AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She laughs. “Oh, you poor, poor child. Keep telling yourself that. I’ll call you tomorrow and give you tonight to settle in.”
“Thank you so much,” I tell her, “for everything.”
“Hey, anytime,” she replies before she disconnects and the door of the plane is shut.
“Well, no turning back now,” I tell myself, ignoring the way my chest is tight as we start moving slowly. Only when we are taking off and my back is pushed deeper in the seat do I let go of the breath I didn’t know I was holding.
The past week has been like I was in a daze, really. After my aunt and mother left Zoey’s place, I refused to let everyone hover over me, so I forced everyone to get back to their lives. The three listened and headed back to get ready to leave, since that was their original plan. Zoey, of course, didn’t listen to me and is the only one who didn’t. She worked from New York all week long, leaving only this morning when I was leaving.
Once everyone left Zoey’s place, I got dressed and went to my house. The house was dead quiet, and even when I was walking in, I felt like my skin was going to crawl off my bones. Nash came with us, opting to stay outside and watch to make sure we were okay, letting only Zoey come in with me. I walked through the house like I was a stranger, like I didn’t spend the past two years making this my home. I walked to the kitchen finding it full of red roses, with a note in the middle of each bouquet. I ignored them all and left them untouched as I walked up the stairs, exactly how I did the day before, wondering if he was going to be in there.
The door was open, and I noticed the bed had been stripped and all the blankets had been changed back to what I put on before I changed it out for Christmas. I thought I was going to throw up, but I avoided looking at it longer than I had to. Instead, I walked to my home office, grabbing my backpack and putting my computer in there, along with my notebooks and planner. I then grabbed the suitcase in the hall closet and ended up going to my closet and packing literally everything. I packed every single piece of clothing I had in four suitcases and five garbage bags. Something my aunt would cringe over if she saw the way I just shoved shit into them. By twelve thirty, I was walking out of the house with all my things, which were now in the guest room at Nash’s New York apartment, minus the luggage I took for my stay at Sofia’s place. I still have no idea how long I’m going to be there. It could be four days, or it could be a month. Everything is still up in the air. I’m going to be working remotely, which isn’t going to be that much of a stretch since I did everything remotely anyway.
I try not to think of the fact the only time Daniel texted me was to tell me Sarah told her husband, and then because I didn’t believe a word that came out of his mouth, I decided to text him. It consisted of two texts.
Me: Hey, it’s me. How are you doing?
Jason: How do you think I’m doing, considering my wife just broke my heart, and now I have to take two DNA tests.
Me: I’m so sorry.
He didn’t answer me after that because what was he going to say. The whole thing was just so fucking surreal, and the more I thought about it, the more I saw all the flags but just fucking ignored them, I guess. I also second-guessed everything he said to me, why he couldn’t join me for whatever reason. I made myself sick, wondering if they fucked in my house when I went away. Fuck, I went on my family vacation, and he didn’t come because he couldn’t just take off during a big merger. Was that code to them, and they fucked every day in my bed? Just the thought made me ill. Luckily for me, the results came back negative, so I am free and clear for now, I guess. Who knows really?
I spend the whole flight just looking out of the window. When we land, I smile and thank the flight attendant before stepping off the plane and seeing a black Range Rover with Sofia’s grandfather standing beside it. He’s wearing an old pair of jeans with a sweater and a cowboy hat. His boots look like they are ancient, and if you took one look at him, you would never guess he’s a billionaire with security contracts with the government, among other things. “Hey there, beautiful,” he greets me when I walk toward him, and he gives me a smile.
“Hi,” I say, getting on my tippy-toes and kissing his cheek. “Thank you for picking me up. You didn’t have to.”
“Oh, please,” he says, ready to take my carry-on bag in his hand. “Let’s get you home, yeah?”
“Please,” I reply, suddenly feeling exhausted.
He opens the door for me. “It’s the Southern gentleman for me,” I make a joke, and he just laughs at me.
“It’s just a gentlemanly thing to do,” he reminds me, “Southern or not.” He closes the door and loads my suitcase in the back before he gets into the car.
“So how are you doing?” he asks as the car drives away from the plane.
“Good. Glad to be here and,” I tell him honestly, “get away from the constant?—”
“Questions,” he fills in for me.
“Something like that,” I reply, looking out at the trees as we make our way toward Sofia’s house. “How crazy is it that there is this sense of peace here?” I ask him.
“There are no honking horns, no police sirens,” he jokes. “You either love it, or you hate it. Your Uncle Matthew lasted a whole six days,” he says, making me laugh, “which made me lose five hundred dollars because I said he would be gone after three.”
“He did that on purpose, just to get under your skin.” I smile. The two of them compete to decide who will be the better man on the playing field. It’s scary and fascinating to watch. They could take over the world with each other, but the two of them are so hardheaded they refuse to admit it.
“You bet his fucking ass he did.” He chuckles. “In the end, I won because he was fucking miserable being here.”
He turns down a street as I see some horses in the distance. “There are horses.”
“Yeah, that’s where Quinn trains his new horses, away from everyone to get them used to the land.” He mentions his son, who has an equestrian rehab farm.
“They look so pretty,” I admire, watching them run free.
“When the cat is out of the bag and we can tell people you’re here, I’ll take you out there and get you on one of them,” he offers, and I smile.
“You don’t have to do that,” I tell him as we approach Sofia’s house. The house is exactly like I remembered it when she got married in the barn next to it. This house was her great-grandfather’s and he left it to her mom, who gave it to her when she was eighteen.
