Always (Next Generation The Skulls #1) - Sam Crescent Page 0,54
need to come back to Fort Wills with me, and we will hang out, you’ll go to school, and when it’s all over, you come back, pick up the pieces.”
Simon stared back at her, tears in his eyes. “You’ll think less of me.”
She pressed her lips together. Folding her arms, she glared at him. “You know what, yeah, I will. I was going to give you the pansy answer, telling you it would all be okay and I’d be fine with you walking away from your parents but you know what, that is a horrible idea, and I don’t think you should do it.”
“Tabby?”
“No!” She slashed her hand across the air. “No! You don’t get to say my name as if I’m nagging, or if this is too much of a hard decision. Stop whining about it. It is what it is and we can’t change it. What we can do is be strong. If you run away right now, I guarantee you’ll regret it and not just because of me being pissed at you or whatever, but because for the first time in your life, you’re being challenged and you can’t take it. You talk to me all the time about wanting to take Devil’s place when the time is right, then prove it. Be a man. Even now. Be a fucking man.” Tears spilled down her eyes and Simon shook his head.
“Don’t cry.”
“I can’t help it. I’m right here for you and you’re there. You’re on the opposite side of this sign.”
“You don’t know what this is like,” he whispered.
“Are you crazy? You think I don’t know what this is like? How this all feels?” She laughed. “You think I’ve never not wanted to run? That I’ve never not wanted to hide? To be as far away as possible?”
She licked her lips. spinning in a couple of circles, looking around them. “Simon, for a long time, I didn’t even want to be an MC girl. I wanted nothing to do with The Skulls. My very future was about getting out until I talked to my grandpa and he convinced me, so yeah, I get that you’re struggling. Really, I do. I probably understand you now more than ever.”
“Then come with me,” Simon said.
She shook her head. “No.”
“Tabby.”
“You will hate yourself for this. I can’t stop you, but I’m not going to join you. Not here, not with this. If you’re not home tonight, I’ll pack a bag and go back to my family. I miss them so much, but I’m here for you.” She went to him and cupped his face. “You’re stronger than this, Simon. Stop fighting who you are.”
She turned on her heel and got back into the car.
“What am I doing?” Eddie asked.
“Take me back to Devil’s house.” She ran her hands along her thighs, taking a deep breath.
“You okay?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
Eddie didn’t ask any more questions. When they got back to Devil’s house, she pulled out some cash, handing it to him. “Here you go.”
“Don’t. keep it. I would do anything for him, and he knows it.”
She nodded. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. If you need a ride anywhere, let me know, and there’s nothing sexual in it.”
She chuckled. “Thanks.”
Heading indoors, she saw Sasha, Pussy’s woman, was hanging out with the kids and Lexie.
She gave them a wave and headed upstairs to quickly change. After a shower, she pulled on some sweatpants and headed to the kitchen to cook something, anything. She’d helped her mother plenty of times. Angel, Lash’s woman and old lady, was forever in the kitchen, and Tabitha always liked to watch. She settled on pasta. Devil tried to take over cooking as she’d been serving them up all-vegetable meals.
Tucking her hair behind her ear, she tried not to get her hopes up each time the door opened. No one back home knew she’d been sitting at the same welcome sign back home with a bag packed. Of course, she’d been younger as well. Daisy didn’t know how she’d walked to the edge of town and held her bag. Every couple of cars had slowed down, asking her if she was okay. In the end, rather than hitchhiking it out of there, she’d gone back home, put her clothes away, and appeared at school the next day.
She got it.
But Simon was running from different things. He had to see that.
“This smells good,” Simon said, drawing her out of her thoughts.
She spun around to find him right there, in front of her. “You