re about to tell me. I can clearly see what’s going on here. I never expected something like this from you, Della. Was anything that we had real? Were you just playing me the whole time so you could get back at me for before?” I pinched the bridge of my nose as Della stared at me, her mouth gaping open. Evidently, she was too ashamed to even explain herself. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Well, good job, you succeeded, joke’s on me, I guess. I’ll drop all of your shit off later.” I slammed her bedroom door shut behind me, the frame rattling, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d cracked it. I really didn’t give a fuck.
Della’s silence said it all. I didn’t need to hear or see anything else. I guess me slamming the door for good measure had a double meaning, because I was slamming the door on our relationship too, or whatever the hell it had been. Who knew if anything she did or said had been truly real? All I knew was my chest hurt and I needed to get the hell out of there and not look back. That was the last time I would see Della McGregor and although it hurt like fucking hell, it was for the best because that girl destroyed my heart, breaking it into a million tiny pieces and I wasn’t sure if it would ever go back to normal again.
She ruined me.<
br />
Four years later
I CROSSED MY legs as I sat on his desk, and then uncrossed them before crossing them again. I had no idea why I was so nervous; we had just seen each other that morning at home before both of us left for work. I guess it was actually a good thing that I still felt these butterflies in my stomach whenever I saw or thought about him since it seemed like we had been together forever. I looked around his office that was dotted with pictures of us together, some of me alone, and I smiled to myself. Whoever came in here could tell how in love we were from the memories captured by camera and placed around the room in frames.
If they only knew the mess that we went through to get to this point.
My eyes stopped at the picture of us together at Callie and Drew’s wedding. Right next to that was Zoey and Will’s wedding picture, and just beside that one sat Mia and Nate’s photo. I looked down at the sparkly ring sitting on my left finger, wondering how in the hell we were the last ones to get married out of all of my friends. It really didn’t matter, it wasn’t like it was a race, but ours would come soon enough. Two weeks to be exact.
Today had been a teacher workday and I somehow managed to get out of there early. Honestly, I was a little relieved not to have school today. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my job and I was glad that I had picked it as my profession, but every once in a while, it was nice to have a break from a bunch of crazy kindergarteners.
I was glad that I had been able to find a job around this area once he transferred and we were permanently settled in. Though I hated to leave Grams and Grandpa behind, and my dad who had finally decided that he was sick of the travelling. Really, it was only about an hour and a half drive so I guess that wasn’t too bad. My dad came to visit more than anyone, actually, along with his girlfriend Nadine. Yes, that’s right his girlfriend. I never thought I would see the day. And he was extremely happy. He stepped up a lot after my mom was gone, and I think that’s part of the reason why he took a permanent job near my grandparents’ house.
I still thought about my mom at least once a day probably. Within a couple of days of her death, it was determined that her overdose was on purpose, mainly due to the fact that they found a letter that she left behind for me. It had taken me at least a month before I actually grew some balls and was able to read it. It simply explained how her whole life had been a sham, using my dad and then Gerald to try to make her happy, and neither of them could, and she couldn’t make them happy either. She explained that there was never a third husband lined up because no one wanted her. It hurt me to know that she thought that way of herself. Clearly, we never had a great relationship, but I used to think that maybe in the future we would have.
I heard the door open behind me, the lights flicking on, and I twisted my body around, letting my legs drape over the edge of the desk. He flashed a wide smile, tugging at the tie that he wore around his neck as he came toward me, stopping once he was resting in between my legs. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t I surprise my fiancé?” I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him tighter against me as I buried my hands in his hair, tugging his head closer to mine.
“Of course you can. But I thought I was picking you up from the school,” he whispered against my ear, his warm breath causing goose bumps to cover my whole body.
“Marley dropped me off on her way to the boutique,” I managed to say as my eyes involuntarily closed and every part of me shivered.
Out of all of my friends, I had somehow ended up becoming the closest to Marley. Go figure that one out, right? After she finished college, she decided she needed a change of scenery, and headed my way. After about a year of bouncing between jobs, she brought up the idea of opening up a boutique with me. We had both always loved fashion, so after a lot of thought and some number crunching, we somehow came up with a business plan and went from there. Since I already had a full-time job, I was more in the background of things and Marley took care of the day-to-day operations. Sometimes, it was a little bit of a handful, but I loved every second.
“And, I couldn’t wait to see you.” I pushed against him and he sucked in a quick breath, holding up one finger.
“Hold that thought.” He moved away from me and proceeded to close the blinds and then lock the door before returning.
I arched one brow. “And what exactly did you think I had in mind? Do you really think we’re going to have sex in your office?”
“Hell yes, we are. You can’t come in here, looking like this….” He ran his hands up the sides of my black silky dress and then continued down to my bare legs, ending at the pink heels covering my feet. “And think that I can keep my hands off of you. You knew exactly what you were doing.”
