LIB

Chapter 26

            “Your mother didn’t seem too horrible,” I said. “I don’t think she knew about your fathers plan to cut off your trust fund. She seemed genuinely shocked when he said that.”

            “Doesn’t matter. She still abandoned me after the accident.”

            “That’s true; she shouldn’t have done that.” I turned to face him and slid my arms around his waist. “Maybe one day you’ll be able to talk to her, but I won’t push you about it. It’s your choice to do what you want.”

            He leaned into me for a moment. “I’m really glad you were here when they showed up. I’m not sure what would have happened if you hadn’t been.”

            “I know what would have happened. You would have had a huge fight with them and then sulked for a while. I would’ve had to come over and snap you out of it so you didn’t turn back into the cranky jerk you used to be.”

            “I would not have sulked,” he said defensively.

            “Yes you would have. But that’s okay, because I have ways of getting you out of one of your moods now,” I replied confidently.

            “Oh really? Do tell,” he said dryly.

            “Nope, I’m keeping it a secret until I need to use it. Let’s finish the packing so we can get out of here. I’m sure Grace will have supper ready by the time we get there.”

            Blake pulled away and zipped his bag closed. “I think I have everything I need, except my bathroom stuff.”

            “I’ll go get that while you get Abby. I’ll meet you at the front door in a minute.” I went into his bathroom and gathered his toiletries up, putting them in a small travel bag. Then I left his room and went to the front door, where he was waiting with Abby. “Ready to go?” I asked.

            “Yeah.”

            I knelt by the duffel bag and stuffed the toiletries into it before zipping it up again. I stood up again with a little groan. “I think you need to give me a massage later.”

            His hands immediately went to my back. “Is your back bothering you today?”

            “Not really, it’s just a little stiff. But I really like it when you massage me. You’re better at it then even Jared, I think.”

            “What can I say? I have magic hands,” he replied smugly.

            I rolled my eyes. “You keep telling yourself that.”

            “Blake?”

            We both turned our heads in the direction of the voice and I saw his mother standing in the doorway. Blake scowled as soon as he heard her voice. “What do you want?”

            She hesitated before taking a few steps forward. “I wanted to apologize for your father. What he said wasn’t right and we won’t be cutting off your trust fund.”

            “I told you I don’t care about that. You can keep your money, it means nothing to me, just like the two of you mean nothing.”

            I saw her flinch, but she didn’t back away. “Well, you’ll still have the trust fund, regardless if you need it or not. I know you hate me, but I wanted to say that it’s nice to see you happy again. I’m glad you found someone that you love.”

            Blake reached for my hand and I laced my fingers with his. He was silent for a moment. Finally, he sighed and he stopped scowling. “You should be happy for me, because if it wasn’t for her, I’d never speak to you again. But I know that it wasn’t your idea to keep me here while you guys took off. Give me some time and I may be able to forgive you at some point. But I’ll never forgive your husband.”

            Relief flitted across her face. “I can understand that. And I never should have agreed to you staying here without us. I can’t take back what we did, but I hope you’ll let me back into your life, at least enough to talk on the phone.”

            Blake nodded once and then bent to grab his bag. “Talking on the phone I can handle for now.”

            I smiled timidly at her. “I’ll see you later,” I said.

            “It was very nice meeting you, Hailey.”

            “You too,” I replied. Blake started tugging me towards the door then, so with one final wave, I let him lead me away from his parents.

*

How many people want to help me form a lynch mob to go after Robert? Hopefully this gives you a little more insight as to why Blake is the way he is.

I'm not sure how much longer this story will be. There's still a few major things that have to happen, so there's at least five or six chapters left, probably more. Then I'll be editing and tweaking it a but before sending it to the publishers.

It's effing cold out here right now, so I've gone into hibernation mode, which means I'll be trying to write more often :-). And when I say effing cold, I mean it. It's like, -48 or something with the windchill hear. You should all feel sorry for me.

As always comment to let me know what you think! Oh, and it's dedicated to my brother because he's awesome :-)