Page 68 of First in Line

“Did I know what?”

“When you left me that day. Did you know you were never coming back?”

The tears that pool in my eyes blur his face and the broken expression on it. This is why I didn’t want to have to see him again. Why I wanted our lawyers to handle the divorce and be done with it.

“I didn’t,” I admit, my throat so tight it hurts. “I didn’t know, Jax. All I knew was that I needed to be away from everything. Just for a few weeks.”

“Then why didn’t you come back?”

“I couldn’t.”

“But why?”

I sniff and look away, tightening my arms around myself. “I want to go home now. I’m cold, and I’m tired, and I can’t keep doing this with you.”

He wants to argue. I can see it in his expression. But instead, he walks around to open the passenger door. He says nothing as I pass him to get in. He doesn’t say a word the entire drive back to my place. And when he turns off the engine, the silence is so strikingly intense that I wonder if I haven’t lost my hearing at some point.

But that’s unlikely, so I grab the handle and open the door. I don’t turn around during the walk to my house, and then force myself not to before getting inside.

This is it. We forgot ourselves for a moment there, but reality has caught up with us.

We can’t keep living in the past. It won’t be enough. It won’t work.

CHAPTER

THIRTEEN

Jackson

“You can put that here,” I tell the delivery men.

They maneuver the heavy mattress into the small room, lean it against the wall I pointed at, and return to their truck outside.

I just spent a good part of the afternoon assembling the bed it’s meant to go onto. It probably would have been easier to do it with Evie, but that would have defeated the purpose. It’s meant to be a surprise, after all.

Careful not to damage the mattress, I slash open the thick protective wrap. Then, I tug it off entirely before working on sliding it onto the slats. It’s heavier than I anticipated, but I can appreciate an unplanned workout. Next, I fetch the brand-new pillows and the duvet I purchased this morning, along with all this. And the new set of sheets. Those, I had to order, since Evie had them bookmarked from an online store.

That burned almost all the money we had on the side, but neither of us could keep sleeping on that awful secondhand bed and mattress we got when we first arrived here. That’s why I know Evie will agree with the investment.

I’m just done making the bed when I hear the front door open and close.

“Jax?” she calls out. “What’s all that plastic wrap?”

Fuck. I thought I’d have enough time to clean up everything before she came back from work. After one last look to make sure it looks good, I open the door and lean over into the living room.

“I have a surprise for you,” I say, barely able to contain my smile.

She perks up instantly, grinning almost mischievously. “Oh? What is it?”

“Close your eyes.”

She complies, and I walk up to her, standing behind her. I place a hand over her eyes, the other on her lower back, and instruct, “Alright, forward we go, princess.”

She tentatively makes her way to our bedroom, hands in front of her as if I’d let her hurt herself on an obstacle. Once we’re in the bedroom, I place her right in front of the bed.

“Ready?”

“Yes!”