Eyes on Me (Salacious Players Club, #2)

by Sara Cate

Her hips start to grind, and I notice the way she keeps lifting herself up, only to have my arms pull her back down. I lift her up long enough to give myself enough room to talk. “Mia, when I said sit on my face, I meant sit on my fucking face.” She grips

“Garrett,” she calls when I reach the hospital exit. I spin and find her jogging my way. Regardless of the fact that her eyes are swollen from crying and there isn’t a shred of makeup on her face, she still looks ridiculously beautiful. “Are you okay?” she asks. When she reaches me, her fingers glide across the skin of my forearms and I want to flinch from her touch. “Yeah. I just needed air. Are you okay?” “I am now,” she replies solemnly. “Your mom said we should go home and rest.” “What about her?” “She’s not leaving his side.” When her hands reach for me again, I let her wind them around my waist, pulling her body close. This is the final surrender. I’ve realized my mistake too late. I can’t avoid where this thing is going with Mia. We’re already there. And I don’t hate it as much as I expected to.

I have to force myself to swallow down the uncomfortable lump building in my throat. “We were just scared.” “Yeah…” he replies, not sounding too convinced. “Later that night, he came back to the hospital and told his mother everything. He told her it was serious. That he was nervous how everyone would react, but that he loved you.” What? He said that? “Dad—" It’s on the tip of my tongue to deny it or to apologize, but I don’t exactly know why. He holds up his hand to stop me. “I don’t need details, but I also don’t want you to lie about it.” “Are you mad?” “A little…but you’re twenty-three. And I didn’t raise a girl who couldn’t stand up for herself. I know if he does ever hurt you, you’ll give him hell.” My chest aches with the reminder that he did, in fact, hurt me. A self-fulfilled prophecy since Garrett did, in some sense, try to warn me. “I don’t know what to say…” “Tell me why you’re here and not with him,” he says with a furrowed brow. “Because he fucked it up already—sorry,” I stammer, covering my mouth after cussing at my dad. He just laughs but immediately winces from the pain. “Hmm…” he replies, and I wait for him to continue. “Is it something you can forgive him for? Something you can work out?” “I don’t know. He humiliated me.”

“Will you stop it?” I say, jumping up to tend to him. “If you pop a stitch, Laura is going to kill you.” “Well, come on. That’s funny.” “What’s so funny about Garrett humiliating me?” “It’s Garrett,” he says, as if it shouldn’t be surprising at all. “You two have been picking on each other for fifteen years. Now you want to have a relationship with him and you think things will be different. Honey, people don’t change just because your relationship has.” “Well, he lied to me, and it’s way more than a prank or a joke.” “I’m sorry,” he says, his stoic eyes set on me. “Don’t forgive him until he earns it.” “But…” I reply because I can feel him wanting to continue. “But…I hope he earns it. You’re still family and you’ve been happy lately. I’m your dad, so as much as I hate to think about you having a boyfriend, I do like to see you happy.” My throat begins to sting with emotion. What is it about a heart-to-heart with your dad that makes you want to start crying immediately? “I know Laura wants to see him happy too.” Just the mention of Garrett being happy sets my jaw, and I look up at my dad. But he doesn’t continue, and I’m left to worry even more.

“Because I’m not talking to Garrett right now.” “Well, he hasn’t even been in all week, so you probably don't need to worry about him anyway. Plus, what better way to show that you don’t need him than to show up and blow the roof off this place.” But I do need him. And I do care that he hasn’t shown up to work. But I don’t say that. I’m still angry at him, but the worry is there too.

BEWARE OF BLACK HAIR TIES.