“That feeling is mutual,” I murmured, not able to pull my lips from his.
Faith and I sat in stiff chairs across from Mr. Higgins. Students had already left the building for the end of the day, and we were here to meet with Rosie’s parents. The principal called us five minutes before dismissal to let us know about the meeting. Faith was trembling beside me, and I clenched my hands into fists. This situation was affecting her differently than it was me. She was feeling helpless and heartbroken for Rosie, but I had a surge of anger in me that made me want to kill the bastard that laid hands on her.
Rosie and her parents walked through the door. We rose to shake their hands.
“Nice to see you both again,” Faith said before Rosie gave her a hug.
They smiled before shifting their attention to me. “My name’s Kathryn. I’m Rosie’s mother.”
“I’m Ben, her father,” he told me before they sat on the love seat situated on the wall next to us, Rosie in the middle of them. They had pulled her dirty blonde hair into a ponytail and her blue eyes were red and puffy like she’d been crying for days.
“You weren’t supposed to tell anyone!” Rosie sobbed. “He-He said he’d kill my parents.”
Kathryn pulled her into an embrace as she cried, Kathryn’s bottom lip trembled.
Ben patted her back. “He could never hurt us, sweetheart.” He turned to me. “Thank you. I am so grateful that she told you so we could get her away from him.”
I took a deep breath. “Sir, I just want what’s best for Rosie. You don’t have to thank me for doing what needed to be done.”
Kathryn’s tear-filled blue eyes met mine. “We appreciate you.”
Mr. Higgins cleared his throat as Officer Richards came in. “Alright, so it seems like this case is going to court.” Rosie’s parents nodded. “Officer Richards is here to walk you through some paperwork. Before that, I wanted Ms. Reed and Mr. Wells here to see if they’d be interested in testifying for the case, if it gets to that point.”
“Before you answer, I need to be frank,” Officer Richards said. “These cases rarely ever go to court because it’s obvious who committed the crime, and it’s easy to gather the evidence to put the perpetrator in jail. The only reason this is going is because he got himself a top dollar lawyer willing to fight for this.” His face twisted into disgust. “How he could find anyone who would back him, I do not understand. I don’t predict this case getting to the point of you testifying. This is an open and close case, directly to the point,” he finished.
“I’ll testify,” Faith said, giving Rosie and her parents a reassuring smile. “I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
“I figured you would,” Mr. Higgins nodded. “What about you, Mr. Wells?”
I unclenched my fists before clenching them again. “I’ll do whatever I need to.”
Officer Richards gave us a broad smile. “Thank you both, you may leave now. I have to go over some paperwork with the Jenkins’.” He nodded toward the door.
Faith and I stood, saying goodbye before we left the office. We stopped by The Coffee Shop to grab something for dinner. She, of course, got her bagel sandwich to go, and I got one as well.
We didn’t talk much until we were home, snuggled up on the couch eating our dinner. A pit in my stomach accompanied the silence as I worried about Rosie. That little girl was far too young to deal with what she had to, let alone go to court. Whoever the bastard lawyer was to back that monster was just as evil as her uncle was. That’s why I hated lawyers. They only cared about payday and rarely had morals.
“My heart is absolutely broken for her,” Faith whispered, staring down at her half-eaten sandwich.
I kissed her forehead. “Mine too, but we’ll do everything we can to help her.”
She nodded and grabbed her phone. The screen lit up with Preston’s name, and she groaned.
“Why the fuck is he calling?” Seeing his name on her phone sent a fiery rage through me.
She shook her head and handed me the phone. “I don’t know but I don’t want to speak to him.”
“What do you want?” I answered.
“I want Faith. Not you,” he said.
“Fuck off,” I grumbled, ending the call and handing her the phone back.
“Thanks,” she smiled before the phone began ringing again. Her smile dropped, and she hit the ignore button. Then he called four more times, each time she hit ignore.
On the fifth call, she sighed, and pressed the answer followed by the speaker button. “What do you want?” she asked.
“I realized my apology at the cafe wasn’t sincere enough. I’m sorry,” his cocky voice rang through. Fuck, I’d never wanted to punch someone so badly.
“Yeah, you fucked up, but I was going to end it, regardless.” She took another bite of her sandwich.
“You’re really not who I thought you were, Faith,” he said.
“Same to you,” she muttered before ending the call and blocking his number. “There, now he won’t be calling me anytime soon.”
I kissed her lips. “You’re perfect.”
I felt her smile against my lips. I loved that feeling of my lips on hers. She was something I wanted to get used to. I wanted her for the rest of my life.
I sprayed the essential oil cleaning spray on the counters and wiped it with a microfiber cloth. Asher and I had spent so much time together, we had slacked on cleaning and the house had been in a disastrous state.
Asher’s warm hands captured my waist. “Still cleaning?” he asked, his breath tickled my ear.
I pressed my ass back into his groin, and a low whimper escaped him. “I want it spotless for our friends.”
“We still have at least thirty minutes. We could always indulge in a little fun?” His hand skimmed between
