“This isn’t about you, Mia. You need to stop being selfish. For the first time ever I am truly happy.” Jackson nodded in agreement, and I all but threw my hands in the air.
“Fuck you. Fuck all of you,” I yelled turning on my heels and walking away from the table with a purpose like I never felt before. I hated Talon, and now I was going to have to live with him. He was going to be a permanent fixture in my life from here on out. Any feelings or thoughts I had about him before this moment needed to go away. There was only room for hate and anger for that asshole in my heart.
My mother never got up from the table to follow me, to talk to me or see if I was going to be okay, and I didn’t shed one single tear until I got to my car. Then I realized just how real my father’s death was. My mom was moving on, going about her life like my father never existed.
“Don’t act like you hate it more than me.” Talon’s deep voice vibrated through my body just as I unlocked my car door. I wiped away any stray tears, not wanting him to know the emotions that had been moved inside of me.
“I don’t hate it. I just hate you,” I said hoarsely, my eyes catching on his as I slid into my Jeep closing the door and locking it behind me. Talon watched me for a moment longer, the concern in his eyes telling me he might care a little bit, but even I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe Talon fuckin’ Reed. He was a sex-wielding addict who had no room for love or a care in the world in his heart, but I didn’t want to admit it out loud or even to myself that I kind of still wanted him.
Looking In The Mirror
Our parents got married less than two weeks later. The wedding and the look of hate Mia had for me with every passing glace was enough to cause knots to permanently form in my belly. I still wanted her. I still found myself drifting off into a daydream of her and I fucking on every surface of my house, but I knew it would never happen. Not now.
“Now Lacy and I are going to be in Cabo for three weeks, and we put her house up on the market. I don’t know if she had let Mia know but I wanted to let you know that she will be moving in with you while were gone. If she needs help I expect you to be there.” My father’s authoritative tone was all I heard, not the words but the way in which he said them.
I shook my head, rubbing at the back of my neck to ease some of the tension out of it. “Is that really a good idea? Mia and I don’t really see eye to eye.” It wasn’t a lie. We didn’t see eye to eye. I saw the need to fuck her, and she saw the need to hate my guts. Even I knew this was a shit-tastic idea.
“Mia will have to get over this. Her father passed away a long time ago, just like your mother did. Just because we lose someone we love doesn’t mean that life stops. Love can still be found. She should be happy for her mother, not angry or blaming her for what she found: happiness.” I got what he was saying—I truly did— but still the part of my heart that my mom would only ever hold ached for her. I missed her every single day. Losing her was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life. My father moving on and marrying someone else was just another reminder that she was gone and had been for years.
“I get that, Dad, I just thought I would give you a friendly warning, in case you come back and the house is destroyed and one of us is dead,” I joked, kind of.
My father smiled at me, and when he smiled it was a true one, the kind that met your eyes or some shit. You could tell when someone was truly happy when that happened.
“Don’t kill her. I don’t need to be planning a funeral right after getting married.” He snickered. The wrinkles on his face had grown since the last time I had seen him. Being a doctor was stressful, the hours and the shit he had to deal with day in and day out. I never understood why he chose a career in medicine. I guess he just liked helping others.
“I’ll try my hardest,” I responded, getting a Gatorade from the fridge and heading downstairs to the gym. If Mia was going to be moving in, it was going to get ten times fucking harder to keep my hands to myself. It was like giving a drug addict their drug of choice but telling them not to use it. Mia was my drug of choice.
I stayed downstairs for hours, running and working out. I could sense the moment she came into the house, her and I’m sure her million and one bags as most women had. My body lit up like a Christmas fucking tree, fire covering every single inch of my flesh. I had to go to her, be near her. The attraction hadn’t always been this intense, not until our parents got married and I knew that I would be around her every single day. Unsupervised. There was nothing that could stop us from crossing that line. Then again, if we did that now there would be no going back; none at all. I came up the stairs slowly, a towel in hand as I wiped away the sweat that lingered against my abs and chest.