Forgiven (Touched Series #2) (3 page)

Chapter Three

“Got it. Ok. That’s great! Thanks so much!” Dad turns around and ends his call then walks straight over to the dining room table where Mom and I are eating dinner. He sits, rubs his hands together then picks up his fork and begins eating. I look at Mom, who shrugs at me, then back at Dad.

“Well? Some good news you’d like to share?” He looks up from his plate and chews his food while smiling. Rolling my eyes I look at Mom again, and she’s smiling like a Cheshire cat. “What gives?”

Finally, after several more minutes of staring at them, Dad places his fork on his plate, wipes his mouth with his napkin and looks at me, smiling, again. “Oh, nothing. I just bought the old restaurant and had it put in Stormy’s name.”

“What!?” I look at Mom who’s clapping her hands and bouncing in her seat and then look back at Dad. “But I didn’t know she’d agreed yet? Are you trying to force her into taking it? She’ll be royally pissed.”

My head turns to Mom when she lays her hand on mine. “No, honey. We talked to her a little bit ago when I took a plate of dinner up to her room. She said she wasn’t feeling up to coming downstairs. Dad and I talked to her about it and she’s actually getting enthused with the idea now.”

Sadly, I shake my head. “Why is it I didn’t know?”

“Ah, she wanted to make the decision on her own. She loves you, son, but she also wants to stand on her own two feet as much as she can. She’s very proud, just like her mother.” I look at her and smile.
Yes, that’s my girl. Stubborn, but more like her mom.

“Yes, well. I’ve already been designing the plans and showed them to Stormy tonight and there were actually a few things she wanted to change already that were very good changes. Smart girl with a keen eye,” Dad says as he takes another bite.

Sitting up straight I feel all the pride for my Peaches. “Yes, she is a very smart girl and maybe this will be just what she needs to help fill the void of her mom and to get her life together.” I wipe my mouth quickly with the napkin and set it on the table and then lean over kissing my mom’s cheek. “I’ll clean up tomorrow night. I promise. I….”

“Go. Go to her, son. It’s fine.” She waves me off with her huge smile.

She doesn’t have to tell me twice. I take off in a run, taking the stairs three at a time and practically run into her door, trying to open it. When I finally manage to get the door open, I just stand in the doorway and look at her. She’s sitting up against the headboard but turned towards the window, her chin in her hand. The blinds have been pulled all the way up, and the moonlight is shining in full force cascading around her, making her silhouette glow. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I can’t breathe, and I can’t take my eyes off her. She’s a vision. Her head slowly turns to me. Her hand lowers and lays on her lap. I walk over and sit next to her, pick up her hand, bringing it to my mouth and softly kiss the top.

“I missed you at dinner.”

She smiles. “I had to think. I had a decision to make. On my own.”

“I know. I think you made the right decision,” I smile back.

She turns a little more. Her hand presses against my face, and I close my eyes to her touch. “There’s so much I wish I could tell you. So many things that have happened.” She sighs, and I open my eyes and look into her light green emerald ones. “I’m not the same person that you knew, Bo. I don’t even know who I am anymore.” She looks down at our hands that are still joined, her other hand leaving my face and covering them. “All I know is, I don’t want to be that person anymore.” She looks up at me, tears filling those beautiful eyes, and I watch as one slowly makes its way down her porcelain skin. I pull her to me, her arms wrap around my neck as mine wrap around her shoulders and she lays her head against my chest. “I’m tired. So tired.”

My hand moves up to the back of her head, her hair so soft and I inhale the peach scent I’ve come to know and love so much. “You stubborn woman.” She laughs into my chest and then sniffs. “Let me help. Let me take care of you like I’ve always wanted to. You’re so independent and I admire that but it’s ok to let someone help.” She moves back but still holding on to me and smiles.

“I’d like that. But your schoolwork has to come first and practice. Ok? I’m so proud of you and what you’ve accomplished and I don’t want anything to get in the way of you finishing college. Deal?” She releases me and sticks out her hand. My eyes close briefly as I chuckle. When I open them, I take her hand, shake it and then push her back onto the bed, my body hovering over her in a heartbeat and our mouths locked together in an instant. Her giggles are music to my ears, and I plan on making that happen a lot more often. “Bo!”

I raise my head enough to look at her smiling face and waggle my eyebrows. “This is how I seal a deal. Deal with it.” Her smile leaves and an intenseness moves into her sparkling eyes. Her head raises and her lips claim mine. My body begins to react to her soft lips, the touch of her fingers on my shoulder and the fingers of her other hand threaded in my hair when she winces. I quickly roll over her, bringing her with me slowly, and she snuggles into my side, her head on my chest and her arm over my waist. My fingers begin to play with a long strand of her hair.

“Guess I can’t do what I want to do yet,” she sighs.

My head snaps to her. “What you want to do? You mean you would want to be with me?” She raises her head looking into my eyes, her eyebrows creased as she frowns.

“I’ve always wanted to be with you but….”

My face scrunches up. “But what?”

