me her back as she pulls off her wet bra and panties and puts on the dry clothes.
I pull the covers back and lead her into the bed, but as I draw them over her, she shakes her head. “Arrow?”
“Yeah?”
“Please don’t leave me. I’m so tired of hurting all alone.”
I draw in a ragged breath before nodding. I shuck off my wet jeans and toss them over the back of her desk chair before climbing into bed beside her. She rolls to her side, and I pull her back against my front and hold her as tightly as I can without hurting her.
“Brogan would have done the same,” she says. She finds my hand at her waist and squeezes my fingertips in her palm. “What Coach did to try to protect you . . . had their positions been reversed, Brogan would have done whatever he had to do to protect you. It still would have been wrong, but he loved you. He wouldn’t have wanted your life to have been ruined by one mistake.”
I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if it means she understands but she still has to go to the police, or if it means she plans to carry this secret, too. All I know is that right now she’s in my arms, and I thought I’d never get to have her here again. I know she’s safe and dry and warm, and the dirt from my best friend’s grave isn’t knotted in her hair. All I know is that whatever she decides, the only sure thing I have is this moment. So I take a breath and I accept it for the gift it is.
Mia
“You choose everything, Uriah. You chose that we stayed in this house. You chose that your delinquent son would serve his house arrest with us when I wanted nothing to do with him. You even fucking chose that we got married in Vegas instead of giving me a real wedding. You’re not choosing this. Her father brought a gun into my house, and she’s fucking your son. You don’t think you’re next? You don’t think she’ll spread her legs fastest for the one with the most money?”
My door flies open and Arrow walks in, his jeans unbuttoned and slung low on his hips, a towel in his hand, his hair still dripping from his shower. Apparently he’s been listening to Gwen scream, too. Not that we could miss it at the volume she’s carrying on.
I woke up to an empty bed and Gwen shouting. I guess they got home earlier than expected.
He stares at me and shakes his head. “Don’t listen to her.”
The thing is, I don’t even care that she thinks I’m a whore. She had no idea what I’ve been through and why I’ve made the choices I have.
“You think I don’t know about her mom?” Gwen shouts. “That I don’t know you denied me and used your dying wife as an excuse when you were fucking the trash?”
Uriah’s voice is a series of low murmurs, and though I can tell he’s been weighing in on this conversation, I have no idea what he’s said to his wife.
Arrow squeezes his eyes shut. “Jesus, Mia. I’m sorry.”
“Either she goes or I go,” Gwen says. “And that prenup might keep you from doing right by me, but my lawyer will make damn sure you do right by your daughter.”
I grab my suitcase from the closet and put it on the bed. I can’t do this. I can’t tear apart another family. Maybe Arrow was driving the car, but I’m the reason Brogan was on that road. I’m the reason my brother showed up, and I’m the reason they were fighting instead of going home.
“What are you doing?” Arrow asks, as I open a drawer and pull out a stack of clothes. I ignore him and take them to my suitcase. “She’ll get over it, Mia.”
“It’s time for me to leave. I’ve been unprofessional.”
“Jesus, Mia. I . . .” He turns toward the sound of Gwen’s heels as they grow closer on the wooden staircase.
She throws the door open and scowls at Arrow before leveling her angry gaze on me. “I’m done,” she says. “You think I’m not a fit mother. You think I can’t do this on my own.”
Have I really been so bitchy? Do I come off as if I think I know how to raise her daughter better than her? “I never said that.”