All Grown Up (Eden High)

Missing them made my heart hurt for her. She must’ve felt this way when we first left. If I could, I would take her back with me, but she still had a few weeks left of high school, and then we’d be together this summer and beyond. I’m not worried about anyone or anything getting in our way because I know just how to deal with her dad. I’m not above blackmailing his ass if it comes to that if it means getting her the hell out of here.

It wasn’t time to think about him and his fuck ups though, so I put those thoughts on hold for now and just concentrated on my girl and how to make her happy for the next few days while I’m here. I have a whole lot of shit mapped out for us to do, but I’ll be packing months of missing her into a few paltry days, which is going to be rough.

I saw her car pull in and stop at the end of the driveway. She got out and walked around to the mailbox because her tiny ass couldn’t reach it from the car window. I started to smile until I saw a frown forming on her face as she looked through the mail. She had no idea I was there watching her, so didn’t have reason to hide, and that’s how I saw it, the look of distress that followed the frown and the way she bit into her lip like she does when she’s nervous.

I dropped the bag and jogged down the steps to get to her and was almost on her before she noticed me. Her look of disdain was soon replaced by one of shocked surprise, and the sheen of tears in her eyes when she saw me tore at my gut. I had my arms around her before our first hello, and she held on so tight I was afraid that there was more to that hug than just pleasure at seeing me.

I didn’t say anything to her, just took the mail from her hand though she tried fighting me for it. “No, Alex…” I held her close to keep her still, wondering what the hell had put that look on her face. “Stop it, baby.” I looked down at the envelope, which had no stamp, just her name scrawled on the front with no return address, and my gut turned.

I took a deep breath and maneuvered her close to my chest, holding her with one arm while using the other to open the envelope, hoping against hope that it wasn’t as bad as I was starting to suspect. The message was cryptic as hell, but I could already figure out what it was about with just those few words. If Jace hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known about her involvement with the whole Mandy thing, but I was pretty sure that that is what this is about.

“This isn’t the first one, is it?” She kept her head down as if she were afraid to look at me but shook it in the negative. “How many?” She looked up at the sharpness in my voice, and the tears began to fall. “Shit, sorry baby, I’m not mad at you.” I was a little, because she didn’t tell me, but my anger was at the asshole who thought he or she had the right to torment my girl with this shit.

“That’s the fourth one.” She sniffled, looking miserable, and I felt like a failure. Here I was thinking I was doing a bang-up job in the boyfriend department, keeping contact with her every day, having people watch out for her, and basically covering all the bases. Still, someone had got under my guard. “Did you tell your parents? Anyone?” I wanted to yell at her for not telling me, but what was the point?

She shook her head no still with that defeated look on her face. “Let’s go inside.” I took her back to her car and drove us the rest of the way to the house. I helped her out of the passenger side and walked over to pick up the bag with her stuff while she unlocked the door. The housekeeper met us there, alerted by the sound of more than one engine, I guess but retreated after a hasty hello. I watched her, wondering if she was the culprit. The woman had to be sixty, but so what? Everyone’s a suspect.

“Where are your parents?”

“Dad should be in his home office, and mom is probably upstairs with the baby.”

“Show me where your dad is.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” I remembered almost too late that she had no idea that I know what’s going on since I never told her what Jace had shared. “I need to let him know that I’m here, babe, don’t sweat it.”