Page 57 of Forgotten Dreams
“I don’t know a lot about a lot of things,” Theo starts as she gets to her bedroom door and slams it, “and I may be rusty when it comes to women and relationships, but that woman does not like you.”
“She one thousand percent likes me, or else she would have told you to take me with you.” I shake my head and walk over to the plywood. I hold it up while he nails it into place. “I’ll call Mitchell tomorrow.” I mention the guy who does windows. “Thanks for coming to help.”
He nods at me, shaking his head. “Good luck with that one.” He motions with his chin to the upstairs where Sierra is.
I lock the door after him before shutting off the light and walking up the steps. Opening the door, I find her in her bed, looking at the door. “Did I not tell you to see yourself out?”
“You did.” I kick off my boots and then toss the baseball hat onto the bench in front of her bed. “You calm down yet?”
She sits up and folds her arms over her chest, and I see she’s wearing the same thing she tried to wear to bed yesterday. “Me calm down? You need to calm down.”
“I’m sorry,” I finally say and she just stares at me, not sure what to say to that. “I shouldn’t have flown off the handle like that, but I was very fucking worried.”
“Well—” I don’t give her a chance to say another word.
“Tomorrow”—I shake my head and pull off my T-shirt—“more like in four hours, we are going to call someone and get fucking cameras all around this fucking house.” I unbutton my pants and remove my jeans, keeping on my boxers before walking to the side of the bed. “Now, I know we said we sleep naked, but I’m fucking exhausted.”
“We didn’t say anything about sleeping naked. You were the one who said it.” She watches me get into bed with her.
“Turn off the lights, baby,” I urge softly, and she reaches to turn off her bedside table lamp, bringing the room into darkness. I get on my side, reaching for her and bringing her to me. “Tonight scared me,” I admit to her, my voice soft.
“It scared me too,” she confesses as she buries her face in my neck, and I’m finally able to relax with her in my arms. Kissing the top of her head, it takes a while to find her asleep, but she becomes heavy in my arms. I spend most of the night listening to her breathing until sleep finally takes me.
I arrive at the barn a little later than I like, and Emmett and Charlie are waiting for me. “You look like shit,” Emmett states the minute I get close enough to them, a sly smile on his lips.
“Yeah.” I shake my head. “Someone threw a fucking rock through Sierra’s front window last night.”
Charlie immediately stands up straight, the smile on Emmett’s face quickly erased. “I need to get her cameras.”
“I have someone,” Charlie offers, pulling out his phone from his back pocket. His fingers fly across the screen. “I’ll call them.”
“I think it’s her birth parents,” I admit to them. Charlie’s fingers stop moving, while Emmett hisses from beside me. “Two days ago she got a letter telling her to stop looking and then the rock that was thrown through her window in the middle of the fucking night had the word Leave in red spray paint across it.”
“Shit,” Emmett hisses, “that’s not good.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” I put my hands on my hips. “Police can’t do shit either since there is no evidence anywhere.”
“Shocking,” Charlie says. “We’ll get the cameras up today, and if they come back to fuck with her, we’ll catch them.”
“You talk to her about dropping this whole thing?” Emmett asks me and I look over at him.
“What do you think?”
“Yeah, thought so,” he replies. “Does she have someone who she is with during the day?”
“For now,” I answer, “Theo. Except he is going to be finished working there in the next two weeks.”
“What about at night?”
“I’m moving in with her,” I tell them and their eyebrows go up.
“She know about this?” Emmett asks me, trying not to laugh.
“She will when I bring my stuff over to her house and unpack.” I look over at the barn.
“Sounds like a solid plan.” Charlie tries not to laugh.
“Only got one plan,” I explain to him, “and that is to make sure she is fucking safe.” I nod at them. “The only thing I care about is her being safe. I can deal with her being pissed.” They don’t say anything else because I walk away from them and toward the barn, not willing to admit to them that I’m so fucking gone for her it’s not even funny.
