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"You didn’t have…to do all of this," I told him.
"I just want to talk to you alone."
For a moment, both of us were quiet and I walked over to sit on the only remaining chair, at the other side of the round table. It was…so weird. Being with him and not joking with him and not touching him was just wrong.
He cleared his throat. "How was the interview?"
Nope. Not yet.
"You told them to take me to Thomas’s," I stated, watching his face for his reaction.
"Yeah." He nodded. "You needed your stuff back."
The casual way he admitted to it, like it was the easiest thing to answer, baffled me. Even after we broke away from each other, he was still doing things for me, still making sure I was okay. Why?
I couldn't help but think about all of my stuff that Thomas had purposely put through a garbage disposal treatment. Adam would’ve never done that to me.
Not in a million years.
"And…the interview?" Adam prompted.
It was the news I immediately texted everyone about the moment I left the student center. The first person on my contact list had been Adam and I’d typed up a message without even thinking about it before deleting it in a hurry. His number was blocked. It wouldn’t have gone through anyway.
"I got in," I whispered. "First undergraduate RA in fourteen years."
A breath of relief escaped him and he grinned so wide, it had to have hurt. And it did hurt me, looking at him. Because he looked so…tired. Rundown. It took everything in me not to wrap my arms around him.
"I knew you would." He chuckled, breathless. "Hardest working RA on staff. I knew you would. You’re going to be the best person on that team. You’re going to show all of them up."
The compliments made my head spin. I couldn’t have this separation between us and have him so overwhelmed that I landed the job that he was beaming with happiness for me.
I took a deep breath. "Did your dad ask you to forgive him?"
The smile faded on his face and he placed the bouquet in front of me, shifting back in his chair. "No."
"What did he say?"
"They’re—ah—writing a book."
I stared at him without comprehension. "I don’t understand."
But the more I thought about it, the more I did. His parents lost their cash cow and they needed to make up the revenue somehow. But that couldn’t be right. How could they do that—knowing they hurt him—and continue to profit off of it?
"No," I mumbled. "Oh my god."
"Yeah."
"I’m—I’m so sorry."
Adam’s eyes flickered to mine and he held them for a beat. "And…they know, Piper. They know about you."
"Me?"
"Yes." He nodded, slowly, ruefully. "They know…how important you are to me. They know how much you mean to me. They know I would do anything for you."
Adam said it like they were horrible mistakes that he’d made at my expense, he said it in the same inflection that he’d apologized with, in the kitchen. But I gazed at him, stunned. My heart thudded in my chest with every word.
"And the easiest way for them to get to me is through you." He took a deep breath. "You don’t know how manipulative they are. You don’t know how they can hurt people. And I can’t let them hurt you, Piper."
