Page 97 of I Never Stopped Loving You

“It’s okay. It was a long time ago, and it doesn’t matter anymore. He’s gone.”

“You said your parents died when you were young. What happened?” I ask as I watch her eyes. I want her to know she can tell me anything.

Her eyes flit back and forth between mine, and I can feel the hesitation in her body. She’s nervous. She doesn’t know I already know everything.

“They…”

“Motherfucker. Why aren’t you answering your phone?”

Jeremy’s voice shouting from the front door startles both of us, causing me to shoot up and fall off the couch. My back hits the floor, and my head hits the coffee table.

“Fucking hell,” I groan as I grab the back of my head.

“Dude, what the hell…Jesus fucking Christ, put your dick away,” Jeremy shouts.

My head is pounding, and I swear I see stars. I glance up at Willow, and she thankfully has the blanket pulled over her body and is sitting up on the couch.

“Hi, Willow. Sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude. I’ve just been blowing up his phone for the last half an hour.”

“Why can’t you fucking knock?” I snarl as I reach under the coffee table and grab another blanket from the basket underneath and throw it over my naked body.

“Umm, excuse me, you’re the one who told me that I can come and go as I please. I’ll always have a place here. Remember your words?”

“Not when I have someone here,” I practically shout.

When I remove my hand from the back of my head, there’s a small amount of blood on my fingertips. God Dammit.

“Noah? Are you bleeding?” Willow asks as she moves around the coffee table to kneel next to me.

She thankfully still has the blanket wrapped around her because I swear to God if he saw her body, I’m going to kill him.

“Are you decent now? I do not need to see that again,” Jeremy laughs as he turns back around with one eye peeking through his fingers. “Oh, good, the monster is put away.”

“I’m going to fucking kill you.”

“Can you even stand to catch me?” he laughs.

“Probably not. My head feels like it’s spinning.”

“Well, you’re the one who has a granite coffee table.”

I’m glad he’s finding this so fucking amusing. Willow is moving the hair on the back of my head and makes a slight wincing noise.

“How bad is it?”

“I think you should go to the hospital to get it checked.”

“Seriously? He hit it that hard?” Jeremy gasps as he comes over and sits on the couch.

“Why are you here again?” I ask him as I shift my body and rest my head on Willow’s lap.

“Your father’s been up blowing my phone because you won’t answer yours.”

“I turned off his notifications. I didn’t want to hear from him on the weekend.”

“Well, we just lost one of our biggest cases of the year because the fucker snapped and killed his wife.”

“What?!” I scream, and my head seems to vibrate from the noise.