“How can you defend him! She deserves better than him,” my dad spouts.
“You’re right,” Kyle says.
My head snaps up in confusion as I look up at Kyle.
“She does deserve better than me, but for some reason, she wants to be with me. I'll sure as hell never deserve her, but I'll take whatever she gives me. I was wrong for doing what I did to you both and I apologise, but I’m not sorry that it brought her to me.” My heart swells at his words and I find myself falling for him even harder.
“Dad, he didn’t poison me against you. You were the one that took that deal, exchanging me for money. Yes, Kyle made the deal, but you chose to take the deal without so much as a second thought. You need to get help dad, you have a problem, a gambling problem,” I say.
His shoulders slump. “I know… I know… I’m sorry. Please Hayley, don’t leave me, I need you,” he cries as his face falls into his palms.
I sit down beside him and wrap my arms around him. I can’t stand seeing him like this. The last time I saw him crying like this was at my mom’s funeral three and a half years ago.
I look up at my uncle. “What do I do? I don’t know what to do.”
He steps towards me and places his hand on my shoulder, squeezing lightly. “It’s alright. You go with Kyle, I’ll stay here.”
“But-”
“Hayley, trust me. You were too young to remember your grandpa, mine, and your mom’s dad, he was an alcoholic. I tried to keep Elizabeth out of it so I helped our dad through it, as best I could. I can help him. Go.”
I sigh. “Okay.” I turn back to my dad and pull him into a hug. “Bye dad, I’ll see you soon.” I stand up and walk over to Kyle. I take one last look at my dad, fighting back the tears that sting my eyes at the sight of my dad like this, before Kyle leads me out of the house.
“Do you want me to drop you off at Gwen’s?”
“Yes please.”
We stay in silence as we drive over to Gwen’s, it stays that way as we head up the three flights of stairs until we arrive outside her door.
“Stupid question but are you okay?” he asks.
“How did it come to this?”
“Me. I set all of this in motion.”
“No. We would have ended up here eventually. My dad would have continued spiralling and we would be in this exact situation with or without you.”
“Before everything that went down tonight, I had planned on giving you this.” Kyle pulls out a small, black piece of plastic the size of a credit card, it is embossed with the logo of his hotel. “It’s the key card to the penthouse, so you can come and go as you want.”
I take it and smile. “You’re giving me a key to your apartment? Why?”
“Because I l-” he cuts himself off.
My heart jumps. Was he about to say I love you?
“Because, what?” I prompt, my heart hammering in my chest.
“Because I like it when you’re there, the place seems wrong somehow when you’re not.”
I move towards him and press my lips to his. He cups my face and backs me up against the wall behind me.
He pull back slightly, his hand still cupping my cheek. “I should go.”
I can’t contain the disappointment that creeps up on me. “Okay.”
He pecks a kiss on my lips before he turns and stalks down the corridor towards the stairwell. He glances back over his shoulder one more time before he disappears around the corner.
Chapter 23
Kyle
“Because I l-”
Shit.
Fuck.
I almost said it, those three little words that would change everything.
I love you.
What is happening to me?
What is this girl doing to me?
“Because, what?” Hayley asks, looking up at me with those beautiful emerald eyes that have haunted me since I first laid my eyes on them, pulling me in like a magnet.
Shit.
Fuck.
Because I love you.
Because I love you more than life itself.
Because life doesn’t mean shit without you in it.
Because you have brought me out of the darkness and into the light.
Because you found me at a point in my life where I needed saving without ever realising it.
Because I love you, Hayley.
“Because I like it when you’re there, the place seems wrong somehow when you’re not.”
Coward.
She edges towards me and softly presses her lips to mine. I cup her face in my hands and back her up against the wall, holding her to me.
Every time I touch this girl, I get lost in her, like she is my home, like she is where I’m meant to be. I would do anything for this girl.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you!
I pull back. “I should go.”
I don’t want to go.
I want to stay right here, with you.
But I can’t.
I can’t risk blurting out those three words that I cannot say out loud.
I can’t risk blurting out those three words that I’m too scared to say out loud.
“Okay,” she says, I can feel the disappointment radiating off of her.
My heart tugs at the hurt in her eyes.
I lean in and kiss her again before I turn on my heel and walk away like the coward I am.
Like the coward I am who is too scared to tell the girl he loves how he feels.
I make my way down the hallway heading towards the stairs.
I glance back over my shoulder to where she stands by the door, watching me.
It takes everything inside me not to turn around and lift her off the ground, tell her that I love her, rip that door off its hinges, throw her on her bed and show her how much I love her.
I love you, Hayley.
I turn my head
