Misplaced Trust (Misjudged) (13 page)

Wow. I accused my father of being narrow-minded, but when he puts it like that, I can see how totally out of order I’m being about it all.

“You worry about your father being all alone in Salem, I know you do, you’ve mentioned this to me once before,” he adds, stroking my face with the back of his hand as we gain eye contact again. Staring deep into my eyes, I can see that this is affecting him too. “What if it doesn’t have to be like that? What if you don’t have to worry about him because you know he has someone, someone with a kind heart who is more than willing to make him happy and take care of him when you’re not around?”

Hearing someone clearing their throat, I glance over to my door and see my father standing
there. He has tears in his eyes and I notice him mouthing what looks to be the word ‘thank you’ over to Brandon.

Brandon squeez
es my knee gently, before standing and walking over to the door, “I’ll … I’ll give you guys some privacy,” he says, throwing a small, sympathetic smile over at me before attempting to walk passed my father.

A feeling of dread fills my stomach when I see my father blocking Brandon’s exit. Not again, I don’t think I
could cope with seeing them both at each other’s throats.

“Mr. Harper … or you can call me Paul,” my dad says, this time, holding his hand out to Brandon. “It appears I may have completely misjudged you young man.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, sir,” Brandon accepts my father’s hand, introduction, and way of apology, before throwing a wink over his shoulder and heading out of the room.

***

My father and I spent a lot of time talking, and I suppose I’m okay with him seeing someone. It’
ll be hard and she will never replace my mom, but as my father told me, she didn’t decide to date him just so she could try and take my mom’s place or adopt a stubborn young woman. I guess I can see his point.

That’s all we managed to discuss before his work cell sounded out, and so I’m still not completely sure what his thoughts a
nd feelings are towards Brandon. If the way they interacted before Brandon gave us some privacy is anything to go by, I don’t think it would do any harm in trying to explain everything to him again, with the hope that he’ll understand.

“You really should have said you’d be in town, Mr. Harper,” Alyssa tells my father as she comes over to join us around the coffee table. “You could h
ave stayed at my father’s hotel. Alex can vouch how amazing the penthouse suite is!”

Of all the things to fall out from her mouth, she had to
, didn’t she? She had to bring me into this conversation.

“Why would my daughter be staying in a hotel when she has adequate accommodation right here?” my father questions, bringing his attention over on me with a quizzical look in his eyes. “
… Oh.”

Feeling
as my cheeks begin to heat up, I avoid his gaze and when I go to throw an evil glare at Alyssa, I see her smiling and winking over at me. She loves to embarrass me, I swear she does.

“Rats!” Ryan exclaims, jumping up onto his feet
with his eyes opened wide. “Lots of ‘em! They were everywhere and—“

“Rats, of course,” my father humors him, and when I look to Diana, who is sitting right by my father, I
see that she’s throwing me a sympathetic smile.

She doesn’t seem so bad, I mean, she’s friendly enough, “
So how did you and Brandon meet?” Oh shit, like this couldn’t get any worse! “I bet it was romantic.”

Yeah, it was really romantic.

I fooled around late at night, in a public place, with a guy I’d only just met and didn’t even catch his name before he left … Yeah, I don’t think I’ll answer with that explanation somehow.

“It was the best day of my life,” Brandon answers, and I’m sure my heart just melted
at what he just said. Everyone glances over to him, smiling, but he shrugs as he sits forward in his seat. “No, it was, seriously. The um… the Seattle Slayers beat the Chicago Cats by one point. It was incredible!” he bursts out laughing, and when I gaze around everyone, they seem to find him highly amusing too, even my father is laughing from Brandon’s remark.

Winking over at me, I smile back at him. My father then clears his throat, and when I turn to face him,
I see that he’s getting onto his feet and leaning over, whispering something into Brandon’s ear.

I have no idea what he just said to him, but I see Brandon’s face all of a sudden turn
ing deadly serious.

“Well, we had better make a move,” my father informs us, as both he and Diana make their way over to the main door.

Grabbing their jackets from the coat hooks, I watch as my father helps Diana into hers, before we say our goodbyes.

“Dad, I need to talk to you about something,” I tell him, anxiety evident in my tone.

