Worse for Hope- Book #2 in the WF Series

Chapter 36: Official, Offical

✮Rider's POV:✮

She said yes! If you couldn't tell, that was a scream.

You know in movies when somebody just died but then ends up coming back to life and you get that feeling. That's exactly what I'm feeling. Except that neither of us came back from the dead. Or lost their life.

Ignore that example.

"You're smiling too much," Bethane points out as we're at a stoplight and I'm watching her more than gorgeous face fucking glow in the sunlight.

We dried off in the sunlight for a minute before we got back into the car. My hair is almost dry since it's shorter than Beth's whose is still very much wet, though she still looks just as beautiful, if not more.

"Am I?" I sarcastically ask, pretending to be confused.

"We're still not official official," she reminds me.

"I know." I nod as we pull away from the light. "But we are official and I know how to make us official official within seconds," I humbly respond.

"And how's that?" she tests me with her arms folded.

"There are so many things." I exhale. "My charm, my charisma," I list, controlling myself because I could go on and on.

Bethane nods along with a smile. "We can't forget your ability to be so modest."

"Of course, we can't."

She rolls her eyes at me before sitting back in her seat and folding her arms again. She finally looks up ahead and realizes that this is her neighborhood and I'm not taking her somewhere else so she can avoid talking to her dad.

"Rider, I told you I didn't want to talk to him," she complains angrily.

"You are not going to ruin your relationship with your parents because of me or because your dad was just doing the right thing," I try to reason with her.

"You can't be serious? You think that him hiding the letter from me was the right thing?" she asks in disbelief.

"Beth, if you had a daughter and you saw her hurting, would you let the person who hurt her back into her life?"

"I wouldn't lie to her," she argues back.

"Yes, you would." I tilt my head at her with a smile. "You would do anything for her because you love her and she's your daughter."

She sits back in her seat when we pull into her driveway, and I notice water fill her eyes, but she quickly pushes the angry tears down.

"We could've avoided all of this," her voice comes out as a whisper.

I turn her head towards me with my finger underneath her chin. She sadly looks at me, her big, brown eyes vulnerably staring at me.

"If that would've happened, then we wouldn't be who we are today, and I really fucking like the person you've become."

A small smile forms on her lips.

"You worked your ass off to get to where you are, you're independent, and you became what you always dreamed you would be and I couldn't be prouder of you." I push a strand of hair out of her face as a tear falls down her cheek.

I know she cries whenever she gets a compliment because it's hard for her to be satisfied with herself, so I know she's not crying from sadness.

"If we would've been together, you wouldn't have grown and I wouldn't have either. Kind of," I add about myself at the end, making her laugh at the ground.