I'd been avoiding Lewis.
Which has proven to be quite hard as we are living in the same house.
Lewis called the police two night ago and we still haven't received an update from them. Surely we will get one today. I hope it wasn't actually a break in and we can just go home.
"Lilah?" I hear a soft knock on the door and my body freezes.
I've been putting off this talk for as long as I can. Every time I think I'm ready to talk to him my body freezes. Which is what it's doing now.
"Come in." I say without realising as I raise my voice a little so he can hear me.
Please don't come in.
He opens the door slowly.
The first thing I notice is the nervous look on his face, which makes me feel a little better- glad I'm not the only one.
"Can I sit?" He gestures to the side of the bed that I'm not occupying and I hesitate but nod.
We sit in silence for what feels like forever, side by side- a great distance between us.
"I'm sorry." Is how he breaks the silence.
"You've said." I snap before sighing "Sorry." I mumble.
"Can you just explain why?" I whisper so my voice doesn't break.
I see him nod his head once in the corner of my eye.
"When we met I was shocked you didn't recognise me- sorry for how cocky that sounds." He lets out a little laugh.
"I panicked and lied about my last name Incase that made you recognise me- i didn't know you'd become such an important part of my life and-"
He takes a deep breath.
"Every moment with you was so perfect that I didn't want to risk them- risk losing you."
His words cut me deep. I can kind of understand, but him telling me sooner would've been better than any outcome of waiting- he has to know that.
I don't know what to say. He's completely shattered my trust.
"I didn't want to scare you away with my lifestyle so early, I wanted you to get to know me- for me."
"I want you to get to know me for me." He corrects himself to the present tense and it almost makes me smile.
"Please say something." He murmurs and I can hear the pain in his voice.
"I-" before i can say anything Lewis's phone starts ringing.
"It's the police." He says as he answers it quickly.
He answers and I tune the conversation out seeing as I can't understand what's being said with only Lewis's side of the conversation.
By the sound of Lewis's voice and his face when he hangs up I can tell it's not good news.
"It was confirmed to be a break in, there's no damage and they've fixed the door, if you want to go home I can get extra locks and-"
"Thank you, that's a good idea." I finally speak and he stays silent.
"I don't know what to say. I mean you really hurt me and you lied so much I just-" I cut myself off and take a shaky breath trying not to cry. I've always been a very emotionally sensitive person.
"Hey, hey- don't cry." He says softly and raises a hand to presumable wipe my tears but I flinch my head away slightly. He drops his hand.
"Lilah-" I cut him off.
"So you didn't win the lottery then?" I turn to him questionably to change the conversation and he starts smiling.
"Not quite."
I turn away from him again. But I shuffle closer to him.
"I am so unbelievably sorry for lying." He pulls me into him and I let out a sigh of relief.
He pulls me close and I hate how comforted and safe i feel in his arms.
"I don't know if I'll be able to trust you again." I murmur and he holds me tighter.
"I know. I'll do everything to earn it back." I feel him place a kiss on the top of my head.
"I don't like the idea of you and Luca at your house alone. Do you want to stay here with me for a couple weeks Incase Christopher shows up at your house." He offers and my heart swells.
"Are you sure?" I feel bad, like I'm using him.
"Anything for you and Luca."
Despite the lying I know Lewis is a genuinely great guy so it's hard to stay mad at him.
"I need to open the cafe again tomorrow." I sigh out, as much as I love working there I feel like I have so much going on right now, and the thought that Christopher could show up scares me.
"You deserve a break." Lewis shifts us down so we are lying together.
"I've had enough of a break, I really need to open it or I won't be able to buy groceries."
"You don't need to buy groceries when you're here." Lewis mumbles into my hair.
"I still need to pay bills."
I should've opened yesterday and that's a full days worth of money gone. I can't afford to be closed any longer.
"I'll pay your bills." He says in a sleepy voice but I can tell he's being serious.
"You can't buy my trust." I say and he looks down at me almost instantly.
"Hey it's not like that- I want to help you. Please if you're ever needing money ask me. Not to be cocky but I have a lot of it and I can't think of a better way to spend it than on helping you and Luca."
His words mean a lot to me. I nod. Even though I don't think I'll ever be able to ask him for money.
If our relationship does go further i wouldn't want anybody to think I was using him for his money.
"Some of my family are coming over for dinner on Friday for my birthday." He tells me and I'm glad he did- I kind of forgot about his birthday being so soon.
"Oh I can take Luca out then." I assume he was telling me because it was a subtle hint that he didn't want me to be there.
"I told you because I wanted you to meet them." He rubs his hand up and down my spine gently.
"Oh." his words bring a smile to my face at the unexpected confession.
"What if they don't like me?" I say self consciously.
He brings a finger down to my chin and tilts my head up to look at him. His thumb coming to rub my chin soothingly.
"They'll love you."
He places a kiss to my forehead and I bury my head into his chest to cover up the blush that is undoubtably covering my cheeks now.
"Who is all coming?"
"My mum Carmen, My dad Anthony. My parents are divorced." He clears up and I nod. "My dad's wife- Linda is also coming with my brother Nicholas and my sister Nicola is coming with her two children- they are around Luca's age."
"I also have another sister called Samantha but she can't come."
That was a lot of information. I blink slowly trying to process it.
"That sounds nice." I don't know what I'll get him for his birthday but I'll need to figure something out soon.
"What do you get someone for their birthday when they have enough money to buy anything they could ever want- I'm asking for a friend." I quickly cover myself up in a joke and he knows I'm joking too.
"You don't have to get me anything."
"I want to."
"Don't get me anything, I don't care about gifts. I care about spending time with the people I lo- care about." He reassures me and I nod into his chest.
I'm still going to do something for him, I don't know what yet but I'll figure it out.
"Mama." I bring my head from Lewis's chest and see Luca opening the door. Still in his pyjamas he crawls up onto the bed and gets engulfed in the big white duvet.
"Lewis! What are you doing here. This is Mama's bed." He giggles as he comes to lie down in between us slightly.
"What are you doing here buddy?" Lewis retorts and smiles cheekily down at Luca.
"I wanted to see Mama."
"Me too Luca."
I think I'm falling for him.
a/n
Thank you so much for all the support on this book, I love you all.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter xo
Also I'm having a little bit of writers block with my Max story so if you've read that feel free to give me and ideas xo