Free Coming Home to You (The Rockport Beach Series Book 1) by Claire Raye Page B

I realize I need Beck more than I want to
admit.

 
Chapter Eight
Beck

 
    “Did the UPS guy say anything?” Finn asks,
and I feel Kelsey shake her head. She’s still wrapped in my arms and although
her body’s finally stopped shaking, I’m reluctant to let her go. As soon as I
saw the package and read the note, I knew this little fucker was upping his
game. I also knew that this wasn’t going to be a simple weekend trip after all
and after I wrap things up with Finn here, I’m going to have to call Ryan and
let him know I won’t be back tomorrow as I’d originally planned.
    “What are you going to do?” I ask my
brother.
    “What, you don’t have any bright ideas,
city boy?” Finn shoots back.
    “Finn…” Kelsey says straightening in my
arms.
    “Don’t, Kels, I deserve that,” I tell her,
pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “And you are the chief, Finn,” I say,
turning to my brother. “You’re the one in charge here.”
    Finn says nothing, just stands there
staring at us, a look of surprise on his face.
    “What?” I ask, suddenly annoyed.
    “This morning you two were ready to rip
each other’s heads off,” he says, gesturing to us. “And now, what, you’ve
suddenly kissed and made up?”
    I can hear the annoyance in his voice and
even though I know it’s not because he’s in love with my girl, it still pisses
me off. I open my mouth, ready to tell him to mind his own fucking business
when Kelsey speaks.
    “Finn,” she says softly, stepping away from
me. I have an overwhelming urge to pull her back into my arms and keep her
there. I know now, I was a fucking idiot for ever walking away from this woman.
Of course I’m still in love with her, I never fucking stopped loving her and
right now, Boston and everything I thought I’d find by moving there, feels a million
miles away.
    But when she says her next words, all of
the blood in my veins turns to ice. “It’s not like that,” she says.
    Her words stab me through the heart, mainly
because I know how true they are. Nothing’s changed between us, no matter how
much I might want it to. “No,” I say, staring at the back of her head. “It’s
not.”
    Kelsey turns to look at me and I can see
the hurt written all over her face. The hurt that I put there for leaving, but
the hurt I know she has because of all the reasons she knows I’m going to leave
again. I suddenly want to tell her that I won’t, that I’ll stay this time. That
I’m all hers because that’s all I’ve ever been. But I know it’s not as simple
as that.
    She swallows and the hurt look disappears
before she takes a step towards me and puts a hand on my cheek. I automatically
lean in to it. “Thank you for being here, Beck,” she whispers. “Really.”
    I’m staring into her gorgeous blue eyes and
as much as our future is a complication that neither of us can sort out, in
this second, I don’t fucking care. Right now, the only thing I want to do is
drag her back up to the room we were cleaning thirty minutes ago and finish
what we started. Make a whole new bunch of memories between those sheets.
Memories that wipe away all of the shit that happened ten years ago; all of the
shit that’s happening now.
    Finn clears his throat, ruining the fantasy
running through my head. “I’m going to have to do a sweep over at your house,
Kels,” he says before turning to me. “Can you keep an eye on her while we do
that?”
    I stand up straighter knowing I’m not
letting Kelsey out of my sight until this fucker is behind bars or has a bullet
in him. “Of course I can,” I say. “And you can forget about the detail on her,
Finn, she won’t need it while I’m around.”
    “Beck,” Kelsey says.
    “What?”
    “Don’t you have to go back to Boston.”
    It’s the way the she says it that kills me.
It’s not malicious and it’s not a question, just a statement of fact. It’s the
resignation she has because she knows I left her once and can easily do