Free Blind Love (The Complete Box Set Romance Series) by Erin Wes Page B

said, handing the phone back to me.
    “No.”
    I wasn’t. I wanted
it to be special. Not with some guy on the football field, under the bleachers
as part of a bet. My father had taught me to have more self-respect than that.
    Dylan rubbed a
hand down his face. “I can’t believe this.” He glanced at Bailey and Barbie,
who had finally stopped pounding on each other.
    “This sucks,” he
said, then ran into the darkness.
    “Dylan?”
    I ran in the
direction he went, but couldn’t find him. Shit. This wasn’t good.
    “Bailey, Barbie, I
can’t find Dylan. Come help me.”
    “Fuck you,” Bailey
said.
    I rolled my eyes.
We were going to be picked up in a half an hour. Shit. Shit. Shit.
    “Dylan?”
    I kept jogging in
the direction he went, but he wasn’t there. I would cover for him. Hopefully,
he’d come home tonight. I wandered over to the front of the school, hoping I
didn’t look a mess. I didn’t want to have to explain to my dad what had
happened.
    It was too
complicated. My father drove up and I gave him a big smile.
    “How was it,
kitten?”
    “It’s was good,
Daddy.”
    I sounded too
cheery to myself.
    “Where’s Dylan?”
    “Some idiot got
drunk and Dylan is making sure he gets home safely. He didn’t want you to wait
for him. He said he’d be a little late and he was sorry.”
    My father pulled
out of the lot. “No, that’s a good reason to be late. If he’s doing a good deed,
I can forgive him.”
    “The guy was
falling down. It was stupid.”
    “I’m glad you feel
that way about drinking to your age, pumpkin. It’s best to wait.”
    “Sure, Daddy.”
    I stared out the
window, willing Dylan to please come home tonight.

 
    PART 2

 
    Chapter Eleven
    Taylor
    When Daddy pulled into the garage, I was
hoping with all of my will that Dylan would be home before us. I didn’t want
him wandering around, and I didn’t want him screwing this up. He’d back in that
trailer if he did. I hadn’t even seen the thing, but it made me shudder,
anyway.
    He’d once said that the trailer he lived
in would fit in his bedroom in the house. I couldn’t imagine living in that,
but he’d had no choice. Now, he did, and I wanted him to make good ones. I was
rooting for Dylan.
    I entered the kitchen to see my mom there.
“Where’s Dylan?” she asked.
    My father spoke. “He had to take a friend
home who got drunk.”
    My mother eyed both of us. I’m sure that
she didn’t think we were telling the truth. I kept my gaze steady. Any sign of
weakness and she would know that I was lying. I didn’t want to lie, but her
scrutiny of all of Dylan’s actions made it that way.
    Besides, I couldn’t tell her what really
happened. I couldn’t even tell my father. That was new. I could tell him a lot
of things, but I didn’t think Dylan would want me to. I had to respect his
privacy, even if I hadn’t felt I should earlier.
    “Okay, I guess that’s a valid reason for
being late.” She was in her pajamas. She waved at us. “Going to bed.”
    “Good night, Mom.”
    I looked in the refrigerator for something
to drink. My father sat himself at the island as I grabbed the orange juice.
“Pour me some of that, kitten.”
    “Sure, Daddy.”
    I set a glass in front of him and then sat
next to him, drinking my own. He turned to me. “Are you going to tell me what’s
really going on with Dylan?”
    I almost choked on my juice as I coughed a
little. “What do you mean?”
    “Is it a teenage thing? Or is it a Dylan
thing?”
    “Still not sure what you are talking
about,” I said.
    I tried to play it cool, but it was hard
to lie to my father. He knew when I was. My mother was easy to lie to because
sometimes she didn’t want to know the truth. My father always did. He faced
life head on.
    “Is Dylan coming back tonight?”
    “Of course he is, Daddy.”
    “Are you sure?”
    I crossed my fingers where he couldn’t see
them. “Yes. He likes it here.”
    “Good because I can only make excuses for
so