Page 98 of Let Me
“You can’t tell me what to do.” She doesn’t want a new apartment. But I don’t trust my father not to come looking for her again.
But I knew those words were coming. I grin at her. “And I’m going to stay there, too, three weeks at a time. I can take three weeks of every month away from the company. One week, I’ll have to come back here for meetings and bullshit, but three weeks out of every four, I’ll be there, with you, working from home.”
Benji arches a brow at the edge of the pool.
I sigh. “And the week I’m gone, Benji will stay near you. Notwith you,” I grit out, glaring at Benji, “but at your new apartment complex. We already got two units.”
Riley looks from me to Benji with her mouth open.
I open her hand and put something in it.
She looks down, confused, taking in the white-gold band and the big, black diamond sparkling beneath the sun. She’s always had a thing for black. It’s just…her.
She gasps.
“This is…” she looks up at me, holding up the ring as if it might bite her.
“I would ask you to marry me, but that’s not really how we do things, is it? Instead…” I smile at her, and pull her to me, the ring buried between us in her hand. “Instead, I’ll just tell you. You’re going to marry me, Riley Larson, and there’s not a damn thing you can say to change my mind. As soon as you’re done with school, we’ll have a proper wedding.”
“And I’ll be the best man,” Benji says behind us, joining us.
I roll my eyes. “Only if you keep your hands to yourself.”
Riley throws her arms around me, wraps her legs around my waist. I see Benji move in to hug her, too, but I remember how we started that sex the three of us had, with her in the middle like this, and I glare at him.
He backs off, and I wrap my hands along Riley’s legs, tugging her into me.
“I love you,” she breathes into my ear.
I kiss her neck and she shivers. I can feel her nipples harden against me, beneath her swimsuit. I make a note to get her a less revealing one for when she swims with Benji.
“I love you too, baby,” I say.
And for one of the first times in my life, I can’t stop smiling.
FORTY
Present
THE RING IS GORGEOUS, andme, and I can’t stop looking at it, but it isn’t really what matters.
As the three of us—Benji, Caden, and me—walk to Jack’s grave, beneath the bright noon sun, a gentle breeze on the air, I know what matters most.
It’s this.
It’s us.
Caden’s jaw is clenched when we stand before the statue of an angel,Jack Scott Viranietched in elegant script at the base of the tombstone. I see his eyes shining, and he pulls his sunglasses down from his head over his eyes.
I squeeze his hand, and Benji stands a little way behind us, respectful and quiet.
Gently, Caden pulls his fingers from mine, and then he sinks to his knees. He has one hand planted on the angel’s feet, the other over his own face. I see his shoulders shaking, silent tears streaming down his nose, over his lips.
I make to reach for him, but Benji’s warm hand on my bare shoulder stops me. I let him, understanding that whatever Caden is feeling, whatever he’s thinking, he might want to keep it between him and Jack.
He’s already told me he’s sorry more than a dozen times. Last night he kissed me, all over, as if he was trying to atone for his sins. And even though Jack was a shit sometimes, and I was a shit right back, he never deserved this.
Caden starts to speak.
