Free Reasons to Leave (Reasons #1) by Lisa J. Hobman Page B

into the toxic mix that you dished up to me, you selfish bastard. You didn’t deserve my fucking virginity! Now, I think I’ll go if you don’t mind.” She tried to pass him.
    He grabbed her by the arms again. His voice was calm but his teeth were clenched. “Okay…okay…all very fair points. I deserved to hear that. I get it. I really do , but you don’t understand. I had to leave.”
    “Really? Well, now it’s my turn to leave. I’ve learned from the expert. Let go of my fucking arms. I don’t want to spend another minute in your presence.” Her lip quivered and the threatening tears that she had been fighting betrayed her by spilling down her cheeks, leaving scorching trails in their wake.
    Before she could protest further, he pulled her into his chest and cradled her in his arms. He held her tight as she let out the pain and anguish of ten long years without him.
    “ Why , Jason? Why did you leave me? What did I do wrong? I loved you so much.” She pulled away and pounded her fists into his chest. “You didn’t love me ! You can’t have loved me enough!” He let her hit him until she began to crumple. He caught her and lowered himself to the floor with her in his arms until he was leaning against the sofa with her on his lap. She continued to sob, pouring all her pent up anguish and heartache onto his bare flesh.
    Once she had calmed and her sobs had subsided into whimpers, he tilted her chin up so that she met his gaze, their noses only an inch apart. His eyes trailed from hers down to her lips where they hesitated for a moment before locking onto her eyes again.
    “I know you don’t believe me. And I don’t blame you, but you were the most important thing in my life. In fact, you were my life.”
    Her heart fluttered at his closeness. “Then please tell me why you left me.”
     

Chapter Six
    Stevie straddled Jason’s lap, just like she would have done in his room all those years ago. Oddly enough, it didn’t feel strange to be sitting this way. Jason tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and caught the last of her tears with his thumbs.
    He closed his eyes and took a deep, slow, shaking breath. When he opened them again, he had a hard, distant look about him.
    “It started at primary school. I was doing so well in every subject. I was getting really good reports. I was…what…ten?” He shrugged. “Everything was going great. That is until I got chicken pox from Danny Milton. Remember?”
    She vaguely remembered him being off school for a while, but at age ten she and Jason weren’t such good friends. He was always teasing her. She nodded anyway.
    “It made me really ill. I had such a bad case that I ended up in hospital for a few days and I was off school for weeks. Anyway, when I went back I struggled to catch up. I tried hard, but apparently I didn’t try hard enough.” He clenched his jaw and she could feel the tension radiating through his body.
    He closed his eyes again.
    “Jason?”
    He snapped his eyes open as if remembering she was there with him. “Sorry…yeah. So my dad was…erm…not too happy that I’d fallen behind. He was so used to being able to brag to his friends that his eldest son was the brightest kid in school. Me lagging behind suddenly meant that he had to make excuses for me.”
    She frowned. “What do you mean he had to make excuses for you? He’s your dad. Why would he have to tell anyone anything ? You’d been ill, for goodness sake.”
    “Yep, most parents would see it that way too. Mum did. But not him …no… he was pissed off that I got seven out of ten in my spelling test that week instead of my usual ten.”
    She swallowed hard. “So what’s this got to do with anything between you and I?”
    “He started by just slapping me around the head and insulting me. It hurt, but I was a tough kid.”
    “Again, what has this got—”
    “Stevie, I’m trying to start at the beginning…please.”
    She cringed. “Sorry…okay…go