Don't Let Me Be Gone

Chapter 20

I woke up with my bare body against Braxton's. He holds me close while my head rests on top of his chest where I can feel his heartbeat against my face, it's so steady and soothing. I feel him exhaling slightly on my forehead. One hand is hold mine while the other hand is placed on my back. I can feel his fingers twitch against me slightly and his breathing changes.

"Zoe," his groggy voice speaks, "are you awake?"

"No," I whisper with a smile appearing on my face, though he can't see it. He laughs slightly and removes the hand off of my back and begins to stroke my hair.

"Did you sleep well?" He asks.

"I did," I adjust myself so I can place my chin on his chest and look at his face, "did you?"

"Indeed I did," he smiles and kisses my forehead softly, "wanna spend another day on the beach? It's our last day, we leave in the morning, have you kept in contact with your mom?"

"Yes and yes." I love spending time on the beach, mainly because I had never been on a beach before we came here to South Carolina. As for my mother, she's constantly texting me, checking if I'm safe. I understand though, I'm hours away from home and I've been gone for three days.

"Good, let's get our day started."

"But you're soooooo comfortable," I groan.

"I know, I know, we can go back to doing this later. I'm hungry, we can sleep the day away once we get home tomorrow, okay?" He assures. I nod and sit up while covering myself with the blanket. He gets up without covering himself.

"Braxton, oh my gosh," I turn away quickly.

"What? It's not anything you haven't seen before," he laughs. I roll my eyes and laugh along with him.

We get dressed and go along with our day.

...

After a long day that seemed to go too fast, we end up in bed. We have to be up by nine, be at the airport at ten, and arrive home at around noon.

"Braxton," I speak while we lay in bed.

"You're supposed to be sleeping Zoella," he scolds me, but I can hear that in his voice he's just joking.

"I have a serious question," I look up at him with my cheek against his chest.

"And what is this mysterious question?" He asks while playing with my hair.

"Honestly... how did you come up with the money to do all of this?"

"Zoella, I told you-"

"Yeah, I know you told me it doesn't matter, but I really want to know... please? You don't have a job, so how did you get the money?"

"Alright, you caught me, I robbed a bank and I'm on the run," he states.

"Braxton! I'm serious!" I sit up and hit his arm while we both laugh.

"Okay, okay," he pulls me back down so that we are face-to-face, "it was from my dad before he died. It was in a box, with a letter he wrote to me," he admits.

"What did it say?" I ask while placing my hand on his cheek and stroking it with my thumb while he talks about his dead father.

He hesitates for a moment before answering my question, "it said, and I quote, 'Use this money for a special girl that you feel yourself falling in love with. Do not waste it, make sure you love, just as I loved your mother,' so I did, I used the money to bring us here."

"Braxton," I smile, I can feel the blush starting to rise to my cheeks.

"I'm falling for you, Zoella. Even though you were a complete bitch to me when we first met, but I forgive you for that."