ALL THE RAGE (writer: T.M. Frazier)(74)

Nolan had dropped me off at my parents’ house. My chest tightened. I clutched the top of the comforter. He probably couldn’t even look at me, but didn’t know where else to dump me.

I tugged off the covers and inspected my leg. It was just a scratch. “How long have I been out?”

“Three days,” my father said. You had us worried, but the doc came and said there was nothing wrong with you and that we should just let you sleep.

“Three days?” I asked, sitting up. My head was pounding.

“And your mother is right. You shouldn’t ski on slopes you aren’t prepared for. It’s dangerous, and as much as we are so happy to have you home again, we want you to be—”

“Va,” I said, interrupting him. “I think you both know I wasn’t skiing. I didn’t hurt my leg on any slope. I was never in Paris. EVER.”

The gasps of surprise that I was expecting never came. Instead, my parents linked hands across my bed. My mother brushed a loose strand of hair off my face. “We know, Mijn Zoeteken. Your Photoshop skills are shit.”

My father started laughing and then my mother. Suddenly, I was in the twilight zone where my parents laughed about my lies. “What the hell’s going on?” I asked.

“Hope, my darling. We know you’re different,” my mother said, looking at me with a loving look in her eyes. “We don’t know what you do out there but we know it is not what you say. To be frank with you, we don’t want to know.” My mother continued while my father nodded and squeezed her hand. “We want you to be free and happy. So to us, you were skiing in the mountains just like that boy downstairs said you were. As long as you’re not out there hopped up on the heroin or campaigning for Donald Trump, your father and I are content to live in ignorant bliss, because we know it means we can keep you in our lives.”

My turned my head from side to side, looking between the two of them. “I can’t believe…” I paused. “Wait, backup. Where did you say Nolan was?”

“Downstairs,” my father said. “He’s been here the entire time. He refused to leave your side until your mother forced him to go downstairs to eat breakfast a few minutes ago.”

I leapt off the bed and leapt down the stairs. There is no way this was reality. I’d slept, my parents stopped pretending like they believed my lies. And the man I loved, who’d watched as another man f*cked me, had been by my side while I SLEPT for three days. There was no f*cking way…

But there was. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, he was there, sitting on a barstool at my parents’ breakfast counter, looking unshaved and disheveled with dark circles under his eyes as he picked apart a piece of toast.

“Hi,” I said, tugging at the bottom of my T-shirt, not realizing until just then that I didn’t have any shorts on.

Nolan looked at me for one second and then two. In those two seconds, it seemed like an eternity went by, and I wished I could be in his mind and know what he was thinking. I didn’t have to wait long. He stood up, knocking the barstool to the side and wasted no time making his way over to me. He picked me up, sat me on the counter and kissed me like I was his world.

I kissed him back with everything I had and everything I was. “I’m so sorry,” I said when we finally pulled back.

Nolan shook his head and kissed me again, silencing me. The next time he pulled back he said, “You’ve never been one to apologize. I don’t want my girl picking up all sorts of bad habits now just because she’s in a relationship. Besides, my girl doesn’t apologize.”

“No? And you like this girl?” I asked, my heart racing.

Nolan dipped his head down and brushed his lips against mine. “No, I don’t like her,” he said, searching my eyes and flashing me one of his big ridiculous smiles. “I love her.”





CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE





We said our good-byes to my parents, but only after promising we’d come back over for dinner soon. My mother handed me a recipe for potato leak soup after Nolan had told her he was moving me in with him. I think she assumed I’d go all Julia Child and become some domestic or something. I smiled and took the card politely, watching out of the corner of my eye as Nolan tried not to laugh.

“Oh and here. I got the blood out,” my mother said, coming out from the laundry room with Nolan’s cut in her hands.

“Thank you, Mrs. Michaels,” Nolan said with polite Southern charm, shrugging it back on. “You did amazing. I can never seem to get blood of out this thing.” My mother clasped her hands together and pulled Nolan in for a hug. “Anytime, you just bring our girl back to see us soon.”

“I will,” Nolan said, pulling me into his side. “You can count on it.”

I looked between my parents and Nolan and decided that I didn’t care if I was living in the twilight zone.

I liked it there.

Back at the cottage, Nolan and I spent a lot time loving up on Murray as we watched the sun set from the deck. I promised the flea monster I’d take good care of him and I wouldn’t leave him alone anymore. It felt good to be back in the house I’d grown to love with the stupid dog I’d learned to love, with the sexy biker I was over the moon in love with.

After dark, Nolan took my hand and led me down to the beach. He wasted no time pushing me down into the sand. Then his lips were on mine, his weight on top of me. Crushing me. The pain in my chest was no longer from thinking I didn’t feel enough to be with him, but from knowing how much I loved him.