Page 30 of Forced to Share
Mrs. Bennett shook her head, standing from her spot, rounding the table to stand behind her son. Her hands landed on his shoulders, and maybe this was the moment I was looking for where it showed that they cared about him just as much as they did Leah.
“That’s nonsense. Why didn’t you tell us anything?”
Austin huffed out a laugh. “This is why. I was in California, on the other side of the country, and I didn’t want to freak you out. It sucked, and it broke my trust with people for a while...”
Our eyes connected again,my heart shattered in my chest. I’d never meant to do something like that to him. We’d been two young, dumb teenagers in college, and I’d made a huge mistake. The last few days felt like he was giving me a shot. I needed to do everything in my power not to fuck it up again.
“Oh, honey—”
“Mom, it’s fine. It was years ago, I’ll move on eventually.”
That made my face heat and the floor drop out from under me. I didn’t want Austin to move on. Right then and there I made up my mind that I’d figure it out. If it meant I had to move back to California, I’d do it. It wasn’t like my family had tried to reach out to me since I’d left. They probably wouldn’t even notice that I was back. It didn’t stop the little voice in the back of my head that there was a chance they could see me, see who I was with and pass judgment, but did I really care anymore? Not really. My happiness was more important.
It didn’t matter that Austin had tried to reassure his mother—she pulled him from his chair wrapping him in a tight hug. All I could do was watch because this was all because of me. I’d hurt both of their children at some point. I wasn’t going to win over these parents at the end of the day.
And that’s when I looked over to see Leah watching me, her eyes squinted in interest.
Sweat beaded on my back, and if my heart didn’t slow down soon, I was bound to have a heart attack. You could have those at twenty-four, right? Hell, you could probably have them at any age, but I was in the prime of my life and in great shape. I didn’t need the vital organ giving out on me now.
My hand thudded a little too hard against the table, making the utensils and glasses bounce as I set down my napkin. Crap, now everyone was watching me. “Uhm, if you’ll excuse me for a moment.”
I stood from my chair and rushed to the bathroom in the hall, closing the door behind me. My back rested against the wood as I struggled to pull in lungfuls of air because the space was maybe a little too small for my freak-out. I closed my eyes for a moment the room spinning wasn’t helping anything, I lunged for the sink, turned the tap all the way to cold and splashed water onto my face.
Get your shit together, Jeremy.
Just when I thought I was starting to calm down, someone knocked on the door.
“Jeremy?”
My eyes closed again, I splashed a little more water on my face before answering Leah.
“I’m fine.”
She jiggled the door handle, when the door opened, I groaned, realizing that I’d forgotten to lock the damn thing.
Leah stood in the doorway, her entire posture stiff as she stared me down. “Jesus, Jer. This doesn’t look like you’re fine. What the hell happened back there?”
I shook my head because I didn’t know how to answer the question without throwing both me and Austin under the proverbial bus.
Maybe she thought that it wasn’t about her brother, but about the situation with us because the next thing I knew, she was at my side and rubbing my back. “You know we have time when we get back. It’ll be a little awkward at first, but I’m not just going to kick you out. I don’t think either of us can afford that place on our own.”
It was probably a little fucked up that I chose that moment to laugh, but it was hard not to. At least shedidn’t suspect that I’d already been fucking around with her brother.
“There you guys are.”
I jumped at the sound of Austin’s voice, it was stupid because it wasn’t like I was doing anything wrong. Years of hiding things made someone naturally jumpy. It caused issues for Leah and me from time to time, but she learned quickly that I was just someone who didn’t handle surprises all that well.
Doing my best to play off that I almost just gave us away, I wiped the extra moisture from my face. “It’s all good. We were just coming back.”
Austin nodded. “Well, Mom is clearing the table. She thought we were all done since everyone was getting up. Might as well come to the living room and wait for her to bring out dessert.”
I sighed because the dinner had been amazing. Hopefully, Mrs. Bennett hadn’t thought I was being rude by not finishing things.
Chapter 21
Austin
Of course I’d followed Leah to go find Jeremy. I knew exactly why he was freaking out, even though a small part of me was celebrating seeing just how upset he was over the whole thing, it really had been years. It was true that I had trust issues because of it. There was no telling when the next potential guy would up and disappear, so I never gave them the chance to get that close.
