“About a month after I found him and Patricia in bed together, I woke up to Peter straddling me. That night I had bunked down in one of the guest rooms. He was doped up on meth and had a knife in his hand. He said it should have been me and not him. I woke up in the hospital days later. Alone. Ry was the only person who came to visit me the entire two weeks I was stuck there recovering.”
That’s how he got his scars, I conclude, reading between the lines. I don’t ask about Ryder, even though I’m so desperately want to. I don’t ask Fallon anything more. I can’t hear another word. It’s too painful. His parents are monsters. He was a child, and no one protected him. The only thing he ever felt growing up was pain. He has been hurt by every person who should have loved him.
“I’m so sorry, Fallon. I’m so fucking sorry.” I don’t know what else to say. No, that’s not true. I know exactly what I need to say.
“I love you, Fallon.”
“What?”
“I love you,” I repeat.
He turns around and stares at me, confusion and need warring within his blue eyes.
“No, you don’t. You can’t. I’m unclean. Every piece of me is filthy and tainted. You don’t want my darkness touching you,” he angrily tells me, but I feel his hands tremble like he’s fighting himself not to reach out to me. Fallon saved me. I want to save him. So I make the first move and reach out to him.
I band my arms around his neck and hold him. I squeeze him to me as hard as I can. “I love you, Fallon Montgomery. I love your strength. You had your childhood stolen from you by people who should have loved you. You survived their cruelty and didn’t let them break you. I love your heart. You care so deeply. I’ve seen it. Playing basketball with the boys at the women’s center. The way you take care of me. The way you are with Tatiána. The way you have always looked out for Ryder without him even knowing. You took me in without a second’s thought when I showed up on your front doorstep. I love how you treat your sister with respect and kindness. I love how you fight for not only what you want, but also for your friends. You jumped in and protected me from Marshall that night at the Fields. You protected me at the party last month when Maria and Jacinda showed up. Even though no one would tell me the whole story, I can assume it was you who got the video of the fight taken down so Jayson, Ryder, and Julien wouldn’t get into trouble. And it was you who got Marshall kicked off his soccer team. And it was you who threatened Jacinda to leave me alone. You shielded me then and you continue to protect me now. You are a wonderful, beautiful man, and I love every filthy, tainted piece of you.”
That’s the moment when I feel Fallon break, and a part of me breaks with him. He buries his face against my chest, clutching me to him. And cries. His tears are not gentle. They are ugly and hard and filled with desolation. They soak my shirt and run down my skin like I am being bathed in his grief. Through it all, I tell him I love him over and over again until his body stops trembling and his eyes run dry. I give him every possible comfort I can. I kiss his wet cheeks. I rub my fingers across his scalp and up and down his back. I sing to him and cradle his body like a mother does a child—like his mother should have done when he was a little boy. I can tell by the smooth, easy rhythm of his breathing when he finally falls asleep, the emotional exhaustion having drained him completely.
“Thank you for trusting me,” I whisper so not to disturb him. Right before my own exhaustion pulls me under, a question pops into my mind. What happened to Peter and where is he now? I also wonder how quickly I can choke the life out of his parents to make them suffer for what they did to him and his brother.
Chapter 10
Day 16: Finding Fallon
Barcelona
God, my bones ache like I’ve been pummeled by boulders. It feels worse than the mornings I would wake up in an alcoholic haze after a bender or when I would crash down from a high. Thank fuck I don’t do that shit anymore. I stretch my arms up to relieve some of the stiffness and instantly feel a soft warmth beside me. Elizabeth. My eyes feel swollen and gritty and it’s hard to open them, so I reach over to her. I need to feel her. I need to hold her goodness.
My hands touch the skin of her bare legs and she jumps; pieces of paper fly off the bed and onto the floor. “Shit, Fallon, you scared the mess out of me.”
I squint to see what she’s doing. “What time is it?”
“Past nine, last I checked.”
