Page 86 of Save Me

I put my hand on his forearm. “I’ve been guilty of not listening to my own advice a time or two.”

He leaned closer. “Will you forgive me?”

“Don’t pull away from me again,” I said.

“I won’t.”

I leaned in the rest of the way. His mouth covered mine and his hands moved to the back of my neck. This time when he tried to control the kiss with his tongue, I rebelled. My tongue lashed back at his in a sensual dance.

He smiled against my lips. “You just won’t let me be in charge, will you?”

“You want to be in charge, you gotta earn it,” I said against his lips.

He seemed to like the challenge and he kissed me again. His fingers tugged on my hair a little, making me gasp, and he gained the upper hand. He’d nearly made me swoon when we heard someone clear their throat. We pulled apart and found Keelan standing just outside the bathroom, grinning at us.

“Am I interrupting?” he asked.

Knox sighed through his nose.

“What did you do about the class?” I asked Keelan.

“I canceled the class today. As an apology for the inconvenience, I gave them a month’s free membership. Derek’s crediting their accounts right now,” he explained, sounding a little irritated.

“I’m sorry you had to do that,” I said.

“It’s not your fault, baby girl.”

It kind of was.

“What did you mean earlier about the police not helping us with Jacob?” Keelan asked.

I told them what Jacob had said to me. How he had a guardian sheriff looking over his shoulder.

Both looked really pissed off the more I spoke.

“I hate to say this, but you’re going to have to call your uncle,” Keelan said.

Knox nodded, agreeing.

My shoulders slumped. I wasn’t looking forward to that.

* * *

Logan knocked on my door later that evening. I let him in. “What’s in the bag?” I asked, spotting the grocery bag in his hand.

He held it up. “Ice cream. It’s a peace offering.”

I bit my cheek and took the bag from him. “Would you like to have some now?”

He looked slightly surprised. “Sure.”

He followed me into the kitchen. I grabbed two bowls from the cabinet and took the ice cream out of the bag. He’d gotten me strawberry, one of my favorites. He watched me as I began scooping the ice cream into each of the bowls and then slid one of the bowls across the island toward him.

He just stared down at it as I picked up my own bowl. “I need to say something before you tell me what happened today,” he said.

“Go ahead,” I said and took a bite.

“I have no idea how to be a parent or be accountable for anyone other than myself. Your mother always made it look easy.” He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “When I became your guardian, I didn’t know what the hell to do. I regretfully treated this guardian role as a mission. Get you better. Get you somewhere safe. Get you trained. That was my first mistake—to view taking care of you like that. I did you wrong by looking the other way when you started drinking and again when you started smoking. I didn’t know how to help you and the one person I would normally call for advice was gone.” His eyes got glassy and he cleared his throat to regain his composure. “When I found all those empty bottles under your bed, I knew I really fucked up. I thought that if my sister was looking down on us, she would hate me. I tried talking to you about the drinking. You seemed to listen, but then you started running and I could see it was another unhealthy coping mechanism. I looked away again. Ian started calling about that time and told me about all the shit that was going down with X. I wanted to help. I wanted a chance to find X so I could make him pay for what he’d done to our family and make sure you were safe. I got it in my head that if I caught X, everything would be okay. You would be okay. When we sparred the other day, you made me realize how epically I have failed you and I don’t know how to express how sorry I am.”