Her eyes close and she looks in deep thought. “I wanted to be with you before…. Before everything in my life soiled me.” Her eyes open and search mine. “I’m dirty, Bo. I’m not sure you’d….”

My hand grabs her face as my eyes stare into hers. “You’re not dirty to me, Stormy. You’ll never be. I’ve wanted you as long as I can remember. That will never change. I’ll wait for you until you’re ready. I’ll wait for you forever but don’t make me. It’s hard enough not taking you right now. Please, don’t make me wait too much longer.” Her lips are on mine, her tongue finding its way into my mouth, and I suck on it as our lips move together. My cock is twitching to get out, my body burning up with desire, so I pull my mouth away but kiss her lightly twice. Her head moves back to my chest, and I can literally feel her heart beating against my side.

We lay there, and I’m staring at the ceiling trying to think of sad things to get my cock to deflate. She’s playing with my stomach, making circles with her finger on my t-shirt, which is definitely not helping. Her fingers finally stop, I hear her light breathing, and her heart slows down as she sleeps. I get comfortable, my eyes growing heavier and finally close.

“We let you stay there last night for her, to make sure she was okay but not again. Not under this roof,” Dad yells as he paces the floor in the kitchen. I roll my eyes and Mom shakes her head at me.

“What your dad means, in not a great way, is we trust you but we can’t have you two sleeping together, even though we know it was only sleeping, but not here, not in our house. You understand, right?” Mom says, always the voice of reason.

I swallow the bacon in my mouth and sigh. “I get it. I get it. We fell asleep. It wasn’t even intentional. Chill out.” Standing I grab my bookbag, throwing it over my shoulder and lean down, kissing Mom on her cheek. “Gotta run. First class in thirty minutes.” I start to jog out of the kitchen. “Don’t let Stormy overdo it! You know how stubborn she is!” I jog into the garage, open the driver’s door of my Jeep, throw my bookbag into the passenger seat, buckle up and hit the garage door opener. Damn, I really need to get my own place and soon!

♥   ♥   ♥   ♥

I slide into the driver’s seat of Jade’s Mustang and pull out of the garage. I can’t believe she let me take her baby over to my apartment. I’m so dreading this but driving her car is helping my mood, a little. She said she’ll have Emerson drive her over later today to help me with anything I can’t do. I haven’t seen Emerson since I’ve been back and even though he’s been their bodyguard for years then became their friend, he still makes me a little nervous. It doesn’t take long to pull into my mom’s old parking spot, since it’s only about fifteen minutes from their house. I just sit there and stare at the old rundown apartment building for a few minutes, nervous to go in. Finally, I gather up my courage, get out of the car, getting the empty boxes from the trunk, and walk into the open front door of the building, my hands shaking as I put the key in our one bedroom apartment door. We had made the dining room into my small bedroom, covering the opening with a sheet. I stand there, shutting the door with my foot, and just look around. Still the same old dirty looking place but Mom tried to keep it clean and with the walls covered in pictures of her, me, us together, baby pictures of me and some of Bo and me together, it always felt homey.

I walk slowly into her bedroom, taking a deep breath, and begin the long day of boxing up her things. It becomes a slow process as I reminisce about my entire life while going through her things, and it becomes harder and harder as I fight through my tears to see what I’m doing. I pick up a faded picture and smile. Mom and me looking at each other. This was the day we had a big fight.

“Who is he, Mom? You never talk about him. You have never told me his name. Anything! Just a name, that’s all I ask! Don’t you think I have a right to know?” I’m standing in my normal defiant stance, hip cocked, arms folded over my chest and a scowl on my face.

“Sweetheart. He doesn’t want anything to do with you, with us. He made that quite clear when I was pregnant with you. Don’t you think I’d give anything for him to be in your life growing up? Don’t you think I’ve always wished he could have been there for you?” She says tenderly to my yelling.

I lower my arms, the tears I’ve been desperately trying to hold back but are now visible, and I bow my head. “I just want to know his name, who else I take after, what he looks like and if he ever loved me.” Arms wrap around me and I lay my head against her shoulder, her hand moving up and down my head and my long hair.

“Oh, my baby girl. I’m sure if he knew you, he would love you with all his heart. I’m sure if he knew who you were he would be here in a heartbeat.” My eyes raise up to see her face, and she smiles. “I never told him about you. I knew he didn’t love me and when I found out that I was pregnant he had just told me he didn’t want children. We were so young. I knew from the minute you were conceived that I wanted you.” Her love envelopes me fully and I give her a smile as I listen. “You look like him, spitting image. Same color eyes, same color hair and your facial features are so similar.”

“It must have been hard raising me looking so much like him, making you think of him when you look at me. I’m sorry, Mama. I guess I’ve only been thinking about myself. You’ve had it so hard and have done everything for me. I’m proud of you.” Her hand moves from the back of my head to the side of my face, raising my head up and looking into my eyes.

“His name is James.” I smile as I nod, thankful that she told me at least that much. I figure if she didn’t want to tell him then I should be grateful to have her.

