The Moment We Began (A Fairhope New Adult Romance) (15 page)

He tosses the two bags into the back of the truck,
then finally looks up.

I’m smiling and he returns the smile at
first. He reaches to pull out his earbuds, then his eyes go to the
bags in my hand and his smile fades.

My stomach turns. I push the nausea down and act
confident, like I couldn’t imagine he wouldn’t want me
here. I learned a long time ago that sometimes the best way to get
what you want is to act like it’s already yours. People have a
hard time saying no to that.

I walk up, putting a bounce in my step, and sling
my cheerleading bag into the back next to his. Mine looks like so
tiny compared to his. I could have fit a lot more clothes in one of
those.

He pulls the headphones from his ears so that they
hang around his neck. “What are you doing?”

“I’m coming with you,” I say, as
if it’s already been discussed a thousand times. “And
really, Mason, I’m surprised at you. Look at all this stuff
you’re bringing. I thought you wanted to get back to basics? I
packed better than you did.”

“Wait, uh-uh,” he says, shaking his
head. He leans over the side and grabs my little bag. “This is
not happening, so get that in your head right now.”

I swallow, fighting to not let any disappointment
show on my face. “Oh, it’s happening,” I say,
taking the bag from his hands and throwing it back into the truck.
“When are we getting out of here? I need to make one stop by an
ATM before we leave town. What time do you think fast food places
open? I’m starving.”

His mouth gapes open. I’ve completely thrown
him for a loop, but at least he hasn’t grabbed my bag again.

Yet.

“Pen, listen. This is not a good idea,”
he says, leaning against the side of the truck. “I need some
time alone to get my head straight.”

“You said you wanted to get away from the
partying and the money and the expectations, right? You wanted to
stop taking life for granted and learn to appreciate what you have.
Well, I want those things, too.”

He runs a hand through his hair. “Penny—”

“You also said leaving me was one of the
hardest parts.” I move closer to him. “So don’t
leave me. Take me with you.”

He inhales slowly, his eyes on my lips. My heart
races.

“I don’t know that this is a good
idea,” he says, slightly breathless now. “Plus, I don’t
think you’ve fully grasped what kind of road trip this is. I’m
not going to be staying in luxury hotels and flying to exotic
locations. We’re talking tents and bugs and public restrooms.”

I cringe a little at the word bugs, but I’m
willing to brave the wild in the name of love and adventure.

I think.

“I know that,” I say. “I’ve
done luxury hotels a thousand times, but not once in my entire life
have I ever camped out under the stars. It sounds romantic.”

He laughs, but turns his body toward me, which is
a good sign.

“It can be,” he says. “It can
also be smelly and dirty and rainy. You can’t handle it, Pen.
No way are you cut out for this.”

I lift my chin. “Just because I’ve
never done it before doesn’t mean I can’t handle it.
Besides, it’s not like you grew up camping out either.” I
nod toward his house, which is almost as big as mine. “We’ll
figure it out together. It’ll be fun.”

“I used to go camping all the time with my
family growing up,” he says, surprising me.

I press my lips together and narrow my eyes at
him. “When? I remember your family taking vacations to the same
resorts in Hawaii and the Caribbean my family went to. I never
remember you guys going camping.”

A faraway look takes over and he pauses,
remembering something. “No, not after we moved here,” he
says. “Everything was different after my dad got that job
working for your family. The last time we all went camping was the
summer before…”

His voice trails off and he looks down at his feet
and scuffs them back and forth against the asphalt.

“Before what?”

He looks up and shrugs again. “Before we
moved here, I guess. It’s been a long time, but I remember
being really happy. It was a lot of fun back then.”

I smile and lift one shoulder, trying to be cute.
“I can do fun,” I say. “Besides, you never went on
any of those camping trips alone, right? Maybe it’s not as fun
all by yourself.”

He scratches the side of his neck and avoids my
eyes, but he’s laughing. I’m definitely getting through
to him and the knots in my stomach are loosening. He’s going to
take me with him. He just needs one more little push.

