Page 128 of Romeo

My mouth twitched.

There he was.

Me: Maybe.

Jasper: Good. I like a challenge.

I shook my head, smiling despite myself.

Me: Go take care of your wrist.

Jasper: Only after you tell me you missed me.

My fingers stopped over the screen.

He’d been trying to get me to admit something that would make this bigger than what I’d convinced myself it was. The problem was, saying I missed you meant acknowledging that I’d noticed his absence because his presence had become something I expected. That the hours without him felt different now. That he’d become important enough to leave a space when he wasn’t there.

I wasn’t ready to hand him all of that.

Me: Goodnight, Jasper.

His response came almost immediately.

Jasper: Missed you too, Cher.

I stared at the screen.

He’d said it first.

There was no demand for me to return it and no joke afterward to make the admission smaller.

Just missed you too.

I let my head sink farther into the pillow as the tightness I’d carried for the last three days finally began to loosen.

Jasper hadn’t been pulling away.

Whatever had happened in Nebraska had swallowed his attention for a few days, and he’d admitted he should’ve told me instead of leaving me to wonder. More importantly, when he realized exactly what I’d been wondering, he hadn’t made me feel stupid for it.

He’d simply answered.

I read his last message one more time before setting the phone on the nightstand.

Missed you too, Cher.

A few months ago, I probably would’ve spent the rest of the night taking those four words apart, trying to determine exactly how much they meant.

Tonight, I let them mean what they said.

He’d missed me.

I closed my eyes, and for the first time in three nights, sleep didn’t feel very far away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Romeo

The afternoon sun beat down on the clubhouse parking lot, flashing off chrome and turning the asphalt hot enough that I could feel it through my boots. Most of the brothers had drifted outside, standing in loose groups near the bikes while Amber made her way through everyone she’d come to know during her time in Diamond Creek.