Crushed (42 page)

Once inside, Reece started digging around in the fridge.
Cleo
knew his mom never went out of town without leaving plenty for him to eat. Apparently
she didn’t like the idea of him fending for himself. Or maybe she just liked to cook.
Either way, Reece always seemed to have a lot to pick from.

“Seafood lasagna…Or,” he peeled back the lid on the container, “I’m not exactly sure
what this is. Something with tortellini? Or I can see what’s in the freezer?” he offered.

“Anything is fine,”
she
told him. “Whatever you want.”

He pulled out a few things
from the cupboards. S
he
couldn’t help but look around at the granite countertops and the spotless stainless
steel appliances in the immaculate kitchen. Crazy as it sound
ed
;
she felt like
even the air in this house felt expensive.

Less than ten minutes later
they
were downstairs. S
teaming hot plates of lasagna and two glasses of root beer placed on the coffee table.
She
was settled into the huge overstuffed couch
. H
e was digging through his movie collection.
She
knew what he was going to pick before he found it.

“
The Wedding Singer
?”
Cleo
moaned. “That movie is horrible!”

“It’s a classic!” he argued. He looked horrified at
her
protest. “And I think you secretly love this movie!”

She
shrugged.

She
did but only because he loved it so much.

He put it in
. W
hile the screen wasn’t as monstrous as some
she
’d seen in stores, it was plenty big enough to give
them
a movie theater feel. He turned off the lights and then dropped down next to
her
. He was so close there wasn’t a sliver of space between
them.

She
had wondered if things would be awkward, after three months apart. But everything
was just falling back into place. And maybe, if anything, things just felt better.
More intense.
She didn’t think she
’d ever ta
k
en
him for granted. But being with him again after being pulled apart just made
her
feel like
she
couldn’t get close enough to him.

They
ate and joked about the movie. Then Reece insisted
Cleo
sit while he carried everything upstairs. He came down with a plate full of apple
crisp covered in ice-cream and drenched in caramel sauce for
them
to share.
She
realized if
she
lived in Reece’s house,
she
might be in danger of never being able to stop eating.

The whole time, the conversation had remained light. But
she
knew Reece wouldn’t be able to keep it that way.

He
had
received an update from Chelsey. She told him they’d all just had dinner and that
their parents had headed back to their hotel room for the night with plans to meet
for breakfast.
Cleo
let out a mental sigh of relief. Even though
she
knew Reece would be confronting Landon,
she
didn’t want to face him.
She
certainly did not want to face him here,
in his house,
where he’d made it clear he didn’t want
her
.

After the text—
their
assurance that
they
’d be alone the rest of the night—Reece started in with questions.
She
didn’t blame him. But
she
didn’t want to answer him, either. Yet
she
did. His questions about Paul seemed to have no end.

“I can’t believe this was happening and I didn’t know,” he said. His brown eyes showed
how hurt he was that
she
hadn’t told him before. They also showed
how worried and angry he was now that
s
he
had. “How could I not know?”

“Most of the time, it hasn’t been that bad.” He gave
her a look to let her
know he disagreed. The fact that it happened at all was bad enough. “And it wasn’t
like I was flaunting it,”
she
admitted as
she
fidgeted with the hem of his shirt.
She
was curled up into him, the movie more or less forgotten as it played. “I didn’t
want anyone to know.”

“No more secrets, okay?” he said as he pulled
her
into an even tighter hug.

She
nodded.

“Promise me, Cleo. From here on out, no more secrets between us,” he pressed.

“I promise.”

“Good. Because I never want to go through this again. You have no idea how much I’ve
missed you,” he said quietly.

“Actually, I do,”
she
assured him. “If it was even half as much as I missed you. Then, yeah. I do.”

It was after midnight by the time the second viewing of Reece’s favorite movie ended. 
She was sandwiched between the cushions on the back of the couch and Reece.
For the second time that night
she
was breathless and lightheaded. Only this time
she
was ready to do something incredibly unladylike.

Like peel the clothes right off of his body.

“We should probably get some sleep,” he said as he rested his forehead against
hers
. “We have a lot to figure out tomorrow.”