“Tell me you’re not pregnant!” he blurts out, and his outburst shocks me so much that I feel my eyes widening and my mouth becoming dry. “Brandon!”

“No way!” Brandon laughs out at my father’s expression as he comes over to stand beside me. “I have no intention of becoming a father, at least, not until I’m way into my thirties, I assure you.”

My father breathes out a huge sigh in relief, and the deep shade of red his whole face had turned just a couple of seconds ago, begins to fade, “Well thank heavens for that!”

Nudging me with his elbow, Brandon smiles down at me before I go to kiss my father goodbye, “So dad, about—“

“We’ll talk tomorrow,” he interrupts me, kissing me lightly on both cheeks before summoning Brandon to join both him and Diana in the hallway.

W
hen I go to ask again, Brandon kisses me on the forehead, tells me he’ll be back in a little while, and then follows my father out of the dorm.

***

I’ve been pacing the living area for just over two hours.

It has been two
freaking hours since Brandon left with my father, and I’ve neither seen nor heard from him since. Chewing on my nails, I’m beginning to feel really anxious.

“Your dad is a pretty cool guy,” Ryan says as he peek
s over the back of the couch. “I think he totally bought the rat issue.”

“Why do you think he’s taking so long?” I ask him, checking my watch and seeing that it’s a little before four o’clock. “Surely he would have been back by—“

The main door swings open, and I feel all the panic instantly floating away from my body as I head over to find out where he has been.

“Hey guys,” Neil greets us, carrying his guitar over his left shoulder
as he makes his way to his room. “Before I forget, Ryan, please, if you and Alyssa intend on making that amount of noise so late in the night, could you please fucking sound proof your rooms or something? I was awake half the night with the biggest and hardest boner!” he laughs, shakes his head, and as he’s about to proceed into his room, Ryan sits up with a puzzled expression over his face.

“Nah-ah, do not be blaming us for last night,” he says,
grinning and pointing over towards me, “It’s that one over there you wanna be saying this to. Alyssa and I had a rest night last night, although I have to agree, it made me feel pretty fucking horny too!”

They heard us? Well …
me? I feel the embarrassment creeping over me when Neil’s eyes dart over in my direction, “It was you?” he sounds shocked by this information.

“Brandon stayed over last night,”
I say shyly, looking away from the both of them. I hadn’t realized that I’d made so much noise that they were able to hear us, although it was pretty amazing. He was amazing.

“He did? But I thought that he
left and—“

Neil’
s stops talking when the main door swings open again, and this time, it’s the person I’ve been waiting for, “Where have you been?” I ask, desperate to know what my father had to say to him, that he couldn’t with me being present too.

I no
tice a smile playing over his lips as he heads straight towards me, before scooping me up and placing what feels like a million kisses all over me. My nose, my forehead, my jaw, my lips, my neck …

“You guys go and get a room,” Ryan calls over, “and I’ll get my earplugs!”
he laughs as he stands, before making his way over to Alyssa’s room.

“Brandon?”
I ask him again, noticing that he’s wearing a warm smile over his lips and aiming it right at me, but the smile doesn’t seem to be quite reaching his dim lit eyes.

“Alexis … we need to talk,” his voice is strained and his tone low.

Why is it that whenever anyone speaks those four little words, it doesn’t feel as though it could be anything but bad news
that you’re about to hear?

Walking straight by me and over to my room, I
glance over to where Neil’s standing and notice the look of confusion and concern flitting over his face.

“Like I’ve said before, Alex,” he says, obviously noticing the worry over my own
face from what Brandon just said, “everything will work out just the way it should, you’ll see.”

Smiling and waving a small wave at him as I head towards my room, I figure he’s right. If something is meant to be, then it will happen, even
if it takes forever to get it.

“I need to leave town for a little while,” Brandon tells me, with slight hesitation entering his tone as he sits himself down on the edge of my bed and studies me, most likely for my reaction.

Closing my eyes and feeling my stomach knotting
tightly for what feels like the thousandth time today already, I feel a rush of disappointment coursing through me.

Tears are stinging
in my eyes, and so I turn around so he can no longer see me, “For how long?” I ask, my voice shaky even though I’m trying my hardest not to show my sadness to him.

I know this is something he has to do, so I need to just focus on the ending, rather than the here and now. He promised me forever, and I know we’
ll have that one day, somehow.

