Page 248 of Show Me

A laugh slips out before I can stop it. Real. Not forced or polite.

Bella grins. “There she is.”

“Don’t make it weird.”

“Too late.”

Emily smiles into her drink, and some of the knot in my chest loosens. Maybe normal comes back in pieces.

Bella reaches for another fry, then pauses. Her attention shifts past me. “Don’t turn around.”

Emily immediately starts to.

Bella elbows her. “I said don’t.”

“What?” I ask.

“Xavier.”

My pulse stumbles. “He’s here?”

“Came in a few minutes ago.”

I resist the urge to look. “So?”

Bella’s mouth curves slightly. “So every couple of minutes, he looks over here.”

Emily glances toward the bar.

“Subtle,” Bella mutters.

“I was checking.”

“For what?”

Emily looks back at me. “He looked away.”

I shake my head. “You two are ridiculous.”

“Maybe.” Bella takes a sip of her drink. “But every time you laugh, he smiles.”

That stops me. Emotion catches unexpectedly in my throat. Because I asked Xavier for space. And he gave it to me.

No guilt trips. No unexpected visits. No pushing. Even now, he’s across the room instead of beside me. I believe he loves me.

The part I still don’t know how to believe is that he’ll stay.

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Seven

Xavier

Callahan’s is exactly the kind of place I used to disappear into. Now it feels noisy. I lean against the bar with a beer I haven't touched in twenty minutes while Connor talks beside me about a fire he responded to the night before. I'm only half listening.

Because across the room, Ruby’s here. Same booth near the back wall. Bella talking with her hands. Emily laughing at something Jake said. Ruby sits between them with water in front of her.

She looks better than last week. The dark circles below her eyes are still there, but her skin is no longer pale, and when she smiles, my heart skips a beat.

Connor follows my line of sight. “You talk to her?”