I shuddered at that thought. "Three Logans?"

"Yeah." Mason chuckled again as he gazed up at me. "But that was awhile ago. Why are you asking?"

"You think he'll stay another year?"

"He will since you'll be there. You know both of us want you to transfer to Public. We have a better track team. I've talked to you about that before."

I sighed as I remembered those conversations. Mason brought it up once when we had been in bed. Then it was raised again at the kitchen table. Logan brought up the topic, Mason jumped in, and I was double-teamed. I never told them what I had decided, but the truth was that I wasn't sure.

Fallen Crest Academy was a better school, but they were right. Fallen Crest Public had a better track team. Mason went to their track coach. He agreed to meet with me and he watched me run every day over the last week. He timed how long I would go on their inside track, but he hadn't said anything during our last session. I wanted to wait until I knew that it would be worth the transfer.

"I don't get it, Sam. Why do you want to stay there? Douchebag turned everyone against you."

I grinned down at him, at the frustration in his voice. "You look cute when you're pissed with me."

"Then I must be cute whenever we talk about this. I'm always pissed with you about this. Why won't you transfer? It makes no sense to me. You could get a scholarship, Sam. Let's be real here. Do you really want to depend on your mom's help to go to college? Or your dads'? Neither of them has contacted you recently. Have they? And what's up with that?"

A different headache was coming on. It was low and probing. I shook my head. I didn't want to discuss either of them. "I understand why you want me to transfer. I get it. I do. But I don't know if it'll be worth it. I haven't even heard back from Coach Grath. I might not make the team, so why would I transfer schools?"

"Besides not going to school with Douchebag and all his little followers?" He grumbled, "You have no friends over there. They're weak as hell."

"Maybe." They were. "But it's a good school. I've always gone there and my dad—"

I looked away, but his fingers were quick as lightning. He grabbed my chin and kept me from turning away. I started to struggle, but his hold tightened. It was useless. He'd already heard.

His eyes narrowed to slits. "That's why you don't want to transfer, isn't it? Because of your dad. You think it's one way to still see him, don't you?"

I fell quiet. It wasn't because I didn't want to talk about that. It was because I couldn't. My throat swelled and it felt like an elephant was on my chest. It hurt to push past both of those emotions, or ignore how my heart rate skyrocketed.

"Sam."

I shook my head. I tried to look away, but a tear slipped out.

He cursed under his breath and then bundled me in his arms once more. I curled up in his lap as he folded me against his chest so we were both settled against the bed's headboard. Then he brushed some of my hair away from my forehead. His fingers slid down and brushed away more of my tears. I couldn't stop them. I never could when I really thought about my dad. So instead, I tried to never think about him.

Another soft curse slipped past his lips. He pressed a kiss to my forehead. "I'm sorry. I am."

My hands curled into his shirt. I held on with a desperation I never would've shown four months ago. Now I couldn't help myself with him. I needed him. Hell, I starved for him at times.

He continued to brush more of my hair from my eyes. "How long has it been?"

I shook my head. It still hurt to talk.

"If they won't reach out to you, you should reach out to them."

I looked up now. Panic coursed through me. He couldn't be suggesting…

He nodded. "You heard me. You go to them and find out what the hell is going on."

A ragged chuckle ripped from me. It was so easy for him. If people stood in his way, Mason went through them. It wasn't a question if they would stop him. It was a question of how he would go through them, if he would stomp them down, barrel through them, or just throw them out of his way.

Things were different with me.

"Why are you laughing?" He tilted my head back again.

I shook my head. God, it hurt sometimes.

"Talk to me, Sam," he groaned.

I closed my eyes. "It's not why we're here."

"What?"

"We're here to get away from all that stuff. I don't want to talk about them right now. We're here to spend time together, just you and me."

His hand fell away from my hip. "Are you serious?"

I lifted a shoulder, but I looked away. Then I bit my lip. My heart started to pound again. And I waited…

There was a heavy silence between us.

I continued to wait.

"Fine."

Relief flared through me. My shoulders relaxed as the sudden tension lifted from them. I didn't realize how important it was for him not to press the point. I would handle my fathers, the biological one and the one that raised me, one day. I just couldn't handle them this day, but one day… I would have to one day.

CHAPTER FIVE

It was the early when his phone lit up. Logan was the first to call at six in the morning. When Mason checked the time, he cursed and sat upright as he took the call. I listened from beside him, even though I turned my own phone on and saw twelve voice messages from my mother.

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