admits quietly, looking into my eyes, pouring out her soul to me and suddenly I feel so damn unworthy. What did I do to be seen by this girl so fully, so directly that I feel her gaze so deep within my soul? “I’m scared of what might happen when we land back in Cali and drive back to Palos Verdes.”
“Mia…”
“I know you’ve told me that I’m fierce, but Julian, I’m not strong. I’m not some sweet, innocent girl. I’ve made enemies over the years, ones that I’m sure will use the attention on me to put me on blast.”
“If you’re talking about snarky bitches at your school, come on, Little Minx, you already have a rep, you just need to remind them of it.”
“My reputation as an ice-queen?” she deadpans.
“Precisely,” I say seriously, and she shakes her head. “I don’t know, Julian, I feel different. I can’t place my finger on it.”
“What are you really worried about, baby?” I press, then realization dawns on me. “If you’re concerned about those assholes, the Matthews, don’t waste your time. Steps are being taken to deal with them.”
“Steps?” she says, looking skeptical.
“Don’t ask me what they are because I don’t want to lie to you.”
She watches me for a second, then shrugs. “Might as well. I want to be able to maintain plausible deniability.”
“Good idea, Sherlock.”
She lays her head on my chest and I hug her to me, lying down on the lounger, looking out at the beautiful water. I feel her sigh, her hold on me tightening.
“I’m scared of what I’ll find with your mother, my mother, my father and all the shit about you belonging to someone else who isn’t me.”
Oh shit.
“Did you find out who your mother was talking to? Who she said you’re getting married to?”
Shit, shit, fucking shit.
“Uh, no. I haven’t asked and I fucking don’t want to know because it changes nothing.”
And it doesn’t! This entire thing with one of the Bishop twins changes nothing between Mia and me. She’s it for me. She’s mine, forever. So why do I feel weird for not telling her about this in the first place?
“God, I hope it’s not that bitch, Casey,” she says in disgust. “I would say something about your taste in women, but that would mean insulting myself so, I’ll settle for this. What the hell were you thinking with her?”
I can’t say this question blindsided me because that would be a lie. I saw it coming.
“She was nothing to me then and will always be nothing.”
“So, are you saying you’ve never been in a relationship before?” she questions, peering up at me, her eyebrow raised. “Like a committed kind of thing?”
I raise my eyebrow, watching her back. There she is, all nosy and fishing for questions she doesn’t really want answers to, scared that they might upset her.
“Actually, I’ve had one of those,” I start, keeping my voice low and serious. “In fact, one would say I’m still in a situationship with her.”
“What?” She goes to sit up, but I hold her tighter to me.
“Yeah, I mean we’ve been in a relationship of sorts since we were too young to realize that our future was going to be tricky but that we would always end up together.”
She’s tense in my arms, still fighting to be let go.
“Oh really?” she scoffs. “Tell me more about your freaking girlfriend that you have had all this time. Is she the one you sneak out to talk to when you think I’m sleeping?”
Well then, there goes that anger. I do get out of the room to make calls, but it’s not to some bitch.
“Hmm, where do I begin with her?” I pretend to muse over it, but I already know what I want to say about her. “She’s incredibly hot, like I’m not even joking. She’s smart, funny, creative as fuck, and she has a huge heart of gold.”
“Where did you meet this golden hearted bitch?” Mia says sarcastically and I want to burst out laughing.
“We actually met in a strange way. I mean, it’s not every day that you meet a girl who insults you, then tends to your busted up hand, paying so much attention to you that you can’t help but kiss her, just to have a taste, to commit her to memory.”
It’s then that she goes lax in my arms. She peers up at me, tears glistening in her eyes.
“You’ve been in a relationship with her? That girl you met in a strange way?”
“No, I’ve