“Just say it,” I almost seethe. “You’ve never really been one to hold your tongue with me.”
“You didn’t want me to hold my tongue just now…”
My cheeks are now burning as I remember just how skilled the guy is with his tongue, his hands, his… God, everything about him makes me hot. I look away.
“Julian,” I whine, and he chuckles but grows serious just as quickly.
“She’s still your mother,” he says cutting me off. “Actually, you’ve always had two mothers all your life. Don’t dismiss that.”
I hug my legs even tighter, then press my cheek there, watching his profile as he drives. I don’t even know what to say to that. I’ve known Nicky as my aunt all my life and Nancy as my mother. But in a way, he’s right. But I’m not ready to face that.
“Well, I’m all out of caring for mothers. Your mom hates me.”
Julian smiles and I freeze, watching the way it transforms his face into a breathtaking masterpiece that makes my heart pound. In that moment, I realize two things, I’ve never seen Julian smile genuinely like this before and two, I’ve fallen for him.
“She doesn’t hate you. She just doesn’t like anyone who stands up to her.”
Frozen, I can’t say a word to that, I just stare at him having a mini-panic attack.
“Of course, she’ll crap her pants when she finds out about us…”
“What?”
He looks at me, and his smile fades as he holds my gaze. “Just breathe, Little Minx.”
I don’t know how I know but I think I just pissed him off and that makes me fee ill for some reason.
“Offending mothers is a special skill of mine,” I croak out when he looks away. “Your mother will be proud.”
After all, she did set fire on my imaginary castle of lies.
“Yeah.”
Fuck. Whatever moment we just had is gone. And it’s always my fault. So, I pay attention to the scenery. It’s dark out but I swear, there’s something familiar about where we are.
“Where did our mom buy a house?” I ask as I look at his GPS. Like he hadn’t thought about it before, Julian turns into a very familiar street. There are cars lining the entire street and I can see lights coming from a house with lots of trees surrounding it.
The hairs at the back of my neck stand up on end. My heart starts pounding so fast, I straighten up in the seat as I look around. Dread pools at pit of my stomach. I feel sick.
“Mia, listen,” Julian starts, his voice strained. “I—,”
“Which house did your mother buy?” I question, my voice flat. How could I be so stupid and blind?
“I didn’t know she bought it.”
“You didn’t know that your mother bought my childhood home after it was repossessed by the bank the day after we moved into your larger than normal mansion?”
Cause that’s exactly what happened. The party that Liam was raving about all week…is happening in my old home. A home that every single one of the shitty students form my school know I lived in. Now, there’s no doubt that they know we no longer leave there.
“Your mother really knows how to hurt a person.”
“Mia,”
“You can’t defend this.” I whisper. “You can’t tell me that it’s just a coincidence after she dug up my life just to see what kind of damage she could do.”
“I’m not excusing her.” Julian says. “I’d be a fucking fool to trust my mother with anything but I do trust her with her word.”
“Really? And what’s her word now?”
“That she’s going to make dad pay for how he embarrassed her,” he says. ‘This war isn’t about you.”
“But this senseless war is hurting me, not her!” I counter. “They’re firing shots at each other casualties be damned, right?” I flip my hair over my shoulder, feeling restless, agitated. Tense and more than a little nervous about this entire night.
“They’re trying to hurt each other.”
“Excuse me but I don’t think your father would be hurt by how much shit I’m going to go throw all summer, let alone my senior year at Clintwood.”
But that’s not my biggest nightmare. The fact that my father won’t even call me, that Nicky is a fucking liar who threw me in the trash and that my mom…Nancy won’t see me graduate; that’s my biggest nightmare.
“Oh God.” I gasp. Julian grabs my hand, but I slip it out of his grasp. “Don’t touch me. For all I know you knew about this.”