Requested Surrender (36 page)

Lacy’s heart ached. Literally ached. These were the same questions her father had asked her before. When she stood her ground and defended her man who turned out to be a lying thief.

“You don’t make good decisions. You trust the wrong men. You’re a pushover and men take advantage of the fact. He’s taking advantage of you somehow. I know it and you know it too.”

No. David could be trusted. He was honest.

Not about Elaina…

“Are you going to answer me? Is he that important to you?”

Lacy’s heart was breaking. The worry and fear. The guilt was rising, getting ready to strangle her. David always seemed so focused in on her problems. Never once did they discuss his. Why hadn’t he opened those letters? Why was he keeping them? Worse, why did it seem as if he were completely together.

Focus the drama somewhere else…

Was that what she was to him? A foil? The distracting drama he needed so he didn’t have to face the issues he had over Elaina?

You knew this all along. Only you didn’t want to see it.

“I…he’s not…no.” After that disjointed sentence fell out of her mouth she wanted to grab it back. That was the old Lacy who was ready to pretend she didn’t have a care. She cared. She cared a great deal. “If David threatened Laurie, it was only because Laurie was being rude to me.”

“Your brother hasn’t had an easy life. He has to deal with things you can’t even imagine because…”

Of you.
He didn’t have to say it out loud, she’d heard the inference often enough when her dad and her had these “little talks,” it was imprinted on her brain.

“In any case. I’m glad you’re not too attached to him. If you took his side of things, I’m sure your mother would leave me.”

“What?”

Her father stood and went to the window. With his back to her he said, “You’re going to have to give me your support with this. You’ll need to tell her that when you learned you caused the accident, it was no big deal.” He turned back to her. “It wasn’t, was it?”

She wanted to scream,
It was the only deal. The everything I always thought about until David,
but then he went on.

“You being with him would be a constant reminder to your mother. I don’t want that, so this time I’m going to have to insist you do as I’ve asked and break up with him. This time we don’t have the luxury of allowing your mistake to play out. Besides, you know how relationships go with you. Things always fall apart and when they do, you manage. If it’s going to end eventually anyways, best you end it now so we can get your mom to come home and put all this behind us.”

Lacy nodded. Because there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that things with David would fall apart. Her dad was right about that. They always did and she always managed.

***

David tried not to frown at the two women. “What do you mean by she’ll be here at 12:30? I thought the three of you were going to the show and then having lunch back here?”

Colin put a hand to her back and said, “The movie was sold out—”

“I fucking told them this was a crossover flick. Women and men want to see it, so we’d be fighting crowds. Did they believe me? No.”

David looked from one to the other and scowled. “This still doesn’t explain why Lacy’s not here with you.”

“Oh, she wasn’t going to go to the movie anyway. Her dad called and wanted to see her.”

“Was it something urgent?”

Jo shrugged. “I guess.”

“I see.” He was a little perturbed that Lacy hadn’t let him know, but leaving to go handle family matters was far different than simply walking off for the afternoon. “What time did she say she’d meet you here?”

“12:30. Where’s the kitchen around this place?” Jo asked, holding the bag of food up. “I should put this in the fridge.”

David tossed the book he was reading onto the comfortable recliner he’d just vacated, and said, “I’ll show you and I’ll get you something to drink while you’re waiting.”

As it turned out, Jo and Colin wound up taking their bag of food back to Colin’s to meet up with Ethan and Ted, because Lacy never made it back in time for lunch. It was nearly 3:00 before she walked through his door. And although he was glad to see she was all right, there was a small part of him that wanted to throttle her. Not one text. Not one call. Nothing.

He put his book aside and went to greet her. “I’m glad you’re back. Is everything all right with your family?”

When she looked up at him he knew she been crying. “No. Things are not okay. Things are bad. Very, very, bad.”

He reached out to bring her closer to him, but she fought his hold and stepped back.

“Lacy.”

“Don’t, please. Don’t. I’m going to get my things and go home.”