“I can handle this, Mason. I won’t
complain once, I swear.” I make a criss-cross over my heart and
he looks down, staring a moment too long at my cleavage.

I take another step closer to him and we’re
practically touching now.

“I’m no good for you, Penny. Can’t
you see that?”

“That’s not true,” I say in a
soft voice. “Maybe it’s this town that’s no good
for either one of us.”

He’s so tall I have to lift my chin to look
up at him. My breath is shallow as I wait for him to speak. I wish I
knew what to say to convince him this is the right thing.

“It’s not a good idea,” he says,
turning away. “Trust me. Every time you get close to me, I end
up hurting you. Or you end up hurting yourself.”

I swallow and step back. I can’t let him
leave without me. “I need to go on this trip with you, Mason,”
I say.

There’s more desperation in my voice than I
intended and he picks up on it.

He turns, worry in his eyes. “What’s
wrong? Did something happen?”

I close my eyes. I can’t tell him the whole
truth, but I can at least tell him part of it.

“After what happened the other night, my
parents cut me off,” I say. “They said they’d let
me live at the house and would make sure I had a car to drive, but
that there would be no more credit cards, no more unlimited cash and
nothing but a tiny monthly allowance to help me pay for school
stuff.”

Mason leans his head back. “Jesus, Penny,
from the devastated look on your face, I thought you were going to
tell me something horrible,” he says. “You do realize
this trip is all about getting away from the money, right?”

“I know, but it’s also about getting
away from Fairhope,” I say. “Didn’t you say this
was about learning to appreciate life? I want to learn to do that,
too. I can’t live the rest of my life being so dependent on my
parents and their money that they feel they can control and
manipulate me by holding it over my head. Most people’s parents
don’t still control them at my age.”

“Most people’s parents aren’t
multi-millionaires,” he says.

“Yours are,” I counter. “You
still get to make your own decisions. I don’t see them out here
telling you not to leave.”

Mason clenches his jaw and looks up toward his
house. “Things are complicated at my house right now,” he
says. There’s a darkness in his eyes. Pure anger.

I know he’s never really been a huge fan of
his dad, but he never really wants to talk about it so I never push
the subject. I wonder if they got in some kind of fight.

“What you said to me last night meant
something to me,” I tell him. “When you said you wanted
to have some adventures of your own so you could figure out who you
are without all these expectations and obligations on your shoulders?
That really got to me. I want that, too, more than I ever realized. I
don’t want my parents holding their money over my head for the
rest of my life.”

I lean against the side of his truck, the words
flowing out of me.

“The only way to prove to them that they
don’t own me is to leave,” I say.

“I hope you’re not saying you intend
to use me to get your money back,” he says, crossing his arms
in front of him. “This trip is about something real, not about
you manipulating your parents or trying to teach them a lesson so
that you can come right back here and pick up right where you left
off.”

I stop and put my hands on my hips, anger flushing
my cheeks. “Are you seriously accusing me of that when I just
poured my heart out to you? I’m trying to be honest with you
here.”

One corner of his mouth lifts up in a half-sneer,
half-smile. “I know you better than you know yourself,
sometimes, Pen. You’re very good at manipulating people to get
what you want. And it works every damn time. But I’m not going
to let you ruin this trip for me when three days in you want me to
turn back around because your parents are begging you to come home
and offering the world on a silver platter to get you back.”

I walk right up to him and point my index finger
right at his chest. “Don’t you dare accuse me of being
the only one here who is good at manipulating people.” I press
my finger hard against his chest. “As if you haven’t
charmed every girl in this town and the next. The simple fact that
you can date a different girl almost every weekend and never have any
of them come after you with a shotgun is a miracle in and of itself.
I think that’s more than enough proof that you’re the one
who’s the master of manipulation, and don’t try to
pretend it’s not true.”

I’m hyper-aware of my hand on his chest and
how close my face is to his.