She
didn’t want to sleep. Thanks to
her
nap,
she
was wide awake. But
she
agreed anyway. “Okay,”
she
said and let him pull
her
up.
She
followed him to his bedroom and as he got ready for bed,
she
started digging through
her
bag.
She
had packed in such a hurry
she
realized
she
had forgotten a few things.

“I forgot my pajamas at Emma’s,”
she
told him.
She
knew exactly where they were. When
she and Luci had
gotten up that morning,
she
’d made the bed. Not something
she
usually had time for at home. But
she
didn’t want to
be a slob while at the Donavon’
s.
She’d
tucked
her
pajamas under the pillow, out of the way.

“So?” Reece asked.

“So I don’t have any to wear.”

“So?” he repeated. “I don’t see that as a problem.” Then he smirked again and motioned
to his
dresser. “I’m kidding. Grab something out of there
.”

She
helped
her
self to a t
-
shirt and then
found
her
toothbrush, which
she
was glad
she
’d remembered, and left for the bathroom. When
she
got back, Reece had already burrowed under the covers.

She
turned off the light and wiggled across the bed until
she
found
her
self wrapped up in his arms. He leaned over and gave
her
a kiss on the cheek and then his head flopped back down on his own pillow.

“That’s it?”
she
asked.
She
realized it sounded a whole lot like
she
was pouting.

“Cleo, I’ve been missing you like crazy for months. I had a hard enough time keeping
myself in check out in the living room. We’re in my bed and you’ve barely got anything
but my t
-
shirt on. Anything more than a little kiss…and I’m not going to want to stop.”

“Oh,”
she
said. “I wasn’t planning on asking you to stop. Does that change things?”

“Y
eah,” he said
as he moved closer to her again
.
“Yeah, it does.”

***

The next morning,
he
was awake way before Cleo. Which was crazy
, he thought
,
because
he’d
never had a problem sleeping.
He
could
sleep just about any time, any place. But not when
he was
fuming mad. She
was
the only thing keeping
him
even a little bit calmed down.

Even in her sleep she ha
d
herself wrapped so tightly around
him it was
like she never plan
ned
on letting
him
go. And
he was
just fine with that. This
was
all
he had
wanted for the last three months. And
he was
trying not to let what
was
going on with
his
dad ruin it.

He
didn’t want to move because
he
didn’t want to wake
Cleo
up. She almost never g
ot
a whole nights’ sleep. So
he
just started tossing around ideas in
his
head. All of them ha
d drawbacks. And he was
sure Cleo
wasn’t
going to like a single one of them. But by tomorrow, something
was
going to have to give.
He was
not letting her go back to that house.

He was worried that she seriously thought that what
she
had
been dealing with h
ad
been tolerable. Because she
was
willing to put up with it for Luci’s sake.
He
hate
d that she could possibly
feel that way. It shouldn’t have to be
tolerable
. It shouldn’t be happening. Ever.

And if
he had
anything to say about it, it
wouldn’t.

But that still le
ft
Luci to worry about
and he was. Worried, that i
s. She
was
just a kid. And she depend
ed
on Cleo. A lot.
Cleo swore Paul had never touched Luci. But she admitted she was afraid that might
change. So…what? They just waited until he actually did?
No
, Reece thought,
no way
. He hated the thought of anything happening to Luci as much as he hated the thought
of anything happening to Cleo.

And then there
was his m
om to worry about. She was furious about
Landon
not allowing Cleo in
their
house. Paying Paul off?
He was afraid that was
really going to push her over the edge.

He
hated that this was all because
of him.

The irony of the whole situation
was
that it was never because of Cleo that
he
didn’t
want to go to the college of his
dad’s choice
. O
r take over his business. And if
he
hadn’t been such a coward, not wanting to deal with him over it,
he realized,
this never would’ve happened. But it did because
he
waited too long to tell him. And then he came to his own conclusions. Made his own
assumptions. And even though at the time,
Reece had
told him he was wrong about Cle
o, it didn’t matter. Landon ignored him
when
he
tried to tell him that
he’d
always felt that way. He didn’t listen. No surprise there because he never listen
ed
.