Page 66 of Payback
Chapter Sixteen
Loran stumbled back when he opened his door and Grace shoved him as hard as she could. “Hey, what the hell?”
“I am so mad at you right now, Loran! What is wrong with you? You claim to love my girl, yet you keep screwing everything up!”
Wow. Loran had never seen Gracie so fired up. He held his key fob up. “Relax, will you? I’m going to see her right now. I’ll make things right.” He hoped.
“You’re a little late for that. She’s gone.”
“What?” Loran slammed the door. “What do you mean she’s gone? Where did she go?”
“She left town!” She threw her hands up in the air. “Alone, thanks to you.”
He closed his eyes and tipped his head back. This was worse than he thought if Bella felt she needed to get away from him. “Where did she go?”
Grace curled her hands into fists and propped them on her waist. “Apparently her ex is up for parole.”
“What?” Loran felt the rage bubbling up. If they let that guy back out on the street he’d better find a damn good hiding spot because he’d find him. Jail was the safest place for him if he valued his life.
“You heard me. He’s up for parole.” Her shoulders slumped. “And Bella felt she needed to go there and do her part to make sure he didn’t get out.”
“Go where?” He couldn’t let Bella go through this alone. He only hoped he wasn’t too late.
“You’re lucky,” Grace said, holding up her phone. “I made her tell me where she’s staying.”
He jogged up the stairs to pack a bag, yelling over his shoulder, “Text me the details.”
“Not so fast,” Grace said, chasing him up the stairs to his bedroom. “I want to know what happened between you two last night. Bella said you had it out.”
Loran loved Grace like a sister, but she could be nosy at times and right now he just needed a little peace and quiet to process his thoughts. Bella must have been really pissed at him if she left town without so much as a text to let him know she was leaving and when she’d be back.
He grabbed a suitcase out of his walk-in closet and tossed it on the bed before he started rifling through his armoire. “I’m an idiot, okay. That’s all you need to know.”
“No, it’s not!” She stepped in front of him, arms crossed. “If I’m going to trust you with my best friend’s heart you’re going to have to do better than that.” When he didn’t respond, she glared at him. “Listen, Loran. I let a man hurt her before, I amnevergoing to do that again.”
Loran understood why Grace felt so protective of Bella. Like the rest of them, she was reeling after learning what she’d endured alone. “I was just having some doubts last night—”
“You were having doubts?” She threw her hands up in the air. “What the hell is wrong with you? I’ve watched you mope around the past year, practically self-destructing because Bella wouldn’t give you the time of day. Now that you finally have her you’re having doubts? Are you kidding me?”
Loran let Grace wind down as he continued packing. He didn’t know when the parole hearing was and he didn’t have a minute to spare. “I wasn’t having doubts about her. I was having doubts about me, about the kind of husband I could be to her after baseball. If she’d still want me if I turned into a moody—”
“Wait a minute?” Grace grabbed his shoulder. “You said husband. Are you thinking about proposing to her?”
He’d been thinking about it every minute since she walked out on him. He wanted Bella in his life forever and watching her leave last night reminded him that he couldn’t live without her again.
“Yeah, I am.” He bit his lip as he waited for Grace to say something. When she didn’t he asked, “Do you think I’m crazy? Is it too soon? Would I just push her away or spook her, proposing before she’s ready?” If anyone would know where her head and heart were it was Grace.
“I think you’d be crazy not to follow your heart.” She patted his chest. “You clearly love her. You’ve told her that, right?”
He nodded.
“And has she told you?”
He nodded again when the words got trapped in his throat.
“You know she’s never said that to another guy, right?” Grace smiled. “She once told me if she ever found the right man she’d tell him, but he’d be the only one she ever said those words to. I guess you’re the lucky one, Loran. Congratulations.”
He felt like the luckiest man in the world to have earned Bella’s love. “I keep disappointing her.” And knowing that killed him. “I want to be the man she needs me to be, but I have issues too, Gracie. Things from my past that keep coming back to haunt me.” An image of his dad, drunk and slumped in the streets with all his worldly possessions surrounding him flashed through his mind.