“We missed breakfast,” I say and scrub my hands over my face.
Fuck, Tatiána is going to be pissed we missed breakfast. I roll over to get out of bed when the rich aroma of coffee tickles my nose.
“Tatiána had it brought up. She really thinks we’re fuck buddies now after seeing you in my bed when she came up earlier. We have thoroughly confused your sister.”
“I thought I smelled coffee.” I rub my face and eyes again, then open them fully.
Elizabeth is sitting up against the headboard, one pen in her hand, another behind her ear. She’s concentrating on a piece of paper in her lap but reaches over with her free hand and rubs her fingers through my hair. My eyes almost roll to the back of my head at her touch. Jesus, this girl will be my undoing.
I sit up and rest my back against the headboard in an imitation of how she’s sitting. Our shoulders touch and I give her a slight nudge. “What are you doing?”
Elizabeth bites the end of the pen she’s holding then scribbles something down. “I got inspired,” she tells me, then scratches out what she wrote. She’s writing music: a song. I’m instantly intrigued. But coffee comes first.
I get up, not caring that my morning wood is on display, and walk over to where a rolling cart and tray have been parked next to the bed. I pour myself a cup of steaming, dark liquid and grab a pastry. There are several sheets of paper on the floor, all of them filled with hand-written musical notes along five-lined staffs.
Elizabeth puts down her pen and looks up at me with concern. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Exhausted.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“But I also feel good,” I confess. The smile she gives me almost causes my knees to give out.
I don’t know what I expected when I woke up this morning. Part of me thought Elizabeth would have packed her bags and fled into the night, wanting to get as far away from me as she possibly could; escape my dark secrets. I have plenty more to share, but not yet. She said she loved me last night. I’m not stupid enough to presume she meant it in the way where we run off into the sunset and live happily ever after. But hearing those words from her beautiful lips felt so fucking good. Will she still say it once I break her?
She pats the bed next to her. “Come here, Nutter Butter.”
“Fuck,” I grunt but I do as she says and take my place beside her on the bed. Elizabeth grabs the coffee cup from my hand, taking a sip, then passes it back.
“Listen and let me know what you think.” She picks up one sheet of her music and begins to hum while tapping her fingers on my thigh like it’s a piano. Starving, I scarf down my pastry, sip my coffee, and listen. The way her voice hums the melody is haunting, yet peaceful. It’s a beautiful piece of music.
“What do you think?” she asks me when she finishes.
“It’s really wonderful, kitten.” She fucking beams that smile at me again and I’m thankful I’m already sitting down because this time my legs really do go to jelly.
“I wrote it for you.” She bites her bottom lip, causing me to zero in on its pink, pouty fullness.
And this is when my obsessive fascination with Elizabeth turns into an all-consuming love. I told her the truth when I said I didn’t believe in love. This blond-haired, green-eyed girl just made me a liar. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? I choke down the rest of my coffee, not caring that it’s still scalding hot.
Elizabeth gathers and rearranges her sheets of music and stacks them together. She places them on the bedside table next to her. “I’ll play it for you properly on the piano
later.”
I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her to my side. She rests her head on my upper arm and we sit there in silence as an internal battle quietly rages inside me over the new and intense emotions I’m feeling for her.
“Knock, knock,” a quiet voice calls from outside the bedroom door as it cracks open. Tatiána pokes her head in. “I thought I heard voices. May I come in?”
Elizabeth waves her inside and scoots me over to make room on the bed for my sister.
“Good morning, dear brother,” Tatiána chirps and kisses me on the cheek. “I see you finally woke up. Eduardo will be here within the hour. I thought perhaps you both would like to enjoy the pool for a while before lunch. I’m not sure if you are aware of our customs here, Elizabeth, but lunch is our big meal of the day, then we settle down for a siesta. Later, Eduardo and I would like to treat you both to an afternoon in town.”
“That sounds lovely, Tatiána. Thank you,” Elizabeth tells her.
