Ruin Me, Daddy novel · Chapter 11 of 32

Chapter 11: Storm

Marlee looked at the truck, then at Forrest, then at me.

"Go," she said.

"You drove me all the way down here."

"And I'll drive me all the way back, with the radio up, eating gas station Funyuns." She hugged me hard. Then, in my ear, "Text me proof of life."

"And forearms?"

"Don't push it."

She pointed her keys at Forrest as she walked past him.

"She's had a day."

"I know," he said.

"I mean a day, sir."

"I know."

She got in the Civic and rattled down the ramp.

I climbed into the truck. It smelled like coffee and cold leather and him.

He didn't ask me what happened. He just pulled out into Nashville traffic and drove north.

The rain started at the state line.

By Bowling Green it was coming down sideways, faster than the wipers could clear it.

Semis threw walls of water across the windshield.

He slowed to forty and held the wheel with both hands.

Lightning lit the fields white, then black.

"I saw her," I said. "The face. She was wearing my cardigan."

He glanced at me.

"She had my braid. Somebody braided her hair to look like mine."

"I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that."

"Okay." A beat. "I'm sorry I keep saying it."

I laughed, and then I was crying, and it was awful and loud. I hated it.

He didn't reach for me. He turned the heat up and passed me a clean red bandanna from the console.

When I could talk again, I told him all of it.

I told him about the clock and the memo, section nine and the poster, and the text.

Bills paid. Thanks, Honey.

When I said that one, his hands tightened on the wheel until his knuckles went pale.

"Jessa," he said.

I waited.

He looked at the road for a long time.

"Nothing," he said. "Just hold on. The road's bad."

It was past midnight when we came up the long drive to the distillery.

The creek had come over the low road. Brown water ran fast across the gravel between the farmhouse and the cottage, a foot deep and rising.

He stopped the truck.

"You're not walking through that," he said. "You'll sleep in the house."

"In the guest room?"

He didn't answer that. He didn't have to.

We ran for the porch, and twenty feet of rain soaked me to the skin anyway.

My cardigan hung off me.

Inside, the house was dark and loud with the storm on the tin porch roof.

He turned on one lamp. The green one, in the study.

I followed him in, dripping on the rug.

The wingback sat in the corner, by the bookshelves where he'd kissed me.

The grate was a black square in the ceiling over an empty room.

He pulled a wool blanket off the back of the chair and held it out to me.

I didn't take it.

"Forrest."

He waited.

"You said you wouldn't do this while I was standing in his shadow."

"I did."

"I stood in front of twelve strangers today and told a man he put my grandmother in his porn. I didn't stand in anybody's shadow. I stood under a ring light."

He lowered the blanket.

"I said I'd decide," I said. "And I said I'd tell you in words."

"You did."

"So here are the words."

My voice wasn't Honey's, or my microphone voice, or my hotel voice.

It was just mine, a little hoarse from crying.

"I want you. Tonight. In this room. Not upstairs, not the guest room. Here, with the lamp on, where you can see it's me."

He didn't move for a second.

"You're sure."

"I just said it in words."

He set the blanket down on the arm of the chair.

"Then come here," he said. "And keep talking. I want to hear that one."

I walked over to him slowly.

The rain had stopped hammering long enough that the room felt quiet.

← Chapter 10 · All chapters · Chapter 12 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend