Page 27 of Perfect Sin
“How’s Jen?” I ask Shane.
“She’s still suffering from headaches. I think she’s also upset because Jess was one of her best friends. Then the three of you disappeared. It’s been hard.”
There’s so much guilt churning inside me. If we hadn’t run from Devil’s Crossing Teddy wouldn’t be in a hospital bed, Jen wouldn’t have suffered head trauma, and maybe Jess would still be alive.
“Tell her I’d like to see her, but I understand if she doesn’t feel the same.”
“Why wouldn’t I want to see you?” she asks as she strolls in the room.
Shane gets up and takes her arm like he’s afraid she’ll fall. “I thought you were going to be home resting.”
She smiles at him. “I’ve been in bed for nearly a week. None of you would let me come and see Teddy after I was discharged. I wanted to come see him.”
“If you’d told me, I would have brought you,” he fusses.
“Ford brought me, so stop worrying. He’s parking the car right now.”
“Where’s Amber?” I ask, and they wince.
“She hasn’t been in to see me,” Teddy says softly.
“Hi, guys,” Ford greets from the door.
I smile at my friend, happy that most of us are all in the same room again.
He looks at me and cocks his head to the side. Always seeing too much. When he’s next to me, he squeezes my hand and whispers, “How are you hanging in?”
Shooting him a sad smile, I squeeze his hand back. “By my fingernails,” I whisper back.
* * *
When Teddy starts yawning,we say our goodbyes. I’m eager to see the house Ford found for us. It’s a rental about a mile from the beach in a gated community. Apparently, that was Holbrook’s request. Not that a fence and security guard will keep my father out if he wants in.
The house is mostly empty when we walk in. It’s not like we had furniture to fill it.
“Looks like we have to make another shopping run,” I say.
“I picked a few things and had them delivered. There are beds and barstools, but since it’s your money, I didn’t want to make those decisions for you,” Lucien says.
He’s come a long way from when we first came out here. The old Lucien would have acted first and informed me after. Still, I appreciate having a bed to sleep in.
“We’ll go tomorrow after we register for classes,” Sin says.
I should be happy. This is where I saw myself in the months leading up to graduation, free from the confining boarding schools I’d always attended, going to college, and having real friends who weren’t chosen by my father. Of course, I didn’t imagine I’d be married at nineteen, but that was only because I didn’t dare dream I’d meet anyone like Sin.
In truth, I didn’t think about meeting anyone. There is so much I haven’t told Sin. Mostly surrounding the fiction of my one and only relationship and how much we actually have in common.
The dark cloud hanging over my happiness refuses to blow away. No matter how much I have benefitted recently from my father’s plans, we are still his pawns. Sin’s parents are desperate to separate us. I try not to be hurt by their rejection, but it stings nonetheless.
Sin picks me up, bridal style, and carries me through the house.
“What are you doing?” I try and sound stern, but my giggling betrays me.
“I think we should try and start out a little more traditionally.”
“I thought you said you weren’t romantic,” I say breathlessly.
He smirks at me, and I know I’m in for a long night. “You bring it out in me.”