Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 162520 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 813(@200wpm)___ 650(@250wpm)___ 542(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162520 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 813(@200wpm)___ 650(@250wpm)___ 542(@300wpm)
“Do you need to see a doctor?” Jake asks. “For you or the baby?”
I shake my head. “I’m not bruised or bleeding. I think we’re okay.” I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, crawl onto the middle of the bed, and glance up at the television screen.
“You want to watch a movie?” Oliver asks, already holding out the remote for me.
My heartbeat hammers in my chest. “I-I have to…I have to tell you both what happened first. Because if you think it constitutes as cheating, I think you both should know before we continue the night…”
My words drain the energy out of the room. Jake rubs a tensed palm over his mouth, despair already written across his eyes.
Oliver doesn’t blink, his hand with the remote dropping to his side. “You were protecting my sister, Hailey. It won’t change anything for me.”
Jake lifts his head and sends a challenging look to Oliver. A combination of a grimace and glare lances his face. “And you think it’d change something for me?”
Oliver shrugs. “You tell us.”
Rising to his feet, Jake faces me while I sit cross-legged on top of the comforter. His expression excavates the vulnerable parts of me. I try my best to breathe when he starts talking.
“I know we said we’d all be exclusive, but you could sleep with a hundred people, Hailey, and I would only care if your happiness was intact. I fell in love with you not because you’re mine, but because I don’t want a future where I’m not yours.”
My eyes well with an onslaught of emotion. “This isn’t real,” I mutter under my breath.
“This is very real, Hailstorm.” Oliver’s words come out choked. “He loves you…I love you.”
I shake my head on repeat. Over and over. Damp hair starting to frizz in my face. I pull my knees to my chest. “Then you both are out of your minds. You should hate me.”
“We can’t hate something we understand,” Oliver tells me.
It touches the most sensitive parts of me. I cry, and they both come onto the bed like I’ve beckoned them with my tears. Before they touch me, I blurt out, “I told them to put anything in my mouth.”
I think this will stop them from touching me.
It doesn’t.
Jake wraps an arm around my shoulders, his hand atop my head. Oliver has an arm around my waist, his hand against my thigh. Tears cloud my vision and slip down my cheeks. “I-I let him put his thumb in my mouth.” I release the truth.
Jake kisses the top of my head.
Oliver rubs the tears off my cheeks with his hand.
“I sucked it…” I wince. “And then I bit it.”
Oliver’s lips quirk. “Burying the lede there.”
“It doesn’t change anything.” I sniff and curl my knees closer to my chest. “Other than the fact that I had his blood in my mouth.” My grimace hurts my face at a harsher realization. “Fuck, I might actually need to see a doctor. Wh-what if he had diseases…?”
“You don’t need to worry about that tonight.” Oliver wipes off more tears, his familiar affection calming my speeding pulse.
“We can take you to the doctor in the morning,” Jake offers. The plan eases my uneven breathing. Plans, I like those. Jake rubs soothing circles with his thumb against the back of my neck. “Is that why they pushed you to the ground? Because you bit him?”
I nod. “Yeah…they were…they threatened…they might’ve…”
“But they didn’t,” Jake tells me.
My eyes well with tears. “Because you showed up. And I keep wanting to be grateful—I do—but all I can think about is the Fiddle Game. When all she had was me. And it wasn’t enough. No one showed up to save her.”
“Hey, you saved her tonight.” Oliver nudges my shoulder with his. “You, Hailey. Not Jake. Not me. Not Nova. Not even Rocky. We weren’t on that beach. Tonight, you were enough.” His eyes deepen into mine. “I know it feels like things went wrong, but a lot of things went right, too. You have to find a way to focus on that.”
This is how they cope. Oliver, Rocky, Phoebe. There’s too much darkness in what they do to hang on to the shadowed parts of their lives. It’s about driving toward the light. I want that.
More than anything, I want to figure out a way to forgive myself for what happened in Carlsbad. I thought bringing Phoebe here was a start to that, but I know I can’t fully repent until Victoria is safe. No Trent. No Varrick. No darkness.
I focus on that future. The peaceful vision of it.
* * *
—
We sit in silence for a few more minutes, and they let me drift off as my breathing slows. Oliver flips on the television and finds my favorite movie on a streaming service: Mystic Pizza.
Connecticut small-town charm. Undefined romances. Crisp fall leaves. Sisterhood. It’s the first time I’ve watched the movie with both of them, and I find it a good distraction. When the end credits roll, Jake looks at me. “Are you tired?”