He let go of one wrist and slid his hand down the other until he laced our fingers together. “Come with me, and you’ll see.”
“And then you’ll let me go?” I hated how good the simplest of things like holding hands felt.
“If you still want me to let you go, I will.” The humor in his voice only fueled the flames of my anger. I tugged one last time to get my hand back, but he held on with an iron grip.
He led me out of the living room and toward his bedroom. When I saw that, I dug my heels in. “You can’t fuck me after you did this to me,” I growled as he continued to drag me.
Jenner didn’t answer back. He continued forward through his bedroom and into his bathroom and closet. I’d never been in his closet before. We’d shared his shower multiple times over the last few days, but we’d mostly stayed naked.
On one side were shirts, jeans, slacks, and suits, and each was then organized by color. The other side held all of my clothes. They hung there, mocking me. Why had I thought he’d packed up all my belongings to move me out?
“This morning, when you had to go to the other side of the house to get dressed and leave me, I didn’t like it, and I had this brilliant idea to move everything while you were at work. After seeing your reaction, I guess I should have talked to you about it. You really thought I’d move you out while you were at work?” He took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest.
God, I was a bitch. I hated that I’d hurt him because I let my insecurities take over.
I took a step toward him, but when he retreated back, I stopped.
“I didn’t want to believe it, but I thought you surely would have said something to me. My head was full of all the horrible things CJJ clients had done over the weekend, and this would have been tame by comparison. I should never have thought such nasty things about you. You wouldn’t look at me when I said I was going to change, and my imagination got the better of me. I’m sorry, Jenner. Truly sorry.” Tears filled my eyes once again, but this time because I’d done wrong.
“Will it always be like this? Me fucking up, and you getting upset?” He slumped against the wall.
“I hope not.”
He cleared his throat, and the pain in his eyes nearly brought me to my knees. “Maybe there shouldn’t be an us if we’re always going to be fighting or at each other’s throats.”
I didn’t want us to end because I flew off the handle before I talked to him. “You have to know that the reason I was so upset is because of my feelings for you. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have lost my mind.” The entire time I spoke, tears streamed down my cheeks and dripped off my chin. I didn’t bother to wipe them away. My only thought was I needed to make this right.
Looking down, he asked. “What are your feelings?”
I wasn’t going to tell him without him looking me in the eye. Striding forward, I stood in front of him and waited until he met my eye. Taking his hands in mine, I professed what I’d been holding inside. “I’m falling for you. Hard. And it won’t take much until I’m full-blown in love with you. I promise that from now on, I’ll talk to you if I have any doubts or concerns, but please give me another chance.”
Uncrossing his arms, Jenner cupped my face and used his thumbs to rid me of my tears. “I know you’re sorry. Hell, I’m sorry for not telling you what I’d done. I know what it feels like to walk into your space and find all your things gone. I didn’t think.”
“Neither did I and I should have. Will you forgive me?” I pressed my chest to his.
“Only if you’ll forgive me.”
Doing the only thing I could, I climbed the man in front of me and kissed him for all that I was worth. After showing him that I forgave him, and he showed me I was forgiven, I then proceeded to show him how much I loved the idea of sharing the same space. Rolling out of bed, sated and flying high, we donned robes and went back out to our cold dinner and watched Netflix before I had to show him my naked gratitude again and again and again until we fell asleep wrapped up in each other.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jenner
My ass had barely hit the seat before my phone started vibrating in my back pocket. Pulling it out, I saw it was Abbi. I set it in my cupholder before I hit the answer button on my steering wheel.
“How’d the meeting go?” she asked before I could even say hello.
With my hands draped over the steering wheel, I looked up at the building I’d just exited and answered her. “It was a little rocky at first, but after hearing me out and with Luke vouching for me, John’s going to give me a shot.”
“That’s great, honey. Did you tell him about the movie Hans Schroeber’s directing that you want to do?”
“I did,” I answered, laughing. Abbi knew how much I wanted the role.
“Does he think you have a chance?”
“He’s going to look into it, and he’s also going to send me a few scripts he thinks I’ll be interested in. All in all, it was a good meeting.” I should have fired my dad long ago and found someone else to be my agent.
It wasn’t until then I noticed a lot of background noise on the other end of the line. “Where are you?”
“On my way back from lunch. I had to meet with one of my clients. She wants me to handle her social media–meaning post things for her–and I wanted to make sure we were on the same page.”
“Maybe I should hire you to do that for me,” I joked. She had been on me to put myself out there more on social media so that people could see the real me and get rid of their perception of who they thought I was. I was trying, but I realized I was boring as hell. All I did these days was workout and wait for my wife to get home.
“That’s strange,” she muttered as if to herself.
“What is?”
“All week, I’ve been trying out the different restaurants around my office for lunch with a couple of my coworkers, and each day I’ve seen Poppy with some guy.” She said the word guy with a questionable tone.
“What’s up with the guy?”
“He looks gross. He’s all skin and bones, pale, and looks like he’s coming down from a bender. I don’t know why she’s with him,” she explained.
He was probably her drug dealer, her boyfriend, or both.
“And you’ve seen them every day?” LA wasn’t that big of a place, but why the hell would Poppy be hanging out around where Abbi worked all week?
“Yeah, the first time I was taken aback to see her in the little cafe, but when she didn’t approach me, I was relieved. The other times were just brief glimpses, and I wasn’t even sure it was her, but now I am. I spotted her when I left my meeting, and then when I hit the button for the crosswalk, I turned back and saw her standing at a nearby store. It’s kind of weird, don’t you think?”
It definitely wasn’t typical to see someone every day for a week when you didn’t plan on it. I knew Poppy didn’t have a job, so there was no reason for her to be anywhere near Abbi.
“How much longer until you’re at the office?” I wanted her inside, where Poppy couldn’t see her.