Seth came at my next push. Hearing him scream out my name triggered my own climax. I groaned and my mind flew, and the room disappeared from my line of sight.
I stayed inside Seth a little while longer, before pulling out. Seth slumped on the bed, looking contented, and gorgeous.
After making a quick trip to the bathroom to grab towels, I returned to Seth and cleaned us both up. With that task done, I joined him in bed and settled next to him, a perfect fit.
Afterward, the room settled into sleepy silence broken only by the distant waves outside.
Seth ended up curled against my chest beneath the blankets, one arm loosely draped across my stomach while his breathing slowly evened out.
I stared up at the dark ceiling unable to sleep yet. My hand rested absently along Seth’s back, thumb tracing lazy patterns against warm skin.
The fake dating agreement was basically over now. The wedding was done, so technically the mission was accomplished. Seth didn’t owe me anything after this.
That should’ve felt clean and simple. It was the kind of natural endpoint this whole fake arrangement was built for. However, it sat in my chest like something unfinished.
Somewhere between cafe visits and family dinners and beach walks and the way Seth kissed me like he meant it…I’d stopped thinking about this as temporary.
I’d started building something out of it without thinking.
Now though, I wasn’t sure if I was the only one. Beside me, Seth shifted in his sleep, exhaling softly as he pressed closer unconsciously, like his body trusted mine even when he wasn’t awake to decide otherwise.
My arm tightened around him before I could think too hard about it. Then I went still.
What if I was the only one feeling this?
The thought landed heavier than the others had. Seth had history I didn’t fully understand yet. Five years of it.
A past that still showed up in his voice sometimes when he talked about things like they mattered more than they should.
Earlier tonight, I’d seen it again in small ways I couldn’t ignore anymore. The way he’d gone quiet for a second too long when people talked about his past with Darryl.
The strange way he’d looked at Darryl and Elliot without bitterness, like someone who’d already accepted that some things didn’t last.
Maybe I was reading too much into everything. Was I the only one projecting a future onto something that had never been meant to hold one?
Seth shifted again, breath warm against my chest, grounding me back into the present.
He felt real here, so warm, solid and close. I stared up at the ceiling for a long time, listening to the ocean outside roll in and out like it didn’t care what I was overthinking.
Seth’s words from the beach suddenly came back to me.“I’m just glad this chapter of my life is over and done with.”
Did he mean the situation with Darryl? Or was he also quietly relieved that our fake dating arrangement was over? A darker voice inside me asked.
I held Seth closer anyway, while the question I didn’t have an answer for settled in quietly and refused to leave.
13
SETH
The drive back to Pecan Pines was quieter than the drive out had been. We still spoke here and there when something along the road caught our attention.
Dane pointed out a ridiculous roadside billboard advertising homemade fudge shaped like oversized animals, and I commented on a pickup truck hauling an absurd number of garden ornaments that looked like they were seconds away from toppling into traffic.
We both laughed, but even that felt softer than it had the day before, like the sound didn’t quite carry the same ease it usually did between us.
The silence that followed wasn't uncomfortable exactly. People sat in silence together all the time. Not every quiet moment needed to mean something. I told myself that more than once as the miles slipped by outside the window.
Maybe Dane was tired. The wedding had been a long weekend for both of us. Or maybe I was only noticing the quiet because I was paying more attention than usual.
