I went to move but stopped. My body ached in places that fully reminded me of what had happened only a few hours before. Then his words came rushing back to me. He loved me. He wanted to tell my father and his ex-wife that we were together. Again, anticipation and nerves filled me, and I softly smiled to myself as I allowed the excitement of not having to sneak around fill me. I adjusted the covers so I could roll over and bury my face in his chest like I normally did when we'd spend the night together. Only instead of snuggling down, I froze. A dark figure standing just inside my bedroom door caught my eye, and the excitement I'd felt only seconds ago was replaced with alarm. I now remembered what had woken me—a noise, the click of my bedroom door when my father had opened it. Our eyes locked in the darkness. I could already see the look of shock, anger, and disappointment flooding his face.
I didn't know what to do as panic continued to fill me, and I froze. We'd been caught. We'd been doing this for months and we'd been so careful. Each of us always having an alibi every single time we'd been together, until now. Spencer had decided for the first time to come to me instead of me going to him and now we'd been caught.
"What in the actual fuck is going on here?" my father roared and turned on the bedroom light.
Spencer jumped, covering his eyes from the bright overhead light for a moment, and then he looked around the room, his eyes wide as he looked at my father.
"Daddy, please don't get angry," I pleaded. "Let me explain." I cried, pulling the covers up over my naked body.
My father looked at Spencer, and he shook his head. "I fucking trusted you with her, you son of a bitch."
"Jon, calm down. It's not what it looks like," Spencer said, trying to keep a level head.
My father let out this maniacal laughter I'd never heard before. "You can tell her that—she's a fucking child—but you sure as hell can't tell me that. This is exactly what it looks like. I'm giving you five minutes to get the fuck out of my house."
"Dad, I'm a grown woman. I'll do what I want!" I shouted.
"Ainsley, I don't want to hear it right now. Spencer, five fucking minutes, not a damn second longer. I don't want to see you around her again, you got it."
With tears streaming down my face, my father turned and slammed my bedroom door shut. I looked at Spencer, who threw the covers off himself, swearing under his breath, slid into his jeans. He came over to me, wrapping me tightly in his strong arms, pulling me against the warmth of his chest as I sobbed.
"This will blow over. When he isn't so mad, I'll talk to him, okay. Just like we talked about," he whispered, pressing his lips to mine. "I'll explain everything. It will be okay. Send me a message in the morning."
I nodded, trying hard to stifle the sobs, but it did little good as I watched him grab his shirt. He threw it over his head and ran his fingers through his messed-up hair. Then he turned back to me and kissed me one final time and opened my bedroom door and stepped out into the hall, closing it behind him. He hadn't been gone a minute when I heard elevated voices in the hallway. I climbed off my bed, threw my robe on, and opened the door to find my father and Spencer in an intense, heated conversation.
"You're not to see her anymore, you understand me. She isn't going to be babysitting for Nikki neither, and I want her to resign immediately from Finding Forever."
Spencer was about to say something, but I didn't give him the chance.
"No!" I screamed. "I will still babysit, and I'm not quitting my job."
"The fuck you will. You live under my roof. You'll do as I say. As for you, Spencer, our friendship is over. Now get the fuck out of here."
"I'm going with him," I said, taking a step forward, but my father stopped me, gripping my upper arms tightly.
"Get to bed," he gritted.
Tears welled in my eyes as my father pushed me back toward my bedroom. I tried to see around him, but he blocked my view from seeing Spencer turn and walked out the front door. I heard it click shut, and I stood in the hallway glaring at my father.
"When you return to work after your vacation, you resign, you hear me?" he said, looking into my eyes.
"Dad, you aren't being fair. Spencer and I—"
Dad held his hand up to my face to stop me from speaking. "Those are two words I don't ever want to hear used in the same sentence again. I'm so disappointed in you, Ainsley. In both of you. Now go to bed," he gritted as he walked by me, slamming his bedroom door shut.
I stood in the dark hallway wondering if I should just sneak out and go to Spencer. I felt empty inside, and I wanted to be comforted by him, but then I heard my dad banging around in his bedroom and thought twice. Spencer was right; it would blow over after he explained everything. I just needed to give him the chance.
Ainsley
It had been two weeks since the mishap, and my father hadn't let me out of his sight. I looked over at the pile of boxes he had pulled up from the basement marked Christmas and let out a sigh as I looked down at my plate of breakfast my stomach feeling uneasy. In the past two weeks I had barely gotten out of bed or eaten anything since the night my father found us.
I had watched from my window as Spencer tried to talk to my father over the backyard fence as Dad was raking up the leaves, getting everything ready for winter. Even with my window open, I couldn't hear what was being said, but what I could see was the look on my father's face. A look I'd grown accustomed to over the last little while. He wasn't planning to listen to anything Spencer had to say.
I sat there swirling my fork through my already cold eggs, watching the screen of my phone for a message from Spencer, but my phone was silent and had been since eight last night. I knew that Spencer's ex-wife was coming to drop Nikki off for the weekend, so I figured that perhaps he was busy with that, or I hoped that was the reason why I hadn’t heard from him.
I blew out a frustrated breath as Dad walked into the kitchen.
"I spoke to Brittany," he said as he reached for his lunch bag.