Unexpected

Ten

Mya's POV:

There was clearly some secret to small coastal town living that made everyone just happy all the time.
It didn't matter where I was, who I spoke to or walked past - I was treated like I belonged here. Everyone made time to smile and say hello, when I shopped at the little cutesy boutiques, ordered coffee through a whole in the wall cafe or sunk my toes into the warm sand at the beach - people would stop and talk to me about my day, genuinely interested in my answers and offering suggestions of places I should go but still it seemed easy enough to find the quiet, the small secluded spaces which could just be mine for a few moments - mine long enough to listen and read the hundreds of voice mails and text messages Reed had left for me.
I knew what I'd done hadn't been fair to him, but he played his part in this too, and though I knew I owed him a conversation I took the chicken way out again ignoring the requests to call him and text him instead.

"Reed, I want you to know I'm safe, and I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to hurt you, but I just can't give you what you want"

"Don't you think you owe me more than this Mya, after all this time is this all I'm worth to you - just a few lines in a text. That's not fair and you know it"

"I know, you're right and I'm sorry. I just can't marry you Reed, I can't live a life where every single second has been mapped out for me - it's just not what I want. I'm sorry for hurting you, I'm sorry for running from you, I'm sorry it has taken me so long to figure it out, I'm sorry for everything"

"Please come home Mya, come home to me. We can figure this all out. We can have any future you want, just please, come home to me"

"I can't Reed, for the first time in a long time I feel like I am right where I need to be"

"Right where you need to be?? What - with him?? Good luck with that Mya. He will screw you over just like he did your mother, I just hope you haven't pushed everyone who loves you away by the time you realise it"

The final message was enough for me to turn my phone onto silent, his words only speaking the truth of what was already consuming my mind. Yes - I had heard and been told stories of Jackson Knight, Yes - I had been told numerous times from my Dad that Jackson Knight was nothing but trouble and he would hurt me, but I had also heard the many stories my Mum had told me - some of them she had told me in secret and I knew she loved him, she had loved him as a 16 year old girl and she still loved him even now, but I also knew from the way she had told it - their love was completely toxic and not a story to be found in a happy every after novel.
But he was still my father and there was just something inside me that needed to see him, to talk to him and maybe get to know him just a little bit.
Dad and Mum knew - they knew where I was, that he was the reason I had come here and that I was going to see him - eventually.
I will never, ever forget how tight my Dad held me to him when I told him my plan - as if he never wanted to let me go, as if the moment he did I would no longer be his and he would no longer be my Dad - but that couldn't be any further from the truth. Jackson Knight may biologically be my Father and yes I wanted to see him but Carson Cage was the man who raised me, the man who stood by me and held me up my entire life - the man that showed us how much he loved us each and every single minute of each and every single day, there was nothing that would ever change that.

"So apparently it's become quite the town gossip that I took some gorgeous outsider to dinner last night"

I couldn't help the massive grin that spread across my face as Knox sat down beside me,

"Really? And how did that go?"

Knox leaned further over pressing a kiss to my lips before his lips turned up in a smirk that made my heart pound and sent chills through my body,

"Fucking amazing" he winked at me, standing up and brushing his hand over his shorts before holding them out to me and pulling me up to meet him,

"I came to give you the daylight tour, you up for it?"

"With you Knox, I think I'd be up for almost anything?"

"Good, let's get started"

Knox wrapped his arm around my back, his hand
sliding into the back pocket of my jean shorts keeping it there as we walked.
He was easy to spend time with, talking as we walked and he pointed out little things about this town - our bodies consistently seeking contact with each other, a touch of a hand, a brief kiss on my cheek and the occasional moment he would stop and pull me into him, cup my face in his hand and kiss me with so much passion my body would collapse against his.

"You are so god damn beautiful Snow"

I threw my head back with a groan -

"Again with the nick name - My little brothers call me that too"

Knox pressed his lips against mine - his voice a low and husky as he spoke

"Well I'll make sure not to use it when it really counts then"

He mouth pressed firmer to mine, his tongue pushing past my lips and twining with my own, hands on my waist fisting and pulling me impossibly closer and I wrapped mine in his shirt - never wanting to let go.

"Spend the night with me tonight" his forehead pressed to mine, his voice barely a whisper.

"Knox"

He shook his head

"Evie is at a sleepover, we don't have to do anything, I just want you next to me"

I kissed him softly;

"Yes"

"Yes?" He repeated my words as a question

"Yes" I nodded, my entire body exploding with excitement of being with him in any way.

We kept walking and talking about anything and everything, he spoke about Evie - the girl in his life who owned him and I loved the way his entire face lit up as he told stories about her, we spoke more about my crazy family, and we spoke about Emily and we spoke about Reed. Nothing was off the table with us.

Then there it was - appearing right in front of us. With large windows and a double wide swinging front door - the wooden carved sign above the entrance and though I'd seen it before I just couldn't drag my eyes away from the building in front of me, the sign so bold -

"Knights Bar & Grill"