“Only Nina.”
“And Keith?”
“Yes, and I don’t know who he told. But I don’t think he’s told anyone, it’s been thirteen years and I’ve never done anything to provoke him.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose.
All the happiness I had with him fades away. My walls start to come back up, needing to protect myself so that I don’t break.
“I’m…”
The house phone rings and the fear I had shifts. No one but Chastity and my mother have this number. It’s our phone for emergencies. “I have to get that.” I leap out of the bed and reach for the phone. “Chas?”
“No, it’s your mother.”
I sigh and wish I had checked the stupid number.
“Is everything okay?”
“You need to come to the house, someone is here.”
I look to Derek, who is staring at me with a look I can’t decipher whether it’s confusion or anger. I turn back to the wall, not wanting to deal with any of this.
“Who is it?”
She clears her throat. “Keith.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Teagan
Present
“You don’t have to go,” I tell Derek for the fifth time.
He’s been silent on the drive since I told him Keith was at my mother’s house. I have no idea what to think or why the hell he’s there. Part of our agreement was that he gave me all copies of the tape and I would never contact him and he would leave me alone as well. I wanted to ensure he was gone and I would never have to worry about this exact scenario.
“So you’ve said.”
He’s being cold and it hurts. Not to mention I’m a fucking mess. For all I know Keith is going to try to take Chastity or he released the fucking tape. I don’t know anything and I feel like I’m ready to explode.
Between telling Derek and this…I’m at the edge. I don’t need his attitude.
“You don’t have to do this. I’ve done just fine by myself.”
He shakes his head. “I’m going.”
Great. I really could use someone who is pissed off to deal with Keith for the first time in thirteen years—not.
I release a heavy sigh. “Look, I understand you’re upset with me, but it took everything inside of me to tell you about the stupid tape. I’m sorry that you’re so disgusted with me that you can’t look at me, but if this is how it’s going to be, I would’ve rather come alone.”
He doesn’t say anything, he jerks the car into the parking lot of Mrs. McCutchrey’s store. “You think I’m angry with you?”
“You haven’t said a word the entire time. I’m clearly upset about reliving my past and now I have to actually see him. You’re being cold and distant, which is everything you’re not. What the hell am I supposed to think?”
“That I’m on the verge of fucking killing him! That’s what you should think. You should know that the idea of that son of a bitch threatening you would lead me to debate homicide and whether I could endure conjugal visits instead of having you every day and whether Everly could survive it. That’s what you should think. You should know that I’ve always loved you and wanted to protect you and right now”—his voice shakes—“I hate myself for failing you when you needed me.”
The hurt I was feeling dissipates. He isn’t angry at me, he’s angry at Keith. There’s no disgust, just rage at the person who used a situation to get what he wanted. I don’t know that I could love this man any more than I do right now.
“Well, I suggest against those options.” I say it as a joke, but there’s nothing in his eyes that says he sees anything funny about this.
“He threatened you, Teagan! He took away all your power because he didn’t want to part with what? His precious money?”
“I guess.”
“He’s a coward.”
“Yes. He is.”
He takes my hands in his. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you years ago how I felt and then maybe you wouldn’t have dealt with him the way you did. I would’ve protected you or I don’t know…been there! Keith should be castrated for what he did. He gave up his kid and for what? Freedom? And then he comes after you because he’s that much of an asshole? I swear to God, Teagan, I’m going to beat the fuck out of him. And then, I want to punch myself! I’m fucking sorry that I acted like a dick and you thought it was you. It’s not you, baby.”
It’s the first time I’ve felt like what I did wasn’t so horrible.
“You didn’t do anything,” I try to reassure him.
“No. And that’s the problem.”
I’ve spent so much time hating myself for the things I didn’t do when it came to Derek and it seems he’s done the same.
“If we’re going to work…” I say tenderly.
“We are going to work. There is no if in this.”
I smile. “Okay, well, in order to make this work, we have to start really forgiving ourselves for the past. We did what we did, and it sucks that we didn’t have time together, but we have the future. Keith, Meghan, all the things we should’ve done, have to not be things you and I dwell on.”
He nods, releases my hand, and then turns to look out the window. “Do you have any idea why he could be here now?”
The nerves are back and my stomach is in knots. “I don’t and that’s what worries me.”
“Are his parents here?”
“They fly south for the winter.”
He shakes his head.
“I don’t get it.”
Keith hasn’t so much as stepped foot in this town since Chastity was born. His parents go see him. If he did visit, I never heard of