“Until this whole mess gets sorted out,” his voice is soft, and I can feel him standing close behind me now. “It could only be for a few days, or it might take
a little while longer …”

Nodding, I
turn to face him and place my arms around his waist, nestling my head against his chest so he doesn’t see the tears that have just fallen from my eyes.

“I want this whole thing to be over,” I
sob, feeling him wrapping his arms around me tightly and hearing his heartbeat thrashing through his shirt.

“It will be, and most probably a lot sooner than we’d realized
,” he whispers, lifting a hand and stroking it through my hair as he attempts to comfort me somewhat.

Lifting my head until I can see his face, he smiles again, “How? What do you mean?”

“Your father and I just went to the cop shop,” he begins to explain, never once allowing his eyes to leave mine, “he dropped the charges against me over the burglary. That’s where I’ve been all this time. He offered to hear me out and so I told him everything that’s been going on.”

Feeling the biggest form of relief running through my veins, I rest my head back against him, “So the cops are off your back?”

“Yeah, although one of the detectives down there didn’t seem too happy about it,” he smirks, while tracing his hands lightly along the small of my back. “Just because your father called off the cops, doesn’t make everything else go away though, Alexis.”

Nodding in understanding, I know that he’s right, “When are you leaving?”

“In around ten minutes,” he answers, “I know college starts back next week, but I was hoping that maybe you could come and stay with me, until you have to be back for classes.”

Is he for real? Like there would be any other answer than
to say yes.

“Five minutes? I can be packed and ready in five mi—“

“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” he grabs me and pulls me back in front of him when he sees me hurrying to grab the case from my closet. “I need to go now, and I’ll have Zach come and collect you tomorrow, we can’t go together, Alexis.”

“Tomorrow? Why tomorrow? Why not now?” I search his face and see a flare of something entering his eyes. “What’s going on?”

Walking across the room and towards the door, he leans back against it and lets out a sigh, “Whoever is watching you, and whoever is watching me,” he hesitates, as though he’s trying to decide on a better way of explaining things. “They’re close, Alexis, really fucking close and until I’d spoken with your father, I hadn’t realized before how really close they actually are.”

“How close?”
my stomach plunges when I think about having someone watching me this whole time.

“Close enough to know that I
was here the other night. Close enough to know about you heading to your fathers, and close enough to know that you and your father never gave or threw away your mom’s things.”

“Are you
serious?” I stride over to him, feeling sick to the stomach by all of this.

“Why else start all of this up when I’d already done everything they’d asked
me to do?” he answers my question with one of his own. “Something, and I have no fucking idea what, but there must have been something that your mom had, that they wanted. I know this doesn’t make a lot of sense right now, but, it’s the only thing I can think of that could and would make any sense.”

Brandon’s cell phone chimes, and what with the deep sigh and disappointment etching over his features, I’m assuming that it’s time for him to leave.

“Tomorrow, I’ll have Zach come and get you,” he tells me, cutting the call that was disturbing our conversation and placing his cell phone back into his pants pocket. “I’ll message you later tonight.”

Standing forward and grasping my face in his hands, he crashes his lips onto mine, and I open my mouth as his to
ngue plunges inside. Groaning into my mouth and kissing me with such a great need, I grab at his waist and press myself against him, noticing that he breaks our contact almost immediately, before shaking his head at me.

“For the love of all things fucking holy,
Alexis!” he says, while raking his hands through his hair and beginning to look really frustrated, “don’t tease me when you know I can’t have you or I swear to God, I’ll turn you around and fuck the living—”

“Fuck me?” I muse at his choice of words, especially because he told me that I’m more to him than just a fuck. “Say that again?”

Narrowing his eyes on me, he realizes what he just said and I notice his face fall also immediately. “I didn’t mean … what I meant was …”

“No, no don’t make excuses,” I tell him, keeping my face straight as I step closer, our lips only an inch or so apart as I keep my eyes firmly gazing into his, “I’m not sure why, but what you said and the way you said it … well, it was kinda hot!”

“It was?” he sounds surprised and I notice his mouth fall open slightly, “you liked that I—?”

Placing my index finger over his lips, stopping him from saying any more, I smile widely at him and nod my answer, “
I like that we get to spend a few nights alone together.”