“Fallon knows where everything is. My husband and I will meet you down at the pool later.” Tatiána kisses me once more and gets up. Elizabeth gets up as well and they walk together to the door, whispering in each other’s ears like schoolgirls. I see Elizabeth blush, and Tatiána giggles as she leaves and closes the door behind her.
“What was that all about?”
“Girl stuff.” Elizabeth does a belly flop onto the bed and props her chin in her hands to look at me. “Are we good, Fallon?” She’s referring to everything that was said last night.
“We’re good.”
“Good,” she says.
“Yep.”
“Glad that’s settled.”
“Yep,” I repeat.
“I meant every word,” she says.
“What was it you told me? No take-backs.”
“No take-backs.” She grins. “Now, let’s put on our swimsuits and go down to the pool. Have you ever played ‘Blind Man’s Bluff’ before?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“Well, then, Mr. Montgomery, let’s go have some childish fun.”
“I’ve decided that you have to convince your sister to adopt me. How long does it take to get Spanish citizenship?”
“What are you going on about?” Fallon mumbles, eyes closed behind his sunglasses as he floats beside me.
“Tatiána has a lazy river, Fallon,” I emphasize like it’s the most important thing in the world.
We’ve been enjoying the pool while waiting for Tatiána and Eduardo to come out. Once I saw there was a lazy river, I was done for. I mean, who actually has a lazy river as part of their backyard pool? Filthy rich people, apparently. And it’s heated, otherwise it would be too cold to go swimming this morning.
“Yeah?” He still sounds perplexed.
I’m lying stomach-down on a float. Not the round ones that you usually see at water parks, but a proper one that I can stretch out on. Fallon is floating beside me on his back, one hand holding on to the side of my float, his toes poking up out of the water.
“She has a lazy river. That’s a good enough reason for me to move to another country and beg her to let me live in her house.”
Fallon chuckles and sinks below the surface of the water. I don’t have time to ask where he’s going before my float is flipped over from below and I tumble into the water. When I resurface, Fallon is swimming away from me at a fast clip, laughing his ass off.
“Coward!” I yell.
I notice Tatiána waving at me from the patio. A tall, dark-haired man is at her side. He looks every bit the distinguished older businessman, except he’s not wearing a suit. Eduardo is tall and lean, dressed casually in a crisp blue dress shirt and fitted black dress pants. His hair is ebony black, where it almost looks deep purple when the sun hits it at just the right angle. He leans over and places a kiss to Tatiána’s temple, and she melts against him like ice cream on a hot summer’s day. I wave back to acknowledge that I see them and swim over to where some steps lead out of the pool. Just when my foot hits the bottom step to climb out, Fallon grabs me from behind and lifts me up high above his head. A tiny squeal escapes and I have to brace on his forearms so I don’t slide right out of his hold, our bodies still wet and slick from the water.
I hear Tatiána tell Eduardo, “See what I mean,” and his deep, masculine chuckle follows in answer.
I give up my futile attempts to wriggle out of Fallon’s grasp and just go with it. If he wants to carry me around like a sack of potatoes, so be it. As we get closer to his sister and brother-in-law, I see the age difference between Tatiána and Eduardo that Fallon was talking about yesterday. He had told me she married very young and that Eduardo was about two decades older than she was. I regard the silver gracing his temples and the crinkles around the corners of his eyes. But I also notice the warmth of his smile when he looks down at Tatiána, the love shining in his deep, brown chocolate eyes, and the way his hand possessively wraps around the curve of her waist. This is a man completely in love with his wife and it shows.
Eduardo is first to greet Fallon when we stop in front of the happy couple. Of course, Fallon doesn’t put me down, and my cheeks heat with embarrassment.
“Fallon, so good to see you again. Tatiána has been most happy that you are here. And you as well, my dear,” he says to me with a genteel bow of his head. “My Tati has had nothing but wonderful things to say about you, Elizabeth. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I regret that I wasn’t here to welcome the both of you when you arrived as I had some business to attend to. But let me offer you a formal welcome to our home.”
