Page 219 of Bend

I look at him.

He finally meets my eyes.

“She was right.”

“About what?”

“You needing somewhere that’s yours.”

My chest tightens.

“I know, but this place…It was his.”

Thorne’s gaze moves around the room again.

“That doesn’t mean it can’t still be yours.”

Something in the way he says it makes the ache I’ve been carrying all day shift.

I cross the space between us before I really decide to.

Thorne meets me halfway.

The first kiss is soft enough that it almost hurts.

His hands settle against my face while mine slide into his hair, and neither of us rushes it. There’s no desperation to turn grief into something else, no attempt to forget where we are or who should still be here.

We know.

That’s what makes it different.

When Thorne pulls back, his forehead rests against mine.

“I miss him so fucking much.”

My eyes close.

“Me too.”

His fingers tighten slightly against my jaw.

“I keep thinking I’m getting my head around it, then I remember something stupid and it starts all over again.”

“I know.”

His eyes open.

There’s so much hurt in them that I lean forward and kiss him again before either of us can say something that breaks us completely.

This kiss changes. Still slow and gentle, but deeper.

His arms wrap around my waist and pull me close, and I let myself melt against him because right now I need to feel someone alive under my hands and I know he needs it too.

I can tell by the way he holds me.

We make it upstairs slowly, stopping more than once just to kiss, touch, breathe, and make sure neither of us is running from something we should be feeling.

The bedroom door clicks shut behind us, and for the first time all day, there’s nobody else around.