Fight for Love (17 page)

“Good.” She pulled my chin down with her fingers and kissed me again. “I want you to sleep with me tonight. We don’t have to do anything, but I want you to hold me.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Pounding on the door at five in the morning will wake the dead. I wasn’t dead, but I was asleep, and the alarm on my phone wasn’t set to go off for another hour.
 

“Go away,” I mumbled into my, well Stacey’s, pillow.
 

Her sugar sweet voice filled the silent void. It wasn’t normal for her to talk loud enough for me to hear her when I was sleeping. Something was wrong.
 

“Can I help you?” she asked the intruder.

“No one by that name lives here. I’m sorry.”

Who were they asking for? If they were looking for me, why did she lie? How did they find me here? No one knew where I was. Not the school, not Dr. Greenberg, no one. I put Mom’s address on all the paperwork at the store.
 

What if I wasn’t the person they were looking for and Stacey was out there by herself? Would the person think she was alone and try to bulldoze through the door? I couldn’t let that happen, so I pulled on a pair of basketball shorts and shuffled from her bedroom down the hallway to the living room.
 

She must have heard me come around the corner because her hand waved frantically behind her back shooing me away. Stacey stood with her chest pressed against the door, her neck craned around so she could see through the small crack allowed with the chain secured.
 

“Nope. Not sure why you think he lives here, but you’re mistaken. Now, if I can ask you to please leave.”

That’s when I heard his gravelly voice. “I don’t know who you are or why you’re hiding him, but I know Luke Pierce has been living here for the last month.”

Dave. How had he found me? The answer could come later. Right then, it was more important that I kept Stacey from being caught up in my shit more than she already was.
 

Ignoring her urges to stay away I slid against her back, out of view from Dave. “Shut the door,” I whispered against her neck.
 

“I can’t, he’s pushing on it,” she mouthed.
 

Fuck. I stepped away and grabbed my phone off the kitchen counter, to dial nine-one-one. While the call connected I crept to the hallway, praying Dave wouldn’t hear me.
 

“Nine one one please state your emergency.”

“Umm, yeah. I need to speak with Officer Belmont.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have a way to contact specific people. Tell me where you’re located and what your emergency is and I’ll be happy to dispatch emergency personnel.”

I wanted Officer Belmont so he could see firsthand what I ran from. Since that wasn’t possible I’d have to settle for a police report. “Fine.” I snapped off Stacey’s address and told them it was an attempted break-in. As fast as I could, without making too much noise, I returned to Stacey.
 

Smaller towns offered the benefit of faster response times from the police. Five minutes later an officer strolled up the stairs and stopped next to Dave.
 

“Excuse me, we’ve had a report of attempted forced entry and harassment.” The officer flashed his badge at both Stacey and Dave. “Would you like to file a report ma’am?”

Her voice cracked and her hands shook. I rubbed Stacey’s shoulders in an attempt to comfort her. “Yes officer. I’ve told this guy repeatedly that whoever he’s looking for doesn’t live here and he refuses to leave.”

The officer turned to my stepfather and adjusted his stance. What was a casual stance when he spoke to Stacey turned rigid as he and Dave had a staring contest. Dave looked away first.
 

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. This lady has said she doesn’t know who you’re looking for and has asked you to vacate the premises. If you choose not to do this on your own will, I’ll gladly take you down to the station with me.” He moved his hand from where it hung at his side to rest on top of the gun holster attached to his hip.
 

Dave turned on his foot to leave, but before he reached the first step he made sure the last word belonged to him. “Luke, I know you’re in there. We’ll talk again and you’ll come home.”

Once my stepfather drove off down the street, Stacey unlatched the chain and opened the door. The officer came in to take her statement. He assured us nothing would happen to me, but if Dave came back we were to call immediately and he would have us press charges. The officer placed a card with his name and direct line in Stacey’s hand and patted her knee. Tears sputtered from her eyes and fell down her cheeks.
 

I escorted the officer out of the apartment. When I returned to her I wrapped my arms around her quaking shoulders then pulled her onto my lap. “Shh. It’s okay. He’s gone and won’t be back.”

