“I know.”
My head snapped up. “What?”
Her eyes were wet with tears. “I know. I heard everything. But I thought…” Her expression grew tight, those tears spilling over as she pressed her lips together and drew in a shaky breath. “I can’t believe you told me the truth.”
She leaned forward and kissed me, her lips pressing against mine hard, like she was sealing this moment. Her tears wet my cheeks as they spilled, and I tugged her down onto the ground beside me so we were both kneeling as we held each other tight.
“You told me the truth,” she said when she pulled back. “Thank you, Jack. Thank you for telling me the truth.”
I let my gaze move over her face, so uncharacteristically filled with emotion, and that was when I realized. She’d overheard everything. Her father’s cruel words, his threats toward me and my father…
She thought I’d keep his secret to protect myself.
I gripped her to me, and she held on tight, wrapping her arms around my neck so fiercely it almost hurt.
I closed my eyes and reveled in the feel of her in my arms. “No more secrets, remember?”
She nodded, a sniff giving away the fact that she was still crying. I stroked her back. “I meant it.” When she didn’t say anything right away, I whispered the words I knew she needed to hear. “You can trust me.”
She shivered a bit, and I whispered it again. I couldn’t even feel defensive after the scene I’d witnessed earlier. The way her father treated her, the way she’d been raised…
Was it any wonder this girl had surrounded herself with walls and defenses a mile deep? A lesser person would have been broken by Devereaux’s cruelty, by her mother’s neglect, by the way Devereaux had pitted her against her sister, destined to fail because she wasn’t really his. Nothing she did would have ever been good enough for him.
My heart lurched in my chest when she buried her face in my shoulder and cried in earnest. All I could do was hold her and rock her and whisper words of love. Remind her that I was here. That I would always be here. That I would be in her corner no matter what.
I meant every word. But in the darker parts of my brain, all I could think about was how I wanted to kill Devereaux for all he’d done. For the way he’d touched her, the way he talked to her… the way he hadn’t loved her the way she deserved.
After a while, she finally calmed down enough to pull back and face me, tear-stained cheeks and all. She was more beautiful than I’d ever seen her. And I was a lucky, lucky man to see this side of her.
I swiped at her tears. “I wish you hadn’t run off like that. I wish I’d known you were hurt—”
She shook her head. “I had to go. I had to get out of there.”
“You didn’t trust me to do the right thing,” I said. Not to be judgy but to understand. I wanted to be the one she ran to, not the one she fled from. Maybe one day we’d get there.
Hopefully.
She sighed and wet her lips. “Honestly, Jack, I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d chosen to protect your dad over me.”
Now it was my turn to shake my head in frustration. “It doesn’t have to be one or the other, Lila. I get now that he’s always come between you and your sister—”
“He’s come between me and everybody,” she interrupted. “Anyone who might possibly care for me. He sought full custody of me when I was a kid. Back then, I told myself it was because he loved me so much, but even then, a part of me knew it was because he’d wanted to win. To make my mother pay. And now…” She sniffed. “Today made it so clear. It was never about loving me. I was a living reminder of the one time he’d lost. A time when he’d been played for a fool. He hates me, Jack.” Her voice turned to a harsh whisper. “My father hates me.”
Brandon’s voice in the doorway interrupted. “Then it’s a good thing he’s not your real dad.”
They shared a look I didn’t understand before Brandon turned to me with a little smile. “Sorry to interrupt. Just wanted to make sure she was okay.”
She nodded, sitting back on her heels. “Stay,” she said to him. “I was just about to tell Jack the rest of the story. You should be here for this.”
He nodded as he came over to join us, ignoring my obvious confusion. “Be here for what, exactly?”
Brandon patted my shoulder as he took a place on the couch beside us. “You might want to settle in, bro.”
Lila nodded. “You’re in for a wild ride.”
Even with the door to the tutoring trailer wide open, it was too hot in this place. The AC had finally kicked the bucket, and no one had replaced it yet. I switched the fan up to high as Brandon, Tess, and I sat in silence in the tutoring trailer that Amber and I shared.
None of us particularly wanted to be here, but one week had gone by and enough was enough. Next week, the entire cast and crew had a break for the Thanksgiving holiday, and Brandon, Lila, and I were heading back to Pinedale for a week. It might not be a long time to be away, but my dad had raised me to never go to bed angry, and I had this deep-seated feeling that Lila shouldn’t walk away from her home without some resolution. Even if it was only for a week.
I couldn’t let Lila leave this town the way things were. It wasn’t like her to avoid conflict, and honestly, the way she’d been acting this week… well, it worried me. She wasn’t herself. It was like the fight had gone out of her. And while I supposed maybe it was to be expected with all she’d been through and learned, neither Brandon nor I wanted to see her lose the only real family connection she had… aside from Brandon.
Lila had been staying with us since the night of the party. Mainly because she didn’t want to see Devereaux, but it wasn’t a secret that she’d been avoiding her sister too. I was all for her steering clear of Daddy Devereaux. If I had my way, she’d never see that jerk again for the rest of her life. But Tess—that was another matter.
And that was why we were currently sweating it out in the tutoring trailer, waiting on Lila to show up. I couldn’t stand watching her hurt anymore, and losing her sister, who she loved even if she never wanted to admit it…
I wasn’t going to watch that happen.
Brandon sighed. “Couldn’t we have had this pow-wow in my trailer? The AC works great. It’s like an icebox in there.”
Tess tapped her foot with impatience. “She’s not coming.”
“She’ll be here,” I said for the tenth time. “You know Lila’s never been on time once in her life.”
Tess made a scoffing noise, and Brandon outright laughed. “That’s the truth. The girl knows how to make an entrance.”
“Or maybe I just love to watch you suffer,” Lila said in a syrupy sweet tone as she climbed up the short stairs and paused in the doorway like she was modeling for the runway.
Despite the fact that the tension in this trailer buzzed like a current, I couldn’t stop myself from taking in the sight of her. She was wearing these short shorts that did amazing things for her already amazing legs. And the slinky little tank top was somehow both elegant and sexy as hell.
For the millionth time this week alone, I was forced to consider just how lucky I was.