Page 218 of Always Love You More
“I’ve got it,” I tell her. “I won’t come in, and I won’t let you stay the night at my house.”
“Thank you,” she breathes.
“Unless I have to,” I clarify. “I’m not risking you getting hurt.”
“Okay,” she murmurs, although she doesn’t sound okay.
I drop down on the couch as silence settles between us, minutes passing before she finally speaks.
“Do you think it’ll ever not be like this?”
“Like what?”
She sighs. “So fucking hard all the time. It just feels like it’s one thing after another. Like we can’t ever catch a break.”
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “Sometimes, it doesn’t feel like it.”
“It scares me,” she confesses. “That this life will destroy me, eat at me until there’s nothing left.”
“That’s not gonna happen.”
A lighter sparks again. “How do you know?”
“’Cause you’ve got me. You’ve got Billy. And there’s no way either of us would let you lose yourself like that.”
“You never know what’ll happen, though.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I say. “’Cause for there to be nothing left of you, there’d have to be nothing left of me.”
“Jamie …”
“And trust me, baby; I’d give you fucking everything.”
She sucks in a breath.
“And you’d give me everything, too, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,” she whispers.
“So that’s how I know,” I tell her. “Why I’m not scared. Because life can’t leave us with nothing when we’re both willing to give each other everything.”
Chapter 51
Sam
“Don’tforget,Istartat the food bank today,” I say as we pull into the parking lot of the diner.
The project at the park wrapped up a couple of days ago, so I’m finishing the last few weeks of my community service at the local food bank.
“I know,” Jameson answers, turning to face me. “I’ll be there to pick you up.”
“Thanks,” I murmur, leaning in to kiss him.
We’ve been sneaking around the last few weeks, trying our best to avoid my father and Carson. Whenever Jameson picks me up, he parks down the street and if we go out, I tell my father I’m working late.
Him and Carson seem to be losing interest in keeping tabs on me, but we’re still careful.
Jameson threads his fingers through my hair, pulling me in closer.