“Oh my God. How did you live with him? He’s scary.” She sniffled into the t-shirt I’d put on. “Your mother must be terrified.”

I smoothed her hair with one hand and rubbed circles on her back with the other. “Oh she’s terrified. For the life of me I have no clue why she sticks around. She’d be better off without him. I think when my dad died she didn’t believe anyone would be attracted to her, until Dave showed up.”

“How did they meet?”

“Mom never really talks about it. The story I get is he came to Florida on vacation to spend time with family. Dave is the only one who lives here in Texas. Anyway, he showed up at the café she worked in one day and convinced her to join him for coffee during her break.
 
As the story goes he wooed her from the first moment she sat down and hasn’t stopped since. His wooing, now of course, means a sharp hand across the cheek when she steps out of line.”

“Oh wow.” Stacey wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”

“You’re not alone. I’ve tried everything I know to get her to leave him. As you can see, nothing works. That’s another reason I want out of this hellhole. It kills me to see him take off after her, but she won’t make the effort to change. There’s only so much I can do before it becomes a wasted breath.
 

“I don’t know how many times I’ve gone down stairs in the morning and heard her sobbing. As soon as she realizes I’m there she wipes everything away. The tears, the hurt, the fear; all of it. She’s constantly making excuses for him. Says he doesn’t mean it, it just happens. Then takes the blame for his outrages. As far as she’s concerned, it’s her fault and she deserves the punishment. Makes me wanna kill him sometimes. My mom’s never been one to fall under someone else’s rule. She and Dad were equals. Everything was divided between them. Now, Dave’s in charge one hundred percent and mom does whatever he says when he says.”

“What do you think happened that she became so dependent on Dave?” Stacey’s soft touch as she ran her fingers down my cheek made me think of all the things I wanted to do with her, but couldn’t. I wanted to touch her, to hold her. I just wanted to be with her. But now wasn’t the right time.
 

I shook my head both to clear my mind and in answer to Stacey’s question. “I don’t know. After Dad died she was pretty depressed. I guess she never came out of it. I tried to ask her once. She didn’t answer, just walked out of the room. I haven’t asked again.” I buried my head in the spot where her shoulder met her neck. Her scent invaded my thoughts. She smelled of coconuts and woman. Even with the shit of my stepfather and depressing conversation about my mom, I wanted her. Too bad my timing sucked.
 

Stacey didn’t move, didn’t say anything. I couldn’t believe I’d just told her about Mom and Dave. No one knew what happened between the two of them. How did she get me to talk? Somehow she had become the one person I trusted without reservation. I was so fucked up with my jeans tight as hell—thanks to a hard on—I was getting emotional and thinking about how much I trusted her. Since I didn’t trust anyone anymore, that was a big deal.

“How did he find you?” Stacey finally asked.

“I wondered the same thing. I don’t know. No one knows I’m here. I put Mom’s address on all the stuff for the store and Dr. Greenberg doesn’t know. You’ve never met him before this morning. There’s no one else that knows I’m here. Not even Chelsea.”

Stacey’s muscles clenched when I said Chelsea’s name. “Are you still talking to her?”

“Yes and I don’t plan to change that. We’re friends.” I didn’t know what to think of Stacey’s jealous side. It frustrated me that we’d only been dating for two days and she already wanted me to break off my friendship with Chelsea.
 

“I know. I’m sorry. I’ll back off.” Her feathered touch along my jaw sent a shiver straight to my crotch. What little room I’d had left disappeared. I was going to have an imprint of my zipper on my manhood if I didn’t find a way to calm down soon.
 
Bad day to go commando.
 

I leaned in for a kiss, soft and sweet. Stacey’s tentative response stilled me. “What?”

She slid off my lap to the other side of the couch. I felt like she’d poured a bucket of ice over me, and I had no clue why the flip from hot to freezing.
 

