by Chloe Walsh
I'd had an awful lot of firsts this weekend.
A lot of firsts in this bed…
Once I realized that I was also naked, shame came quickly. Slipping out from under his muscular arm, I slid off the bed, grabbed a bunch of random clothes from my closet, and moved straight for my adjoining bathroom.
Once I was safely inside, I moved to the sink and dared to look at my reflection.
Oh my Jesus.
I looked like something Wallace, Daryl's dog when we were kids, barfed up, ate, and then barfed up again.
I felt like my life had been ripped from the pages of a steamy romance novel.
Could I be any trashier?
Diving into the shower, I switched the water on and stood under the steady stream of lukewarm water as it washed away my sins from the night before.
I had sex last night.
Did the deed.
Popped the cherry.
I lost my virginity on a drunken whim to the quarterback of the high school football team.
Stop freaking out, I mentally commanded myself as I washed my body from head to toe. You didn’t give your v-card up to just any football player. You gave it up to Daryl.
It's not like anyone else would want you, another voice in my head sneered, he probably felt sorry for you. The beer and weed blurred his vision. That's the only way he could ever want to touch someone like you...
And just like that, my insecurities roared to life, louder and more persevering than ever.
Numb, I switched off the water and quickly dried off before dressing in a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved sweater. I brushed my teeth and dragged a comb through my hair.
Daryl was still sleeping when I stepped back into my room. He was face down on the mattress, his arm still stretched over where I had been, his glorious body naked and on full display for the world to see.
He was going to regret this so bad when he woke up.
What happened last night was going to ruin everything.
He wanted to be friends.
Friends.
The guilt he felt for ignoring me was the catalyst for sleeping with me.
It had to be.
And now?
Now everything was ruined.
The feelings that I always harbored for him, the ones I had forced myself to put on ice, were blisteringly hot like molten lava now, threatening to overwhelm me, and inevitably wreck me.
Blinking rapidly, I forced my tears back, and gave myself just a couple more minutes to look at him before reluctantly tearing my gaze away.
And then I did the most sensible thing I could in that moment.
I left him in my bed and went to school.
Daryl
The smell of sex was all around me.
In the air.
On the sheets.
On my skin.
Keeping my eyes closed, I nestled deeper into the mattress, feeling more content than I had in years.
Fighting consciousness, I tried to lull myself back to sleep, unwilling to give up the fucking perfect weekend I'd had and face the real world.
If I could, I would stay right here in this bed with her forever.
If I could…
"I see she found her way back to you."
Blinking awake at the sound of an eerily familiar voice, I sprang up on the mattress and came face to face with another ghost from my past.
Nick Peterson stood in the doorway of his daughter's bedroom. In the place of the formidable man I remembered, was a weathered one. Like he had aged thirty years instead of eight.
Instead of looking wholly enraged like I half-expected him to be – totally fucking expected considering I was bare-ass naked in his teenage daughter's bed – Molly's father had a look of resignation about him.
I didn’t bother with the 'it's not how it looks' spiel, choosing instead to grab my boxer shorts off his daughter's bedroom floor and quickly pull them on.
I reached for my sweatpants and yanked them on next, glancing around the room and taking note of the empty bed.
My heart sank. "Where is she?"
"School, apparently," Mr. Peterson said, waving a small, handwritten note around in front of him. "I found this on the refrigerator." His brown eyes watched me. "Addressed to D."
"I care about her," I said, deciding to go with the truth and not some bullshit excuse. "A lot."
"I know you do, Daryl," he replied in an eerily calm voice, all things considered. "You always have."
His response threw me.
Completely fucking threw me off kilter.
"This isn’t a flash in the pan for me," I added, inclining my head towards Molly's unmade bed that he'd watched me climb out of. "I'm not that guy. Not with her."
"Get dressed and come downstairs, Daryl," Mr. Peterson said with a sigh, ignoring my words. "We need to talk."
Daryl
I didn’t want to be alone with Molly's father. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say to me. Still, I forced myself to go downstairs and face him like a man. He was waiting for me when I stepped into the kitchen.
"Have a seat, Daryl."
I folded my arms across my chest. "I'd rather not."
Sighing wearily, Mr. Peterson pulled up a stool and sat at the island. "Suit yourself."
A tense silence enveloped us then, and I fucking hated it.
"You wanted to talk to me," I said when the silence got the better of me. "So, talk."
"I never got a chance to thank you properly for saving my daughter's life," he finally said.
"No, because you were too busy tossing the letters I sent to her and blocking my calls," I shot back, entirely uninterested in his gratitude. "Next."
"It won't fix anything, Daryl," he said with another heavy sigh. "I take it that's why you're behaving so hostile?"
No shit. "She has a right to know, and you should've been the one to tell her back when it happened."
"What good would knowing do her?
"Well, it would ease my conscience for one," I snapped. "Carrying around this secret has all but ruined my life." When he didn’t respond, I threw my hands up, beyond frustrated. "I want a relationship with her. I can't do that when I'm keeping a fucking secret from her!"
"You still don’t get it," he said sadly. "You'll ruin her. You won't mean to, but you will. My little girl is a survivor, but she can’t deal with another blow.. There's only so much one person can take. If you love her at all, then walk away. Go off to college next year and forget about her. For Molly's sake."
"Your daughter is stronger than you give her credit for. She is also an adult now, not a child. Whether I'm in her life or not, she deserves to know the truth about that night," I countered angrily.
"Daryl –"
"Molly deserves to know who set the fire!"
Thank you so much for reading!
