He shakes his head. “I was hoping to run into you.”
“You were?”
He lets out a breath, looking around. “I know you have class, and normally I’d never ask you to ditch—”
“What were you thinking?” Wow, okay, that just came right out. But you know what, Chase was right. I need to start living again, and apparently, that begins with truancy.
Dylan smiles. “Grab coffees, and then there’s this place I want to show you. How long do you have?”
“I need to be at work for five, but I’m free until then,” I reply.
He rests his hand on the small of my back, nudging me forward. “You know that was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.”
I shrug. “Maybe you’ve just mastered the skill of persuasion.”
He laughs. “If that were the case, I would’ve slept with you last night instead of on that lumpy couch.”
I smile at that—if only he knew. That had nothing to do with needing to be persuaded and everything to do with astounding self-control.
I thought at first he was taking me to some hidden hole in the wall, much like his little Gentlemen’s Club, but instead, we pull up to a small cabin sitting back on a fair-sized lot with the most captivating view of the ocean.
“Where are we?”
“The cabin,” he replies.
“Obviously, Dylan, but whose cabin?”
He lets out a laugh opening his door then
turning to me before he steps out. “Come and find out.”
I watch through the windshield as he zips his coat further up his neck. I guess it would be chillier this close to the water. I zip up mine and pull up my hood before getting out and following him up the long path. It’s quite a hike, but it makes for a little more privacy, which is always nice for a getaway.
We reach the front wrap around porch, and Dylan lifts an old tin milk jug filled with sand, picking up the key under it.
“Uh, Dylan, I didn’t really schedule in time for a B & E this afternoon.”
He looks to me and snickers. “Yet here you are at my side. Robin to my Batman.”
“Truly, I’m just more curious to see what it looks like in there. Also, if anyone’s Batman, it’s me.”
“Unlikely, but I’m not one to stomp on someone else's dreams.” He turns back to the door, unlocking it then stepping in before me.
Hesitantly, I follow behind until the lights come on, and that does it; my breath is instantly taken away. “Oh my God, Dylan, this is beautiful.”
He walks in further, tilting his head and looking up as though this is the first time he’s also been here. “Yeah, it’s been so long I almost forgot what it looked like.”
I move in beside him, and without a thought, he takes hold of my hand. The feeling sends a warm tingle through my body, and as natural as it was for him, I also move in tightly to his side.
Looking around, I take it all in. The white walls offset with oversized furniture in creams and aged woods. The feminine touches kissed ever so carefully throughout. Windows covered in flowing top to bottom sheers and lightly colored Persian area rugs spread around. It’s the perfect escape—a paradise within four walls.
“Does this belong to your family?” Dylan doesn’t say anything for a moment, still taking it in. It’s not hard to tell that this place is special to him.
Giving my hand a light squeeze, he then lets it go and moves toward the kitchen area. It’s all open concept, so you can see clear through from one side of the cabin to the other. Taking off his coat and hanging it by the back door, he motions for me to do the same.
“At one time before she married my father, this is where Chase’s mom used to live. I mean, I was little, but my memories are that it had a lot more color back then. I guess after she married my dad, it got a facelift. But what you see now is how I mostly remember it.” He lets out a chuckle. “You know there was a time when this place felt more like home than anywhere else.”
“When was the last time you were here?” I ask, moving to stand across from him at the counter.
His shoulders relax, and it’s like he’s been brought back into the moment. “It’s been years. Truthfully, I think it was when I was too young to know any better. The last time I was here was when it all hit me. That no matter how often I came, hoping that maybe my stepmother would come back, it was never happening. Everything my father had said about her was true. She was in it for the money, and once she got it, she was out.”
“It hurt you when Chase’s mom left, didn’t it?”
“She had us all fooled.” Dylan takes a deep breath then looks to me, and that’s when I see it—the pain. “How can someone do that? How can someone pretend to love a kid and treat them like they are everything in the world, and then for a nice fat bank account, just leave?”
I want to reach out to him say something that would fix everything that she broke when she left, but I can’t. I see now that with Dylan, it’s going to take time. This isn’t just damage done by a woman that left a child; this is about years of believing he wasn’t good enough. Years of being told she didn’t love him enough to make her want to stay.
Dylan straightens his posture, standing tall and quite intimidating. “This was a mistake. I should never have brought you here. This whole thing is one big
