Free Giving In (The Sandy Cove Series Book 1) by M.R. Joseph Page A

from it, and I feel defeated. Willow and Thea look at
me. They come to my side and link their arms with mine as we make
our descent back to the house.
    Cruz stills my arm as he speaks, “Turnip, wait,
I’m… I’m, well, you know.”
    He can’t find the words. The only words that
will make this okay, but he doesn’t have the power to say them.
    Willow smacks his chest and follows the rest of
us into the house. He remains stoic, and I faintly hear Porter
yelling at him as we walk.
     

     
    I need a shower. I smell like the bay. I need
the warmth of the water on me, speedily. As I make my way to the
bathroom, Willow asks what I want to put on after my shower. I just
want my sweats, because when I get out of the shower, I’ll be
packing to go home. I can’t stay here with that asshole.
    I turn on the water, and I feel the temperature
of the spray. I peel off my wet clothes and step in, automatically
feeling the constant steady stream of water from the shower head on
my body. I just keep telling myself over and over: ‘You’re okay.
You’re okay. You are alive.’
    All these emotions stirred up by one person.
Now, I’m a sensible person. I know he had no idea I couldn’t swim,
but it’s his insatiable need to play, to kid around, to trick, and
to use sexual innuendoes every chance he gets.
    I stand there, hands against the cool tiles of
the shower, thinking of what I need to do when I get home. Buy a
new laptop, re-do all the applications I began. Damn it, I should
have pressed send sooner.
    I’ll get a simple job until I have a teaching
position. Maybe Daddy will let me fetch coffee for him at the
office. All I know is I have to leave.
    I’m finished with my shower. I wrap a towel
around myself, make my way to my room, dress quickly and throw my
suitcase on my bed, again, for the second time in less than two
weeks. I hear a knock at my door.
    “Come in.” Willow enters and sees what I’m up
to.
    She stands there, hands on hips, and a look of
disapproval on her face.
    “Gonna run again? Go home and sulk, let him win?
You’re stronger than that, Harlow. Since when do you wimp out?”
    That stings, but I don’t care. I can’t enjoy
myself here knowing that immature ass lives ten feet away.
    “Leave me be, Willow. It’s just not working out.
I’m going home.”
    She kicks the door closed with her heel and
grabs the clothes I’m trying to pack out of my hands and throws
them on the floor.
    “What the hell!”
    She grabs my wrist and turns me towards her, her
eyes pleading with me.
    “And what’s going to happen once you get there?
Stay in your room for the rest of the summer, avoiding the outside
world, risk running into him? You know what will happen if you do?
I can’t go through that again with you, Harlow. I’m your friend,
but I won’t allow another slip up with him.”
    I think about it, about her words. What would
happen if I did? What would happen if I fell back in? Under the
spell, under the pull, under his forcefulness. It’s so easy for me
to cave. She thinks I’m strong, but I’m as weak as they come,
especially when the one we do not speak of is involved.
    “I know, but I can’t stay here. I hate Cruz. He
ruined my laptop. I was in the process of filling out all the
online applications for the districts in our area, and it took a
long time. I never sent them, now I have to start all over
again.”
    She tugs me down to sit on the bed next to her.
Her demeanor softens, and she wraps an arm around my shoulder.
    “You have been through so much, Har, and you
have overcome a lot of it for the most part, but you can’t let him
win. I want him out. Not sure why Porter hangs with someone like
him. All I know is, you can’t let him win, and if you go home,
that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
    She’s not talking about Cruz either.
    We sit in silence for a few moments. I’m
thinking about what she said. If I go home, he wins. He’ll know I’m
defeated, that I came crawling back.