Molly and Daryl's story continues in Truth Game, Ocean Bay #3, coming in 2020
Other Books by Chloe Walsh
The Pocket Series:
Pocketful of Blame – Pocket #1
Pocketful of Shame – Pocket #2
Pocketful of You – Pocket #3
Pocketful of Us – Pocket #4
Ocean Bay Series:
Endgame – Ocean Bay #1
Waiting Game – Ocean Bay #2
Truth Game – Ocean Bay #3
The Faking it Series:
Off Limits – Faking it #1
Off the Cards – Faking it #2
Off the Hook – Faking it #3
The Broken Series:
Break my Fall – Broken #1
Fall to Pieces – Broken #2
Fall on Me – Broken #3
Forever we Fall – Broken #4
Breaking Point – Broken #4.5
The Carter Kids Series:
Treacherous – Carter Kids #1
Always – Carter Kids #1.5
Thorn – Carter Kids #2
Tame – Carter Kids #3
Torment – Carter Kids #4
&
nbsp; Inevitable – Carter Kids #5
Altered – Carter Kids #6
The DiMarco Dynasty:
DiMarco’s Secret Love Child: Part One
DiMarco’s Secret Love Child: Part Two
The Blurred Lines Duet:
Blurring Lines – Book #1
Never Let me Go – Book #2
Boys of Tommen:
Binding 13 – Boys of Tommen #1
Keeping 13 – Boys of Tommen #2
Saving 6 – Boys of Tommen #3
Crellids:
The Bastard Prince – Crellids #1
Other titles:
Seven Sleepless Nights
Upcoming releases:
Nights at Westwood
Closer Than Most
Thunder and Rayne
Two Pink Lines
Truth Game
Titles Available as Audiobooks:
Treacherous – Carter Kids #1
Thorn – Carter Kids #2
Tame – Carter Kids #3
Binding 13 – Boys of Tommen #1 (Part One)
Binding 13 – Boys of Tommen #1 (Part Two)
Keeping 13 – Boys of Tommen #2 (Part One)
Keeping 13 – Boys of Tommen #2 (Part Two)
Pocketful of Blame & Pocketful of Shame (Books 1 & 2)
Pocketful of You & Pocketful of Us (Books 3 & 4)
For more information on audiobooks, please check out Chloe's website here.
Paperback copies of Chloe's books are available on Amazon and other online platforms.
Social Media Links
To keep up to date with Chloe's upcoming releases, you can follow her on any of the platforms listed below:
Mailing List
Facebook
Reader Group
Twitter
Instagram
Goodreads
BookBub
Spotify
Amazon
Website
Playlist for Waiting Game
Check out Daryl and Molly's full playlist on Spotify here.
Maddie & Tae – Friends Don’t
Bowling For Soup – Girl All the Bad Guys Want
Lana Del Rey – High By The Beach
Gretchen Wilson – Redneck Woman
Carrie Underwood – Cowboy Casanova
Every Avenue – Only Place I Call Home
Bloodhound Gang – The Ballad of Chasey Lain.
Song for Molly
Hillary Duff – Beat Of My Heart
Pickin' On Series – You're Not Sorry
Selena Gomez – Lose You To Love Me
Madilyn Bailey – Blue Jeans
Whitney Houston – Run to You
Grace Carter – Wicked Game
Astraea – Waiting
Ellie Goulding – Army
2WEI – In the End
Whitney Houston – I Have Nothing
Tina Arena – Show Me Heaven
Songs for Daryl
Dermot Kennedy – What Have I Done (Totally Daryl's theme tune)
Lord Huron – The Night We Met
Luke Combs – Hurricane
Eminem – Stepdad
Mateo Oxley – Show Me Heaven
Aidan Martin – I Blame You
George Ezra – Hold My Girl (Daryl about Molly)
The Fray – Look After You
Ed Sheeran – Photograph
Oktoba – CHANCE
James TW – Say Love
Bon Ivor – Skinny Love
Kodaline – Latch
Songs for Rourke & Mercedes
The Black Keys – Lonely Boy (For Rourke and Mercy)
Like A Storm – Love the Way You Hate Me
Maroon 5 – Lips On You
Acknowledgments
I'm going to keep this short and sweet and thank each and every person who has helped me on my writing journey.
Thank you to my wonderful family.
Thank you to all of my readers for your continuous support. As usual, a massive shout out to everyone in Chloe's Clovers. Love your bones, lads.
Aleesha, you know I couldn’t do this without you. Love you hard, chick.
Brooke, thanks so much for your encouragement and help.
Basically, thank you to everyone who ever gave my words a chance. We're going to have hits and misses, but I appreciate your faith and belief in me – even when I don’t have much of that in myself.
Love Chlo xxx
About the Author
International bestselling author Chloe Walsh writes heart wrenching, emotionally gripping, young and new adult fiction. Her books will suck you into deeply emotive storylines, where you'll fall in love with the complex, sexy heroes, hilarious sidekicks, and lovable female leads. Every adventure with Chloe is an angsty plot designed to give you the ultimate book hangover.
Chloe hails from a small town in the beautiful West Cork on the south coast of Ireland, where she resides with her family and the tall, dark, and handsome man in her life – Garry, her overgrown Newfoundland pup. When Garry isn't dragging her around the farmer's fields and countryside lanes, she can be found glued to her kindle or binging on Netflix, inhaling GOT, devouring all things rugby, drowning in her Spotify playlists, and being a kick-ass autism mommy.
Animal lover, music addict, TV junkie, Chloe is your typical twenty-nine-year-old, with a passion for reading and an even bigger passion for putting pen to paper. A fiercely proud champion of mental health awareness, Chloe makes no secret of her own personal battles and construes this in her writing.
At present, she has more than twenty novels under her belt, many of which are bestsellers in multiple countries around the world. Several of her titles have been turned into audiobooks.
The best way to get in touch with Chloe is in her reader group on Facebook Chloe's Clovers.
Join Chloe’s mailing list for exclusive content, release updates, and a free eBook:
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