“I dunno. I just…”

“Just what Stacey? One minute you are sitting in my lap and we’re talking and everything is fine, the next you’ve moved across the couch like I have a disease. I just told you more about my personal life than I ever have with anyone.” Her head hung to her chest. She hid her eyes behind her lashes. I had no idea what was going on in her head. “Please talk to me.”

“Were you thinking about her when you kissed me?”

“Her? You mean Chelsea?” Stacey nodded. “No. Why would you think that? I just said we were friends. And what’s with the jealousy? We’ve been dating for two days and you’re mad at me for being friends with another girl. I don’t know what happened in your past that you can’t trust me when it comes to Chelsea. This is not the Stacey I know. The person I know trusts me, or at least I thought she did.”

“I do trust you.”

“No, you don’t. Which is okay, of all people I get it. The problem is we won’t work if we don’t trust each other. So, until you’re ready to trust me I guess we’re done.”

“Luke. Come on. We can figure this out. I really want to give this a try. Look, I’ll work harder to not say anything about Chelsea and trust you. I know you two are friends. But my past with guys is far from sunshine and rainbows. My last serious boyfriend cheated on me for six months. I found out when my best friend saw him out with another girl. After I confronted him he denied it and I was dumb enough to keep dating him. When the other chick showed up at my door looking for him because she was pregnant I lost it. The sad thing is I’d said yes to his marriage proposal a week before that.”

Oh damn. She did have bad luck with guys. Although I didn’t think that made everything okay, it did make a little more sense.
 

“Damn. How long ago was that?” It couldn’t have been that long ago. There wasn’t but a couple of years difference between us.
 

“Six months ago.”

“And you were going to marry him? I thought you wanted to wait until you finished school. At least that’s what you told me.”

“I do.” She closed her eyes and leaned her head on the back of the couch. “Now. When you and I talked about it I’d been single for a couple of months or so. As soon as he broke my heart I swore to myself I wouldn’t even consider marriage until I was done with school. I almost failed that semester.”

An idea popped into my head. “Would it help if you met Chelsea?”

She was quick to shake her head. “Probably not.”

Well, at least she was being honest.
 

“Okay, then what will it take for you to trust me?”

“I dunno. Nothing really. It’s more my problem than yours.” Stacey’s head rolled to the side and our eyes met. “Look, Luke, I know I’m upsetting you. This is more than you wanted. I get that. I like you though, and I don’t want to screw this up. So forgive me, please?”

“That I can do. I gotta get ready.” I leaned towards her and brushed my lips against her forehead.

“Luke.” She whispered my name.

“Yeah?” Her stillness scared me. Did she regret opening up to me already?

“You said we needed to trust each other to make this work. Does that mean you trust me?”

Did I trust her? I braced myself with my hand on the wall. I was about to admit something that would end me if she took advantage of my honesty. Was she worth that? I didn’t know for sure, but I wanted to find out. “Yes, I trust you.”
 

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Lunch was the first time I saw Chelsea. Both of us passed in the hall, but we hadn’t have time to talk. Chelsea slid down the bench and nestled into my side like she’d been doing for the past month or so. I scooted away from her to the edge of the seat.
 

“What’s up?” she asked between bites of her sandwich.
 

“Can I ask you a question?”

“You can ask, but I won’t promise to answer.” She wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin.

Damn her, always making a joke out of things. vzyl I loved it and hated it at the same time. “Do you consider us friends?”

“Ummm, not really.”

Well hell, that wasn’t the answer I expected. “Then what?”

“Considering I’m your princess, I figured we were more than that.” I opened my mouth to argue, but she stopped me. “Before you go off on how I’ve misunderstood or misinterpreted your actions, let me say I haven’t. Not that it wouldn’t be easy to do. I mean you did kiss me back. I just think you aren’t willing to admit that there could be more between us. I’ve gotta ask though, what brought this up? You aren’t usually the sappy, emotional, are we friends type.”

“Well, that’s the thing. I don’t think there’s a chance for anything else. Yeah, I did kiss you back. But it didn’t mean anything. It was just a kiss.”
 

Chelsea sat down her sandwich. “And it matters that we clear this up why?”