Jailbait by Emily Goodwin Page B

chest.  
    “We never should have stopped,” she whispers.  
    “Fucking? You’re a selfish lover.”  
    “That’s not entirely what I meant,” she says with a smile. “Being together.”  
    Her words awaken a dead part of my heart. I want her to say it again and again, shouting it from the rooftops so I can believe it to be true.  
    And at the same time, I want her to take it back.  
    Being together now isn’t going to be as easy as it was back then.  
    “Or maybe we should have,” she adds when I don’t respond, and starts to move away.  
    I tighten my hold on her, and hook a leg over hers. “No. I agree, Pepper. When I said I’ve missed you…I meant it.” She relaxes again, snuggling in close. I can’t help but think this is how my life is supposed to be.
    It’s how it could have been, if shit hadn’t gone down all those years ago.  
    “Then why did you leave and never come back?”  
    Her words cut through the air, landing a knife in my heart. The last words I spoke to her were a hasty goodbye, followed with a promise of seeing her soon. A few text messages were exchanged after that, but you lose cellphone privileges in prison.  
    “I had to help my dad with something,” I give a variation of the truth. That’s still a lie, and I know it.  
    “You said that. That’s all you said, though. What did he need help with that made you forget about me?” The vulnerability slips from her lips without her intending it to. Guilt crushes me.  
    “I never forgot about you, Pepper.” I close my eyes and bury my face in her hair. By the time I got out of prison, Pepper had a new boyfriend. Maybe it was presumptuous to assume she had moved on. But what else was I supposed to think? And then the shit storm at home started to rage even more. “Things were…were complicated.” The words sound like bullshit as they come from my mouth. “If I could change things, I would.”  
    She lets out a breath and plants a soft kiss on my lips. “The past is in the past. We were young and both made some stupid decisions. I’m still mad at you for leaving, but if you keeping fucking me like this, I just might forgive you.”  
    I can’t help the smile that pulls up my lips. “That’s a challenge I can easily win.”  
    “You better. I have very high expectations, you know.”  
    “Trust me, I won’t disappoint.”  
    “You haven’t yet.” She runs her fingers along my chest for a moment before speaking again. “Speaking of your dad…how is he?”  
    My heart skips a beat. What the fuck? How does she not know?  
    “Gray?” she says, feeling me tense. “What’s wrong?”  
    “I thought you knew. My dad died.”  
    Pepper gasps. “Oh my God. I feel terrible. Oh, Grayson, I’m so sorry!” She holds me, hugging me as tight as she can. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry you had to go through that alone.”  
    A wave of grief hits me, emotions that I’ve buried long ago, not allowing myself to feel. When Alcott showed up to my father’s funeral, I wondered where the hell Pepper was. And I’d be lying if I said it didn’t piss me off—and fucking hurt— to not see her there. But she wasn’t my girlfriend anymore. She had no obligation to show up.  
    “Your dad came to the funeral,” I blurt.
    “What?” She sits up, and I see tears pooling in her eyes. Fucking Pepper and her big heart. God, I love this woman.  
    “Your dad was there,” I repeat. “They were friends, remember?”  
    “Why wouldn’t he tell me?” She shakes her head. “Why would he go out there and not tell me?”  
    “I don’t know.” I take a breath and consider my next words carefully. “I think you need to have a talk with your father, Pepper. Ask him to explain things to you.” Alcott needs to come fucking clean about everything. Why the hell would he keep that from Pepper? It had to be because he knows the shit I was mixed up in and didn’t want Pepper involved. If he didn’t want us together