Page 164 of Twins for Three Bad Boys

Rex: Got June. Bringing her home. Meet her there.

The reply’s almost immediate.

Wayne: On my way.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

June

The truck ride back feels too short.

I’m not ready.

Rex keeps one hand loose on the wheel and the other resting over mine like I might float away if he lets go. Bolt’s head is heavy in my lap, breathing slow and oblivious.

“You want me to stay?” Rex asks when we turn onto Wayne’s street.

I look at the house.

It looks exactly the same. Nothing about it says my life is about to implode.

Wayne’s truck isn’t in the driveway yet.

I shake my head.

“No,” I whisper. “I need to do this alone, I think.”

Rex studies me, measuring whether I’m about to shatter.

“I’m a call away,” he says finally.

“I know.”

He squeezes my hand once before I open the door.

“Breathe,” he adds.

Easy for him to say.

Bolt gives me one last mournful look from the passenger seat as if to say you sure you don’t want the emotional support bear?

I step inside and close the door behind me before I can change my mind.

The house is quiet. Afternoon light spills across the kitchen floor in warm squares. The room smells of coffee and wood and the lemon cleaner I used this morning.

Normal.

Painfully normal.

I drop my bag on the chair and just stand there.

My heart is pounding hard enough to bruise my ribs from the inside.

I lied to Wayne this morning. I looked him in the eye and said I was fine, when I was detonating internally.

Headlights sweep across the front window.

My stomach flips.