I tried to bite back a smile, but it was impossible. He knew me all too well. “Well, I guess if you can’t keep your hands to yourself….” I trailed off, sighing as his fingers worked their way underneath the hem of my dress and landed on my lacy panties, which he discarded quickly, sliding them down my legs and over my shoes. “But we can’t take too long. We need to get going,” I added and I swear that made him grin even bigger.
“Don’t worry, I don’t mind taking you fast and hard,” he hoarsely whispered against my neck before sucking the sensitive skin, and bunching my dress at my waist as his fingers started to explore. “Always wet for me, baby.”
“Mmhmm,” I murmured, tilting my head back as he pushed two fingers in and continued the assault with his mouth along my collarbone. I cleared all of the wedding junk that had been clogging my head lately, and just let myself feel this man working his magic on my body. His lips finally came to mine and he pushed them open, moving his tongue in and out, keeping the same rhythm that his fingers were.
“Oh my God, stop.” I shoved at his hand, not ready to finish yet. No, that could wait until he was inside of me.
He smirked, slowly pulling his fingers away before pushing them into his mouth. “Sweet as always.” It made me want that mouth somewhere else, but we really didn’t have time for that.
I made quick work of his belt, yanking his pants and boxers down at the same time, he was soon pushing the tip of himself against me, teasing me, and I arched my hips off the desk, not really in the mood for games.
“Impatient much?”
He cocked an eyebrow at me and I retorted, “Slow much? I told you to be fast.”
“All right, just remember you asked for it.” He slammed into me, pushing my body several inches backward onto the desk, files and loose papers falling to the floor. I met his mouth in a hurried frenzy as we moved together at a rapid pace. I was trying to be quiet so none of his coworkers would hear us, but that was pretty much impossible. At least his mouth muffled most of my moans.
HIs hands move to my hips, and then he lifted me off of the desk. Our bodies remained connected as he walked us across the office, until my back was pressed against the wall. This way made it feel as if he was even deeper than before. I cinched my legs tighter around his waist as he started to pump into me once again, one hand above my head for leverage, and I hung on for the ride, trying to keep up.
I was so close to the edge already, even though I didn’t want it to end, but we did have somewhere to be. In fact, we were probably going to be late. He stopped for one second, shifting our bodies slightly before he snaked his arms around my waist, his lips dropping down to my shoulder.
“Come for me now,” he demanded against my skin, thrusting so hard into me, I couldn’t help but scream. He palmed my ass with one hand and reached in between us with his other, flicking my clit with one finger and that was all that I needed, I came furiously, rocking my whole body. He was still going hard, though, his face twisted in a state of bliss as he continued to work himself in and out of me, finally relaxing as I felt his body shudder against mine and release inside of me. I touched my lips to his before letting my head fall back against the wall, still panting from the exertion as he kept both of us propped up.
“I love you,” I
murmured without opening my eyes, feeling the need to go to sleep just like this. I felt his lips brush against my forehead, that simple touch being the best part of the whole thing, even though everything else had been beyond amazing.
“I love you too, princess.”
DELLA STRAIGHTENED HER dress and tried to fix her hair, even though I always told her that sex hair was the best look for her. I kept my lips zipped this time, though, because I knew that would just earn me an eye roll. “Ready, Detective Parker?” She danced around in her heels, anxious to get out of here, and I grabbed her hand, kissing each finger before I nodded my head.
“You really are in a hurry, aren’t you?”
“Do you really even need to ask that?” I opened the door and motioned her to go forward, but her cheeks turned red, and she shook her head at me.
“Like we haven’t had sex in worse places before,” I murmured into her ear, before pushing on the small of her back and guiding her down the hallway of the precinct.
I loved working here. I thought that I liked my job working as a police officer, but being a detective was even better. I moved up the ranks relatively quickly and once I got wind of this job, I put my name in and somehow ended up with it. I was afraid Della wouldn’t want to move away from her family, even though it wasn’t too far, but she said yes immediately. After everything we had been through, I was glad that a job relocation hadn’t caused any more drama in our relationship.
I still remember the way it felt when I thought things were over for good between us. Seeing that jackass’s hands on her, my mind went numb and all I could see was red. I didn’t even give her a chance to explain, letting my anger get the best of me. I overreacted and felt guilty about it for months afterwards.
Nothing had happened. I knew that now. Shit, I knew that in the back of my mind the whole time, but right there in that moment, I couldn’t see that. Della showed up on my doorstep within minutes of me getting home. And she was a mess. I had halfway shut the door in her face, before she screamed out that her mother was dead. That right there froze me in my tracks. I knew how it felt to lose a parent so suddenly, like your whole world changed in a split second. So, I guess in a weird way her mom had a hand in saving our relationship. The heartbreaking news helped me clear my head, focus on comforting Della, and give her a chance to explain herself.
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