“Besides.” I soften my hand and lay it
flat against his chest, feeling the defined muscles underneath. His
heart is racing just as fast as mine. “It doesn’t work
every damn time. It’s never worked with you.”

He’s standing almost perfectly still, except
that his breath is coming fast and his shoulders are moving up and
down with each inhale and exhale.

“That’s because I know you,” he
says. “If I gave myself to you, I mean truly gave my heart to
you, I’d never be able to let you go. And I can’t afford
that in my life.”

His words are both heaven and hell to my ears. He
wants me, but won’t have me. He pulls me to him, but pushes me
away in the same breath.

“This isn’t really about your parents,
is it? Why do you really want to come with me?” he asks in a
whisper. He lifts his hand to my face and pushes a strand of hair
back behind my ear. His fingers run lightly across the healing cut on
my jaw.

I raise my hand to his and press it against my
cheek. I lean into him and close my eyes, my heart racing.

“Because I can’t imagine my life
without you,” I say. “And I know that scares you. I know
you think we’re not right for each other, but you can’t
deny that there’s something more between us. I can’t let
you walk away just because you’re scared.”

He doesn’t speak, but he also doesn’t
pull away.

“I know I’ve made some stupid
decisions lately, but you have to understand how frustrating this has
been for me,” I say. I’ve never been this honest with him
before. I’ve always been too scared of pushing him away. Right
now, there’s nothing to lose. He’s leaving either way.
All I have is honesty at this point. “When we’re together
and it’s just me and you, there’s something special. I
know you have to feel it too. And I know we agreed that it would just
be physical, but I think we could have something more than that if
you would only give it a chance.”

He takes a deep breath in and pulls his hand away
from my face. “We’ve been over this,” he says.

“I know you say you don’t want to
settle down, but you also say you don’t want to leave me,”
I say. “You can’t have both anymore. We’ve been
through too much and I care about you too much for that.”

“So what do you want from me?” he
says.

“I want you to give this one real chance,”
I say, my heart aching with need. My eyes search his. “I want
you to take me with you. Be with me and only me. Let’s leave
all our money, all our distractions behind. Let’s explore each
other and see if there’s something real here. Something that
could last. And if there’s not, I’ll let you walk away. I
swear. I’ll never ask anything from you ever again. I won’t
get mad and drive off in your car. I won’t try to kiss you or
call you or manipulate you. If at the end of this, you don’t
want to be with me, I’ll let you go.”

I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry from the thought
of exactly what I’m offering him. I already know something like
this could break my heart forever. But I’m willing to sacrifice
forever if it means one real moment with him.

He presses his hands against my hips and pulls me
all the way against him.

“You’re saying I can have you all to
myself on this trip and if I’m still not ready for a
relationship at the end of it, we can just part ways? No questions
asked?”

Our eyes meet and passion for this man consumes
me. I’ve never been this close to having him. Or losing him
forever.

“Yes.”

“And what if I don’t want to walk
away? What then?” he asks. His hands grip my waist tighter and
my knees tremble.

“Then we live happily ever after,” I
say, a smile playing at my lips.

“Is that a promise, too? No matter what else
happens?”

I move my hand up the length of his chest, then up
across his neck, pulling him closer to me, my fingers gripping the
side of his neck and my thumb resting on his cheek. “If you
take me with you, it’s one hundred percent your choice what
happens between us,” I say.

I made my choice a long time ago.

He leans his forehead against mine and groans.
“How am I supposed to resist you?” he says.

“You’re not,” I say. I grip his
shirt into my fist, wanting him closer. Wanting him to stop denying
that we belong together.

He lifts me slightly off the ground as he lowers
his lips to mine. He takes them passionately, dipping his tongue into
my mouth, devouring me in a rush of need. I wrap my arms around him,
giving myself to his kiss. He spins me around and presses my body
against the side of the truck. My legs go up, wrapping around his
waist as he grinds into me.

He breaks away and I gasp for air, my hands
digging into him. Needing him. His lips move across my jawline and
down to my neck. I lift my chin, giving him access and moaning when
his teeth graze my skin.