Dropping my phone on the bed, I get dressed, pulling on basketball shorts and a cutoff tee.
By the time I’ve dressed and filled my water bottle, he still hasn’t responded. I check the time. Makes sense that he’s not up yet. If I had Arlo in bed with me, I wouldn’t be getting up to drag my ass to the gym before nine in the morning.
I try not to let myself picture what our life together could be like, but on mornings like today, when I wake up to himstill in bed with me, his fingers gentle on my skin, it’s almost impossible.
All I can do is try to get through each day, take what he gives me, and hope and pray that I can manage to hold my breath.
Chapter 3
Arlo
Pullingupoutsidework,I put my car in park and stare at the brick building in front of me.
Daisy’s is a tiny diner in a tiny town. It’s the only restaurant for nearly twenty miles. And it’s the only place in this town that would even give me the time of day when I first got here.
The thing they don’t tell you about small towns—like Silverpine and like the tiny Tennessee town I grew up in—is that they’re close-knit, and if you don’t know someone, you’rebasically nothing. It wasn’t a big deal to me back then. I’ve always been nothing.
But now I know people. Lots of people. When Deb hired me, there was another person, Ronnie, who worked here. He was flaky, and Deb told me she really needed someone who was reliable.
I never intended to be here for as long as I have been. So when she asked me about my plans, I crossed my fingers behind my back and told her I wanted to be here for the long haul. That I loved Silverpine and wanted to put down roots.
It was a lie.
Silverpine was a means to an end. A stop in the road trip to wherever. And then I got the call from Salem that he and Nora had been taken from my mom and stepdad’s home. Then I got real serious about putting down roots.
One by one, people filled my life. Deb and her husband, Art; Luca and Austin; and Theo and Hunter.
And Jasper.
My heart clenches. I don’t know what I expected when I asked that question of him. What did I expect him to say?Yes, Arlo. I’d love kids. Let’s adopt two traumatized ones and raise them as our own.
I think being with him withoutbeingwith him is wearing me down, and that question was a way of testing him. My subconscious was trying to figure out if it was safe to tell him. Fuck, it’s so hard keeping half my life a secret from the people closest to me.
Shaking my head, I push open the door of my car and climb out. Thinking about things like this just brings down my mood. I can’t do anything to change my circumstances. All I can do is work my ass off to save Salem and Nora.
I walk in the back door of Daisy’s, and Theo’s head shoots up. “Hey, Arlo.”
The smile on his face is bright and genuine, his blue eyes practically sparkling. When I first met him, there was no spark and no brightness. He was a shell of the man I know now. “Hey, Theo.”
Theo, like me, is a transplant. And like me, Theo was adopted into the lives of the amazing people in this town.
The door dings, and Burt walks in. He’s a sweet old man. A regular. Luca always jokes that he’s a hundred and eighty-five, but I don’t think he’s that bad off. And the years have fallen off him in the last couple of months.
Turns out all he needed to come alive was his “lady friend,” Sheila. I’m not sure I like the term myself, but that’s what he keeps calling her.
“You want that table?” Theo asks, stepping up beside me.
I nod. It’s not really about what I want, but what I need, and what I need is to make some fucking money. The bigger my nest egg when I get Salem and Nora, the better.
Making my way to Burt and Sheila, I plaster on a fake smile. “Hey, you two. How are you?”
Burt gives Sheila a smile, then turns to me. “We’re doing mighty fine, young man. How are you?”
“I can’t complain.”
He studies me, bushy eyebrows lifting. “You sure about that?”
That’s the problem with small towns. The longer you stay in them, the more people know you, and the easier it becomes for them to call you on your bullshit.
