Page 12 of Leave Me Broken
“My mom wrapped her arms around me, not like a hug—like a jail. She wouldn’t let me go no matter how much I fought. I begged my dad to stay but he didn’t. Mom started to cry like she wasn’t the one who told him to get out in the first place. Of course she probably had her reasons, but I was four. I only cared that my dad was leaving and not taking me with him.”
Ash drops his forehead to my thigh and kisses several times. I’m tempted to open my legs, because I miss him kissing me there, but he’s standing, cupping my face, and pressing his lips to my actual lips before I can.
When he pulls away from the too-short kiss, I tilt my head. “What was that for?”
“I just hate everything about your childhood, baby.” He pauses and gives me a sloppy smile. “And I spent too long watching you lick your lips without being able to taste them.”
My stomach flutters. “It wasn’t all bad.” I nudge him slightly. “It’s what brought me you. You saved me.”
He shakes his head and cups my face to make me look at him.
“You saved yourself, babygirl. I’m just the lucky guy that you clung to.”
My anger doesn’t fade in this instant, but if I’m being honest, I’m tired of pretending like I don’t want to go back to where we were. I just don’t know if I can. Not fully. “I really have missed you, Ash. But now you know why I can’t just get over the fact you have a son. I know it’s not right to compare our situations, but I can’t help imagining Parker having the same thoughts about you. What kind of person would that make me if I was with you, then?”
“You and Parker’s stories are vastly different, my love, and when you are ready, I will tell you, but I promise I am nothing like that. I might not consider myself a dad, but it wasn’t by choice. Not completely.”
“I want to trust you again,” I murmur.
He leans in and nips at my bottom lip. “If I can promise you anything, Jailbird, it’s that you will trust me again.”
“Okay.” I nip at his lip this time and he grins. “Can we go back to where we were now?”
Ash chuckles, places a hand on my chest and pushes but freezes when his door flies open, without a knock, I should add, and slams against the wall behind it. He looks back and goes rigid, his body language telling me it’s not Luca like I was hoping it was. Ash could just tell him to get out and I wouldn’t need to feel guilty about what we were meant to do. But when Ash turns and does his best to block my body, the guilt comes in tenfold. He’s stiff like he got caught doing something he shouldn’t, meaning whoever opened that door should not have seen his body pressed into mine.
“What the fuck happened to my daughter?” It only takes a second to realize that’s the voice of our mayor, it’s basically the male version of Alyssa’s. Figures she called her dad. I can’t fault her though. If I had someone to call in my defense, I’d do the same. I could ask Grandpa to come down here, but the last thing I want is to stress my grandpa out because I got in a fight.
“Mayor Burton,” Ash greets like he’s greeting the Grim Reaper. “If you give me a second to clean up, I will be right with you.”
“No, you can talk to me right . . .” I stiffen. Especially when Ash’s body backs into mine. “You have a lot of explaining to do, Ms. Brighton.”
Me? “It’s Murphy. And your daughter—”
Ash’s head snaps back at me with a look that should scare me, but the anger pumping through my body makes me ignore him because I am not taking the blame for this. I flip my body around and climb off the opposite side of the desk, then walk around and cross my arms over my chest. I’m not embarrassed until Mr. Burton takes in the state of my bare upper body and it’s not a look of disgust or blame I see. Something inside me sours but I stiffen my spine. Especially when I see a bloody Alyssa standing behind him.
“Alyssa pushed me first; she also punched me first. It was merely self-defense, Mayor Burton.” I wonder if this is how Alyssa feels when she uses her body to her advantage. At least I don’t need to worry about him seeing my scars, any of them, because he hasn’t lifted his eyes from my chest.
“I understand, dear.”
I shoot a helpless look to Ash because I was not made for this. I hate this kind of attention. Feeling his grubby eyes take in the curves of my breasts reminds me of someone else, and I don’t like it at all.
“Do you have another shirt?” His jaw is so tight his words are hardly understandable.
“Y-yes.” The worst part is Mr. Burton is not even attempting to hide his interest in my body. I spare a look to Alyssa but she’s not paying any attention either, with her nose stuck in her phone. I wonder what her home life is like and if maybe it’s similar to what mine was. I hate that thought so much because it would give us something in common—besides our taste in men—and I don’t want that.
“Go put it on and go home,” Ash snaps a look at me and his jaw tightens even more than when he was watching Mr. Burton. “Now.”
He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I am moving and basically running by Mr. Burton before either of them can say another word. I glance back and see that Mr. Burton is watching my ass but Ash slams the door behind Alyssa and cuts off his staring.
“Parker.” I rush out, hoping to calm my beating heart after running directly into him.
He says nothing and lowers his face back to his phone. I’m in no mood to talk about what I assume he said earlier, so I sneak by him and Luca, with a helpless look before sprinting to the locker room. I expect it to be empty because of how long Ash and I were in his office, but Janelle, Mika, and Monica all sit with impatient and far too interested faces. I laugh under my breath on my way to my locker and my arms pressed to my sides. Gone are the thoughts about Mr. Burton, Alyssa, and Parker.
They bombard me with questions about everything; why I was in the office with our coach for so long, the way he easily held me in one arm—Monica thought it was the most romantic thing ever. I told her I felt like a piñata, but she didn’t care. Then came the questions about the new guy, I avoided those like the plague until they asked if the mayor showed up yet. Apparently Alyssa was on the phone with her dad after two seconds of being in the locker room. She refused Luca’s help, saying she wanted her dad to see how bad she was. Explains the dried blood all over her face. She’s pathetic.
I’m still pissed at what she said. She thought I was into Parker, but she couldn’t be more wrong. Sure, I was admiring his looks because I knew who he inherited those looks from but that means nothing. I admire Luca’s good looks all the time too, I’d never tell Ash that, but Luca is handsome—like a model. Doesn’t mean I want to do anything about that. It’s normal to just look without acting on it. Not for Ash, he better not be looking at anyone else. The thought alone makes me want to scream. Alyssa, I guess, isn’t the look-from-afar type, which doesn’t surprise me that every person she’s ever found attractive is probably in her bed later that night.
I answer all they want to know, or what I’m willing to share and head for the showers to rinse off the dried blood that Ash was too busy with other things to clean.