“I’m going upstairs now to the woman I love,” I say, and my mother gasps. “That’s right. I love her. I love Dylan. I love them both, and I know that if push comes to shove, I will pick them.” I look down. “Even if I have to walk away from my family.”
“Justin,” my father says, and I shake my head. “Maybe you think you love her, but you just want to save her.”
“What are you saying?” I look at them. “I love her. With everything that I have. Until my last dying breath, it will always be her. I will walk with her through fire if I have to, and if push comes to shove, I will.”
“You could be throwing away everything you have,” my mother says.
“Everything you’ve worked for since you were little could be taken away,” my father says, and I hold up my hand.
“You can either be with me or not, Dad,” I say, “but if you aren’t on Caroline’s side, then you aren’t on my side. Now, I’m going to go up there and try to get her head out of her ass because if I know her like I think I do, she is probably already thinking of leaving. I have to tell you, if she leaves me, I’m not going to rest until she is with me. I will turn over every fucking rock on earth.”
“I just want you to recognize the danger you are putting yourself in,” my father says, and it’s Matthew now who walks over to him.
“Dad,” he says. “If you met Mom, and she had Allison and me, and my father was Andrew, would you walk away from her?” he asks quietly. “As a dad, I know what you’re doing. I would do the same thing, but we both know you didn’t raise your kids not to follow their heart.”
“I blame you,” my mom says to my father. “It’s all your fault our children are like this.” He grabs her around her shoulders and pulls her close and they look at me. “You’re right about Caroline. She’s already planning on leaving.”
“What?” Matthew hisses, and I look at her.
“She came to me yesterday after everyone left, and she got Dylan settled down.” She looks at my father. “She would have been gone if Allison hadn’t walked into the room and grabbed her bag. She pleaded with us to just let her go.”
Without waiting for anything else, I run to the elevator and press it five times. When the doors open, my parents and Matthew squeeze in with me before the doors close. “I need to talk to Dylan,” I tell Matthew.
“I have it covered,” Matthew says, and when I finally open the door to my house and see both of them sitting on the couch, it’s now my knees that almost give out. Dylan jumps off and runs to me, tears running down his face, and I crouch down to grab him in my arms as he hugs me with everything he has.
“I’m here,” I say to him as he cries in my neck. “I’m here, buddy.”
“I love you,” he whispers, and I hug him to me.
“Love you, too, buddy.”
“I’m sorry it’s all my fault,” he says to me.
“It’s no one’s fault,” I say and put him down. I see Caroline on the couch, trying not to cry, and I’m waiting for her to fight it. Waiting to see how high the wall she built is.
I walk to her, and I’m expecting her to fight it, expecting her to ignore what we have, but what she does is even better. She gets up and jumps into my arms much like her son just did. Her tears soak into my skin.
“I love you,” I say. “Love you so much,” I say into her neck.
“I love you more,” she finally says, and I feel someone hug my waist and look and see it’s Dylan.
“I’m here,” I tell them both, “but I need a shower.”
My mother goes to the kitchen. “I’ll make something to eat. Dylan, come and help me.”
“Go on. I’m not going anywhere,” I say. Caroline releases me, and I see she is still wearing what she wore yesterday. He walks to my mother who takes him in her arms, and I walk to my bedroom with Caroline’s hand in mine.
I close the door behind us, and she turns and hugs me. “I love you,” she says.
“So much you were going to leave me?” I say, and she looks at me.
“You don’t understand,” she says.
“No, you don’t understand,” I say. “It wouldn’t have changed anything if you left.” She looks at me. “I would have searched my whole life to find you again.”
She walks away from me. “You don’t need this in your life.”
“I need you in my life,” I say. “I need you, and I need Dylan.”
“Justin.”
“Sweetheart,” I say. “I just spent the whole night worried whether you would be here when I came home this morning. I need a shower, and then I want to sit on the couch and have a movie night with my family.”
I walk to the bathroom, and she calls my name.
“Justin.” I turn. “I was going to leave,” she says, which I already knew. “I was going to escape and disappear. You protect the people you love.”
I smile at her. “I would have found you. Without you, there is nothing.”
I pull off my shirt and throw it straight to the trash. “Now do you want to join me in the shower?”
“Your family is here!” she gasps, and I turn and walk into the bathroom, and when I turn around, she’s already naked and getting into the shower before me.
I step in with her, and my mouth finds hers. I kiss her like it’s the last time I’m going to kiss her. Her arms go around my neck, and she gets on her tippy toes, tilting her head to the side to deepen the kiss. As I was sitting in that jail cell all night, not being able to hold her in my arms, the only thing I thought about was holding her and making sure she and Dylan were okay. I didn’t care what they did to me. I just wanted them to be safe. “I love you,” I say, kissing her neck and the water pouring over her.
“I love you,” she says, breathless, and I pick her up, pressing her back against the tiled wall as the water washes over us and I slowly lower her on my cock. My mouth swallows her moans. I make love to her in the shower, and she gives me what I need.
When we walk back out, my whole family is now there, and no one says anything about us taking too long or that her hair is wet. For the rest of the night, Dylan and Caroline never leave my side.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Caroline
“It’s time for bed,” I whisper to Dylan who has been by Justin’s side since he came home. We both have. After he left, I told Dylan to go get his things, and that we were leaving.
He looked at me, and he knew it was the right thing to do. I was almost out the door when Allison caught me and sat me down. She never once told me that I shouldn’t go. Instead, she listened to me and told me to wait for Justin, but I knew that if I waited for him, there would be no turning back.
The minute the door opened and I saw him, I knew I couldn’t walk away from him. I tried. but no matter how much I spun it in my head, I just couldn’t do it.
“Will you tuck me in?” Dylan asks Justin who just gets up. His family just left, and everything is going to go back to normal tomorrow.