“And then the little boy ended up saving him.”
We shared a look. Lisa burst out laughing and covered her face with her hands. “Okay fine. Up it is.”
“Now I’m kind of in the mood for Dumbo.”
Her eyes heated. “Sad, I thought you were going to say something else.”
My body hummed to life as I hovered over her chair. “Oh yeah, what’s that?”
She leaned up and kissed my chin. I stifled a groan. “Butter… smothered over popcorn.”
“Say smother again.”
“Smother.”
“Done.” I pressed a kiss to her mouth. “You load the DVD of your choice…” I tossed her both movies. “…and I’ll go smother your popcorn.”
“Talk dirty.”
Laughing, I made my way out of the room thinking to myself how normal it was… not just normal, but how wonderful it was.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
Erica. Again.
I hit ignore.
If she wasn’t getting the hint now… she never would. As I waited for the popcorn to finish, I had a sudden feeling of home. What if I stayed? What if I ran the company from the Seattle office? What if I stayed… for her? What if I stayed?
I wanted to.
For as long as she wanted me, I would stay.
Dread tried to make me doubt that choice because there would always be him in between us. But I wasn’t going to let it ruin what could be something so beautiful.
He’d ruined her before, and I’d be damned if he ruined her again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
I didn’t watch the news for fear I’d be on it. The crazy thing? Nobody called me. The cops didn’t contact me; nobody did. It was as if that past didn’t exist. When I got to Seattle, I had my parents’ lawyers work on taking the website down. In the end, it was nearly impossible to get all the videos down. I was surprised the website was even still up, but later we found out it had changed domains to outside the US. I remember shivering, thinking, wow, Taylor really did have it all planned, didn’t he? His memory lived on through Shame; it lived on every day through me, and I hated him for it —Mel
Lisa
COLORS AND CHARACTERS flashed across the screen as the movie played. My eyes were so heavy it was impossible to keep them open long enough to actually watch what was going on. I startled myself out of a doze probably four times before I finally gave in and snuggled against Tristan’s firm chest. The steady beat of his heart was my lullaby. His hand dipped into my hair, twisting and tugging, making me relax even further. Before I knew what was happening, I was asleep.
He woke me up around two in the morning; the only reason I knew was because of the clock on the wall.
“I don’t want to move,” I grumbled.
Tristan shifted next to me and then pulled me tighter into his lap. “Then stay.”
“Ask me again.”
“Stay, Lisa…” He kissed my forehead. “…with me.”
I sighed happily against him and murmured, “I really like you.”
“Yeah, well… I really like you too.”