Licking his lips
slowly, with his eyes still searching mine, he gives me one final kiss goodbye before making his way out of my room for the night.

***

I’m finding it really hard to concentrate on anything.

Brandon left a few hours ago, and although I know I’ll be se
eing him again tomorrow and that I’ll be wrapped in his arms for almost a week before the college semester gets back underway, I miss him badly already.

Everything he told me earlier keeps repeating in my mind, making it impossible to even try and keep my focus on
anything for longer than five minutes at a time.

Placing my Kindle on the nightstand, I decide to start packing my case, so that I’m ready for whenever it is that
I’ll be picked up.

I called my father about an hour ago, thanking him profusely for what he did for me and Brandon today. He and Diana were on their way out for dinner when I called, so he wasn’t on the line for very long, but he did mention some of the same things that Brandon had earlier on today.

He seemed really calm considering he knows now that the person who broke into the house is still out there somewhere, but he reassured me that he’ll be okay and that he’s not on his own anymore.

Although my immediate reaction was to lash out at him over finding someone else, I actually found myself to be smiling when he said he had a good woman taking care of him.

If we’re going to be away in the cabin for most of the week, I don’t think I’ll be needing a lot of things to take with me. I pack the essentials, and find that it only takes me around twenty minutes until I’m done.

Finding
myself sitting on my bed and twiddling my thumbs, looking around the room and wondering what I can do for the rest of the evening, I eventually decide to go and see if the guys want to do something,
do anything
that will make tomorrow come around sooner.

“You ordered a pizza without me?” I ask, pretending that my
feelings have been hurt by clutching my hand on my chest overdramatically, as I drag my case and place it over by the door.

“Well, we weren’t so sure if you were all hot and naked in there for one, and we didn’t really didn’t feel like sharing, you eat a lot, Alexis, go order your own!” Ryan laughs out, and I see
Alyssa throwing me a quizzical look.

Taking a seat by them, I go to take a slice but Ryan’s a lot quicker than I am, and I watch him as I leans over, smacks my hand
, and then slides the pizza box from out of my reach, “get your fucking own!” he laughs, before passing me a couple of the smaller slices over. Always so generous is Mr. McGregor.

“What’s with the case?” Alyssa asks through a mouthful of food.

“It seems I’m going away for a few days,” I smile as I go to take a bite out of the just warm slice.

Rolling her eyes, she takes a sip of her Diet Coke, “Well, duh! Where?”

Knowing that I’m within the comfort zone of my three best friends, and that there’s nobody else around to hear our conversation, I decide that it would be okay to tell them.

“You guys can’t say anything, do you promise me?” I ask, glancing around the table and noticing that all three pairs of eyes are watching
me, waiting for me to continue. “They’re getting closer to finding out who has been doing everything, and we don’t think that it’ll be too much longer before they figure out who was behind it all, Holly, Brandon, the break in …”

“Shit! That’s fucking incredible news!” Ryan beams, a small piece of pizza dropping out from his mouth through all of his excitement at hearing the news, “I mean, then we can all get back to normal and hang out.”

Smiling happily to know that they’re routing for him too and haven’t ever given up on him, makes me realize that both Brandon and I really do have the most amazing friends in the whole world. I don’t think I would have been able to cope these past few weeks without them by my side.

“Tell me!” Alyssa pipes up, seemingly impatient to know where it is that I’ll be spending my time.

“I’m not exactly sure where it is,” I tell her, “All I know is that it’s a small cabin, just outside of the city,” shrugging my shoulders and realizing that it really doesn’t matter where I am, as long as I’m with Brandon.

We could be shacked up in a tiny little building and have nothing but each other, but to me, that means that I’ll have everything
that I’ll ever need.

“Ooohh, a mystery wai
ting to be solved!” Neil smiles while rubbing his hands together, with a small sparkle crossing into his eyes. “You’ll be back for when classes start though?”

“Yeah, I mean, if we can work out who did all of this beforehand, then there will be no reason for him to stay away from the city, but if we haven’t figured it out by then, well then I suppose I’ll be coming back on my own.”

Saying this makes me feel sad, and this is why I’m so determined to find out who has ruined both my life, and Brandon’s, so we can put all of this behind us and never have to be away from each other again.