Living In The Shallows (UK Crush #1)

Chapter Forty-Seven

The sun beat down on my head as I placed the incense in the burner in front of my mother's tombstone and bent my head in prayer to her. We were not a religious family, never had been, but I had made sure all of the proper etiquette had been followed for her funeral. She would have wanted it, her parents would have wanted it, and it was no deity to whom I prayed, it was to her memory. Please, I prayed, be at peace; be where you can see me and be proud of me and the decisions I am making.

I felt Teddy's arm around my waist, and I was grateful for his presence. I turned away from her grave, and told him, "I'm finished. We can go."

He nodded, and we walked back to our rental car. He had insisted on renting a convertible, saying it wasn't really a "California experience" without one. I told him I'd lived my entire life in California without owning a convertible, but he'd overruled me. Luckily, the French braid held tight, even in the freeway breeze.

We got in the car, but instead of starting it, he turned to me.

"Um, I have to tell you something," he said. I couldn't see his eyes behind his sunglasses, so I couldn't tell if it was serious or not.

"Okay?" I said inquiringly.

"We don't need to go to the storage place on Pico," he said.

"We don't?" I said, surprised. It was the next stop on my list of things to do. I had to go through my stuff and pack my "winter" things, like jeans, sweaters, what few cold weather items I had, into boxes to ship to Teddy's house in London. "Why not?"

"Um, there's nothing stored there anymore." He said, looking everywhere but at me.

I unbuckled my seat belt so I could turn and face him. "What are you talking about? Everything I own is in there. All the stuff that wouldn't fit in the apartment was in there, and when Ben moved, he put everything that was in the apartment in there."

"And when you agreed to come to London with me, I contacted Ben and had him ship everything that was in there to my house. Just listen, hear me out, hear me out—" He raised his hands as he saw me preparing to absolutely freak out in the front seat of the car. I restrained myself with monumental effort. "I didn't see the point in you paying for storage when I had this huge house with plenty of room to store all your stuff for free, that's all. And I hated to think of all your things in a storage unit with dirt and dust and bugs and rodents and things, I mean why not have them in a room in my house, nice and clean? I was just thinking of you..."

How come when he said it, it sounded so reasonable? "How did you get my stuff out? Didn't you need my signature?" was all I could think to ask.

"Well, it was a joint account, with Ben, so he could do it without you." At least he had the good grace to look at little apologetic about it.

"Why didn't you tell me? Or ask me?" I demanded.

"I knew you'd come up with some bollocks reason to say no," he returned. "Because you're stubborn as anything and won't let people help you. That's why."

"And Ben just said yes?" I asked, disbelieving.

"He took a little convincing, but once he understood I had your best interests at heart, yes, he agreed," Teddy said.

A thought occurred to me. "And how in the hell did you get Ben's number to begin with, hmm?" I demanded.

"Off your phone, when you were sleeping," he admitted. "Fuck, please don't be angry with me. It makes me feel awful. I swear I only wanted to do what was best for you. I thought it would save you money, it would be nice for you to have all your things close by, and that they would be in a nicer environment. That's all, honestly. And I thought you'd be all tiresome and independent about it, and I really, really don't care about the money, but I do care about you, so I just did it. Please forgive me for not asking you first. Shit. I feel like Ronan." He hit the steering wheel, hard enough to honk the horn.