❤️❤️

❤️

The entire time at the beach, I couldn't distract myself from everything that was suddenly going on. It was as if time had been paused since I had moved here, and suddenly everything was being sped up to get back on track.

I tried to reason that if whatever was going on was truly dangerous, Alex would've either told me or the police. I didn't even understand what was going on, having not been told the situation, and honestly, having a text from my mother was now throwing me off even further. There was no chance that I wasn't going to respond - it was my mother after all - the problem was deciding what to say.

"Baby, what's going on inside your head?" I blinked up at Grey, who was sat, leaning back on his arms. Biting my lip, I shrugged slightly and turned my head away. He sighed slightly and sat up, pulling me back to lean against him and wrapping his arms around me.

We were sat on the sand in an empty part of the beach, staring out at the waves with music playing from my phone. So far, it had just been us sitting next to each other, not really talking. I was surprised how quickly he picked up on my mood though, not bothering me on the car ride here or even whilst sitting on the sand, only resting his hand on my thigh on the journey here.

He sighed again as I turned and rested my head against his chest, fighting the sudden urge to cry. I was so bad at dealing with stressful situations, even more so involving other people, as I just got overwhelmed quickly. His hand rubbed up and down my side gently in a soothing motion.

"I'm here if you need me, okay? If there's anything I can do, just let me know," Guilt started to trickle into the back of my mind at the concern in his voice. There was no reason for me to be hiding the situation about my mother, and yet I was, which only worried the people who cared about me.

"My mother messaged me this morning," I said quietly, rubbing the space under my eyes. Ever so sligthly, he tensed, yet didn't stop the motion of his hand.

"What did she say?" He asked evenly, his smooth voice still in that calming tone. I couldn't help but feel a little confused at his reaction. Why would he tense whilst acting as though everything was fine? Did Alex tell him what was going on? Probably, they were best friends after all, and although my mother loved Alex, he had always been more independent than me, keeping to himself whilst at home whereas I used to spend almost all of my time with either him or my mother.

"Just that she missed me," It was almost silent here on the beach, with no one being out so early. Even the waves seemed to be sleepy, barely moving against the sand.

"You and your mother used to be close, I can imagine she would miss you,"

"Yeah..."

"Are you going to reply?" He asked.

"Yeah, I jsut don't know what to say. Her and my father both said they wanted to cut contact after I told them I was moving in with Alex,"

"Why? They still support Alex, don't they?"

"It's just different. Alex is still studying the buisness, whereas I've abandoned it. I might as well as told them that everything they've ever worked for is entirely pointless; it probably would've hurt them less,"

"What did they want you to do?" He asked, hesitance slightly shining through within the question. My suspicion started to grow. Why was he asking so much about this? He had never once bought up his family, and yet here I was, sharing all the issues that no one else really knew. Even the girls at home didn't know what was truly going on, only that I was living here now to study.

"I'm not sure. They wanted me involved with the buisness, just..." My eyebrows furrowed. What had they actually wanted me to do? "Just not involved with the buisness..." When had I ever been taught about what my father did? I didn't even know when he was travelling, let alone where he was going and what he was doing. I could feel the vibrations in Grey's chest when he hummed slightly in response, and, from the very back of my mind, a the thought that he knew more than I did started creeping in. I tried to shake it away - he was probably just asking out of concern, or becuase he wanted to know me better...

And yet him, Kaiden and Alex knew something that I didn't, something that involved me.

I brushed it off and changed the subject.

"Can we get ice cream?" He chuckled and I felt his lips press against the top of my head for a second before he responded.

"Only if you ask nicely," I grinned and span around, looking up at him and giving him my best puppy eyes.

"Pretty please can we get ice cream?" He smirked and bought his hand up to cup my face, gently rubbing his thumb against my cheek.

"Only because you're so damn gorgeous without even trying," My entire face was instantly red and I looked away, trying to hide the smile that was forcing itself on my face. He chuckled again and stood up, pulling my with him and slipping his hand into mine as we walked to the car, opening the door for me and shutting it gently one I climbed in.