By one o’clock I’m exhausted, physically and emotionally but I have her room packed and have boxes marked with ‘Needy’ and ones marked ‘Keep’. I start to pack up the kitchen, unsure of what to keep since I’ll be living with the Dunway’s for a while. I finally decide just to give everything to the needy except the few things that mean something to me, which isn’t much. A knock sounds on the door and I freeze. Shit! Why am I so worried? It’s probably just Jade or Bo. I walk over to the door, my eye immediately looking into the peephole and start backing up, my back hitting the wall behind me. My heart beating making me nauseous and my body begins to shake. Ricco.

“Fuck, bitch! I know you’re in there. I’ve been watching. Let me the fuck in! Now!” his gruff voice travels through the door and my body starts shaking in fear. “Ok, whore. If you don’t open up, I’ll just pay a little visit to your friend’s house. I’m sure they’d love to see me.”

My fear escalates. My eyes grow wide but the fear quickly turns into anger. I run to the door, opening it up and am pushed back against that same wall. His hand is around my throat so hard that it raises me up in the air, my feet kicking as I try to struggle. “Ah! My lovely whore. Now, why in the fuck wouldn’t you let your favorite man in the door, huh?” My eyes squint at him as I choke on my saliva, trying to gasp for air that is being cut off as he squeezes his hand. “Where ya been, girly? And why in the fuck is your phone turned off or are you just ignoring my calls and texts? Huh?” He leans into my face, and I close my eyes tight as his tongue sticks out from his ugly mouth, licking up and then down the side of my face. His hand tightens again as he shakes it making the little breath I could take not available anymore. Opening my eyes, I watch his head snap to the door, and I look over quickly when I hear a car door slam outside the building. He looks back at me, his cocky grin showing on his ugly face, and he chuckles. “You’re turning a little red in the face, my whore. Better go, for now, but I’ll find you. Soon” His mouth crashes to mine, the smell of stale cigarettes and whiskey filtering up my nose and vomit starts making its way up my throat.

Dizziness begins to overtake me when my body slams on the floor, hard. I begin gagging and coughing, trying to bring in oxygen, my hand lightly around my throat. When I finally can take a few deep breaths, I lean over and begin expelling everything in my stomach onto the floor. Once there is nothing left but dry heaving someone lifts me, and I start to fight, punching them wherever I can, kicking and trying to scream but nothing comes out of my mouth.

“Stormy! Stormy! Stop, baby. It’s me! It’s Bo!” My body relaxes, and I collapse in his arms.

“I don’t know, Mom. I came into her apartment and found her getting sick on the floor. I’ve already cleaned it up and she’s laying on her mom’s bed. Yes. Ok. I’ll let you know.”

I open my eyes slowly, Bo’s sitting on the bed beside me and worry marring his gorgeous face. The cool cloth he’s pressing against my forehead feels good but my throat is sore, and it hurts to swallow. “Bo,” I croak. His eyes snap to mine, and a small smile develops.

“Here, Peaches. Have a drink of water.” He helps raise me up by the back of my head and I drink about half the bottle. After helping to lower my head back on the pillow he looks at me, his eyebrows creased low and his smile turns into a frown. “What happened, Stormy? You were violently ill and the skin on your throat is really red.” I swallow, hard.

My eyes roam the room, making sure we’re alone, and then back to his baby blues. “I…. I’m not sure. A man. He held me by my throat, cussed at me and I guess…. I guess you scared him off. Thank you.”

His brow crease further. “What did he look like? I’m calling the police. I….” I stop him with my hand on his arm, my head shaking frantically as well as my body. “Why? Stormy, you need to file a report and get him behind bars where the asshole belongs.”

My eyes close, visions of his face, the feeling of the pressure against my neck, and I open them quickly. “I…. I didn’t see him. He had…. He had his hand against my throat and I…. My eyes were closed and….” My breathing escalates, and I feel nauseated.

His hand caresses my face. “Shhh. Okay, baby. Okay. Calm your breathing down for me. There. That’s my girl.” I take some deep breaths. My eyes close and I lay there trying to forget, trying to find some resolution in lying to the only person I have in my life, the one person I love and finally, finding some peace in his touch, I dream of us.

When I awake I find Bo’s not in the room. I sit up, throw my legs over the side of the bed, standing slowly, and then walk to the door and open it quietly. Jade is sitting on the couch wrapping up pictures that were once on the walls and packing them in a box. Her head lifts as I walk into the room, and she smiles as I sit down next to her. Her hand reaches to my face, and she tucks some of my now snarled hair behind my ear. “How are you feeling? Let me see your neck.” I raise my head, and she frowns. “Well, it doesn’t look as bad as it did earlier. That’s good.” She looks back into my eyes and smiles sadly. “I’m so sorry, Stormy. Seems like you can’t catch a break, huh?” I shake my head not knowing what to say. She starts to wrap up another picture, and I feel useless just sitting here and letting her do everything but now I’m not in the mood to do anything.