“What happened? Tell me. What’s wrong?” He didn’t try to put his hands on her, but he did block her way to the stairs by stepping in front of her.

“The bad happened, and even though I know you probably didn’t mean it. At least I hope you didn’t, it doesn’t change the fact that my father doesn’t want me to see you anymore.”

He hadn’t even met the guy, but then he remembered what he said to her brother and sighed, “It’s because of your brother, isn’t it? Does your father know what kind of a dick that kid is to you?”

A full thirty seconds ticked by before she asked, “Did you threaten him?”

David wasn’t going to lie. In fact, if he had to do all over again, he’d do it worse. “Yes.”

She turned away and then turned back. The look in her eyes unnerved him. He’d never seen her like this. Resigned. No, resolved.

“It doesn’t matter. Laurie had that coming, so my father will just have to get over it.”

“So you’ll stay?” He reached for her and she backed away, shaking her head.

“I can’t.” As he stood there, her eyes welled up until tears fell. These were the kind of tears he hated. They were filled with regret and pain. Hate.

“Why?”

“Why did you attack my mother? What could she have done or said to you?”

David was at a loss. “I didn’t do anything to your mother. Who told you I did?”

Her shoulders slumped. He remembered that posture and he hated it.

“My father told me you said, as he put it, unkind things to her. That upset her.”

He was wracking his brains trying to remember, but came up empty. “I’m sure I didn’t.”

“But you told. You told my mother about the accident.”

He didn’t think he did. That aside, didn’t she already know? “Your mother and I barely even spoke.” Then he remembered. “She was the one who brought up the subject. She knew about the accident.”

The tears stopped as if someone had turned off a tap. He knew what that meant. Lacy was going into self-protect mode. “She didn’t know that I did. How could you tell her?”

David was trying to piece this together when Lacy stepped around him and went to the stairs. She stopped and turned before going up them. “My mother and father were the only ones who knew I caused the accident. They made a pact never to tell me, because they didn’t want me feeling guilty over it. When you told my mother that I knew about it, she knew that my father had told me.”

“He broke their pact,” David said flatly, as understanding dawned. “I’m sorry I didn’t know. You never said—”

“I told you. I told you everything Thursday night. I did and I’m so ashamed.”

“No.” He went to her, standing less than a foot span apart, as he didn’t want to spook her by touching her. She had shut down, he could tell. It must have been one hell of an afternoon her father put her though. The bastard. “Never be ashamed of opening up or telling the truth. Important things like this are not meant to be hidden away and ignored. I can help you with—”

“With what? The things my family hid away? What about what you hide away. What about Elaina?”

Hearing Lacy speak her name was jarring, and he physically reacted to it. Tension rode his shoulders and raced down his spine. Stepping back, he gained reins on his emotions, deciding to give her the space she wanted before she said something they’d both regret. This wasn’t about his ex or the past. This was about the future her father was trying to rob her of.

She nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t think you’d have anything to say about that.”

“Lacy.”

She turned her back on him and got halfway up the steps when she stopped. “My mother hasn’t been home since yesterday. After what you said, she and my father got into a big fight and she left. She left because of me.”

“It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t even my fault. The blame, if any, lies at your father’s door.” He let out a sigh and then said, “Even still, if I’d known I wouldn’t have said anything. It wasn’t my place. Don’t be mad.”

She snapped around and clung to the banister. Leaning over it, she cried, “How ironic! When it
is
your place, you say nothing.” She blinked and then seemed to get a hold of herself. “It doesn’t matter now. I’m getting my things and then I’m leaving.”

He remained silent as she raced up the rest of the stairs. Deciding to wait until she came back down before having it out with her. Because there was no way he was letting her leave. Not without a fight.

Five minutes later, his heart pounded as he watched her descend the stairs with her suitcase in hand. When she got to the bottom and tried to walk around him, he couldn’t hold the words back any longer. “I’ll only ask this once. Please reconsider and stay.”

She shook her head, which really irritated him.