“Fallon,” I hiss out between gritted teeth, trying to get him to put me down. He finally gets the message after I pull his arm hair.
“So sorry about him,” I apologize and hold my hand out to Eduardo. He takes it and brings it up to his lips. “It’s nice to meet you. You have such a lovely home,” I tell him.
Fallon kisses Tatiána’s cheek, then mine, and excuses himself. “Sorry, I need to make a phone call. I’ll be right back.” I hadn’t thought too much about the fact that he hasn’t called anyone or received any calls that I know of the entire time we’ve been on our trip.
“You make him happy, Elizabeth,” Tatiána says, bringing my attention back to her.
“Just friends,” I remind her.
Eduardo suggests I go get changed as an early lunch will be ready soon. I go to my room and take a quick five-minute shower to wash away the chemical smell of the pool from my skin. For clothes, I choose a long-sleeved floral day dress that falls just below my knees. As I’m walking out of my room, I hear Fallon’s voice coming from the bedroom across from mine. I know I shouldn’t eavesdrop, but I quietly tiptoe over to the closed door anyway. I can’t make out much, but I do hear snippets of phrases like “It’s time” and “See you soon.” When I don’t hear anything more, I slip down the hallway and make it to the stairs right before I hear footsteps coming up from behind me.
“Nice dress,” Fallon comments and takes my arm as we descend the stairs. He must have changed before I came in because he’s wearing jeans and a fresh shirt. The urge to ask who he was talking with is dancing on the tip of my tongue, but I let it go and instead say, “Eduardo is nice. He clearly is head over heels for your sister. The age difference is a bit weird, though. I mean, if she’s eighteen now, when did they meet?”
“It was actually an arranged marriage between Tatiána’s mother’s family and Eduardo’s father. Tatiána has known Eduardo her whole life. They got married when she was sixteen.”
I stutter in surprise at both the arranged marriage and her age. “At sixteen?”
I couldn’t imagine getting married that young, but then I remember that Jayson began talking about marriage and children not too long after we started dating. I also remember how I hated that he had planned out our entire lives without giving me much of a choice about it. So much has changed since then and life did not unravel the way I thought it would.
“Where’d you go?�
� Fallon’s voice intrudes into my heavy thoughts.
“Pardon?”
“You spaced out for a second.”
“Just thinking,” I give him a timid smile.
We walk back out to the pool area. Somehow within the short amount of time of me going inside to change, a dining table and chairs have appeared. They’ve been placed out on the terracotta paver stone patio underneath a very large portable patio gazebo with tied-back curtains. Baskets of fresh flowers in a varied array of oranges and yellows adorn the table and surround the gazebo.
“Looks like we’re right on time.” Fallon places his hand on my lower back and guides me over to where we will be eating lunch. Like a gentleman, he pulls a chair out for me and a perplexed look must be on my face because Tatiána starts laughing.
“Oh, brother, you must not be that romantic if doing the simple courtesy of helping a lady into her chair makes her look, how do you say? Flabbergasted.”
“I make up for my lack of chivalry in other ways.” He winks at her. Now I give a snort of derisive laughter as Fallon takes his seat beside me.
“What? You don’t agree?” He leans forward, grabbing a crystal pitcher, and fills my wine glass, then his. “Should I remind you of New York City, Nordurljosavegur, London, and Paris?”
I concede the truth to Tatiána, “He’s right. Fallon has filled every day of our adventure with more fun and excitement than I could possibly hope for. I’ve had a great trip.”
Servers appear holding tray after tray of platters filled with food that smells delicious and makes my mouth water. I thank my server as he places a plate of herbed crusted chicken and julienned vegetables before me. I nibble on one of the edible flowers Tatiána said she likes to use in the food, and I decide it’s not bad.
Broken Butterfly: Fallen Brook Series: Book 3 Page 10