Page 122 of Breakout
“You have me.” I stand and pull her out of the chair.
Quickly I sit down and pull her into my lap. Peyton curls into my arms and stares out the window. I stay silent as I hold her, giving her time. Every time one of our phones vibrates, I ignore it. She gets all of my attention right now.
Peyton is all that matters.
I don’t know how much time has passed when she finally speaks.
“I don’t know if I’m going to win.”
“You will. Matthias made his feelings widely known. The judge can’t look away from that.”
A hysterical laugh bursts out of her. “I’m rich. Or I will be.”
I can’t help but laugh. “I’m glad one of us is, since my dad cut me off.”
She turns in my lap, her face full of confusion. “Wait, what?”
“Yeah, he gave me an ultimatum: leave you or be cut off.”
“And you chose me?”
“Baby, haven’t you realized I’ll choose you every time?”
Panic crosses her face. “Beckett…”
“No, don’t say anything, okay? Let’s just leave it be for now. Let’s concentrate on you.”
She bites her lower lip and nods. “Okay, but are you okay?”
“I’m good.”
“I feel like you’ve lost everything because of me, though.”
“Nah, that’s not true.” I sigh as I choose my words carefully. “My dad had my whole life planned out and never consulted me. He wanted me to do things that I never wanted or, hell, was comfortable with. He never cared about what I wanted, and over time the pressure has built. I couldn’t take it anymore and finallysaid no. He cut me off in hopes I would come to heel, but that’s not going to happen.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“Peyton, between work, school, and this court case, you’ve been a little busy. You had enough on your plate. I didn’t need to burden you with my bullshit.”
“I thought we were a team,” she says softly.
I squeeze her tight. “We are a team.”
Her eyes search mine. “If we are a team, you can’t hide these kinds of things from me. I need to know. I hate secrets, Beck.”
I raise a brow, and she rolls her eyes as she adds, “I hate secrets between us. I feel like you’re the only person I’m honest with nowadays, and it’s starting to really wear on me.”
“We could always tell everyone the truth,” I remind her.
“We could, but I’m not ready. Besides, I don’t know if they would believe us if we told them.”
“Why not?”
She shrugs her shoulders but doesn’t explain.
Annoyance rolls through me, but I tamp it down. I’m sick of her insisting we hide our relationship from our friends, but this isn’t the time to push. She’s had a hard day, and the last thing she needs is me making it any worse.
“Okay. So, what are you going to do with the estate? Are you going to keep Jeeves on?”
