She just stares up at me. Her eyes searching mine. When they fall to my lips, I close the small space and kiss her. She doesn’t pull away or push me back. Instead, she opens up for me, and I tilt her head, deepening the kiss, stealing her breath away.
I wanna take everything from her. And I know it won’t take much to get it. I pull away, and she slowly opens her eyes. “I’ll be here to pick you up at seven thirty on Thursday morning.”
“What?” she asks, breathlessly.
“You ride with me to and from school,” I tell her. “You may not be mine yet, but to everyone else, you already are.” Then I walk out, not giving her a chance to argue.
“Ready to go?” I ask, entering the kitchen.
Lilly runs to me, and I pick her up. Deke stands from the table. When we walk outside, I say to him. “Post the video.”
AUSTIN
A horn blares from outside my window, and I yank my shirt off the hanger.
Bastard! He can’t even come into the house?
I grab my Chucks and put them on as I hop down the stairs. Celeste is waiting for me by the door. “Here is your lunch, sweetie.”
“I’m gonna eat at school.” They have Chick-fil-A, for Christ’s sake. Last night, I looked up the school online, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It’s definitely for the rich kids.
She shakes the bag, and the horn blares again. “Thanks,” I say and then run out as she tries to kiss my cheeks.
I run down the stairs and fall into the passenger seat. Man, he didn’t waste any time getting his precious mirror fixed.
He doesn’t say anything, but he stomps on the gas as he shifts gears. I buckle up and sit back, staring straight ahead. I haven’t got much sleep the past two nights because of what he had said to me while in my room. He wants my mind. He had the chance to fuck me, and he didn’t take it. He wants me broken, and a fucked-up part of me liked the way it sounded.
No one has ever wanted me like that.
“Hi, Austin.”
I spin around in my seat to see a cute little blonde sitting in a booster seat. “Lilly.”
She smiles at me. “We’re late.”
“I’m so sorry.” I didn’t know that we were taking her to school too.
She laughs. “It was Cole’s fault. He was busy arguing with Daddy—”
“Lilly,” he snaps, interrupting her.
She picks up the headphones that sit in her lap and puts them over her head and starts pressing buttons on an iPhone.
I turn back around and pull down the visor. Pulling my red lipstick out of my bag, I line my lips and then press them together. I see Cole watching me out of the corner of my eyes. He wants to mind fuck me? I’m gonna return the favor. I’m stronger than he thinks. I’m smarter than he thinks.
“Cole?”
“What is it, Lil?” he asks, looking at her in the rearview.
“My phone died.” She pouts. “You didn’t charge it last night.”
“I forgot,” he tells her.
“I was listening to my song.” She whines.
He sighs heavily.
“Please …” She begs.
He picks up his phone and scrolls through it while we sit at a stoplight. Moments later, he reaches over and turns up the knob on the dash, and Taylor Swift fills the inside of the car. I can’t help it. I smile, and he glares over at me as Lilly starts to sing along to “Everything Has Changed.”
And then the smile drops off my face. Because my life has officially become a Taylor Swift song.
Four times. That’s how many times the song played on repeat before we get to her school. He pulls up to the drop-off line and gets out, pulling his seat forward.
“Bye, Austin,” she says, grabbing her pink sparkly backpack and matching lunch box and getting out of the car.
“Bye, Lilly,” I say with a wave.
He crouches between his open door and the car. Eye level with her. He helps her put her lunch box inside her backpack and then helps put it on her shoulders. He kisses her cheeks. “Have a great day, princess. Make sure to eat your yogurt,” he says sternly, and she nods her head.
She hugs him, and he hugs her back. “I love you, Lil.”
“Love you too, Cole,” she tells him, and she runs around the front of the car and up the stairs. He stands and watches her until she’s safely inside the building, then climbs back into the car. Even though teachers cover the walkway and entrance.
He puts the car in gear and takes off.
The guy acts like he knows nothing but evil, but I know the truth. To that little girl, he’s a savior. She’s so young, and he does so much for her. Shelby said he practically raises her. Lilly is six, so he would have been eleven, maybe twelve when she was born. I want to ask him how old he was when his mother died but think better of it. Cole isn’t the kind of guy you ask questions. If he wants you to know something, he’ll tell you.