 “I mean it, Lacy, if you leave, you won’t be welcome back here. This is your last chance.”

“If I wanted it, you’d give me another chance.”

He heard her quiet murmur, and the hairs on his nape stood on end. She sounded so smug and sure. Hateful almost. “No, Lacy, I won’t.”

She turned and glared at him. Almost as if she’d been waiting for him to say this. Counting on it. “I see. You give Elaina two chances and I get none? Is that it?”

The breath was knocked right out of him as he lunged forward and grabbed her by the arms. His earlier tension wound all the way through him as his pulse hammered at double the speed. “Who told you that?” He gave her a gentle shake. “Who?”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lacy spied the confusion, the hurt and anger in David’s eyes and realized what she’d done. She’d come here furious that her dad had just the right amount of ammunition he needed to make her doubt herself. He cited past boyfriends and all the problems she had keeping one. Running down the list, even as she tried to keep David off it. She’d tried not to let her father get under her skin, but he’d kept at her until she was half agreeing with him. She didn’t want to be the cause of another big family catastrophe. Was this why she’d started to see his side of things? Once she had the doubts started, and each of her worries about Elaina and those letters came to the forefront.

Even still, she swore on the way over here she wouldn’t bring that up. She knew it would be easier to argue over this, than her having to face the truth. Having to admit, once and for all, that her family enabled her to be a constant fuck-up. That was the bad, but the worst was she now suspected they needed her to be that way. It was horrible. Terrible. But nothing in comparison to having to deal with David about that letter.

Too late.

David never should have mentioned the concept of hiding things. Wasn’t that what he was doing with those letters? Did it matter? Oh God. He wanted her. He wanted her to stay, and when she was here she didn’t feel bad. She didn’t have to pretend. She wasn’t a constant fuck-up.

You felt like shit at your parent’s house. You always have to pretend around them.

Now she’d ruined it. Her dad didn’t even have to do anything. She’d done it all on her own, doing what she always did. Deflecting and talking about anything but what really mattered. Now she’d brought up the one thing she swore she never would. “David.”

“How did you know? No one knows about that. No one.”

This was the first time she saw a dent in his armor. Oh, he’d been great about telling her that everyone had flaws and weakness, but until this moment she’d never believed he did…and she was the one who brought them to light. She saw them clearly now. This is what he was hiding. This was the failure, and how he reacted to it was the disappointment. She closed her eyes because she knew she didn’t want to see the expression on his face when she told him. Maybe he’d understand it was an accident…Another accident.

“I didn’t mean to read it. I was in your closet and—”

He let go of her so fast she had to open her eyes so she didn’t fall. When saw him, she wanted to cry. It was as if his features were set in stone.

“I’m going to ask you to leave now. If you need help getting your bag into the car, please feel free to call Andrew.”

When he turned to go she called, “I don’t have my sneakers.” It was the most pathetic excuse to stay, even for a few extra moments, but she used it. “You wouldn’t happen to know where they are, would you?”

He didn’t turn around. “Probably where you always leave them. In the library. Goodbye, Lacy.”

Her stomach did a flip-flop hearing that. All the way to the library, she turned things over in her mind. By the time she found her shoes and scooped them up, she was working up some anger. Mostly with herself, but also some directed at him. After all they’d been through and everything they’d done together, he was willing to let her walk out of his life without giving her a chance to explain at least?

She was just about to leave the library and go to his office to try again, when she saw it.
Captivating Z
. And all she could think was “Oh, no.” David had given her chances, over and over, but just as in that book, this last thing was too much. She was shaking when she tore a Post-it Note off the stack on the desk and wrote four words with an exclamation mark at the end of them. Then she stuck it on the cover and left the book right where he’d find it, before she headed, with sneakers in hand, to his office.

She didn’t even wait for him to look up. “Are you going to let me explain?”

“No.”

As she walked to the desk, she noted how she couldn’t feel her legs. She supposed that was because all of her blood was pumping around her breaking heart. “Please, David. It was an accident. I swear.”