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“Still look like the sweetheart I left behind,” he murmured softly. “But different.”
I felt heat in my cheeks as Hunter crudely whispered, “Yeah, she’s got tits now, Leo.”
I smacked Hunter without looking at him, hearing him chuckle. I suddenly felt conscious of the black tank top I was in, but Leo’s eyes remained hard on mine, his grin infectious as he replied, “I was thinking more your hair’s longer.”
“Uh-huh,” Hunter said sceptically.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” I let out in a rush, shaking from my excitement. “Hunter said your house was still dark—”
“He wanted to surprise you,” Leo cut in. “I’ve been waiting out in the dark this whole time.”
My jaw dropped as I swung my eyes at Hunter, who looked chuffed with himself. “You set this up?”
He wouldn’t look me in the eye as he nodded once. “Was nothing.”
“Except he must have waited at my house in the bushes for hours,” Leo said on a light laugh. “I was barely unpacking when he threw stones at my window.”
My smile was so wide, my cheeks hurt. “You gotta tell us everything, Leo.”
“What do you want to know first?”
“Everything,” I urged. “From the start.”
“From the start?”
“What’s it like on a plane? I hear you feel like you’re leaving your soul behind when the plane takes off.”
“It can get scary, but I wasn’t scared.”
“Did you think you’d die?”
As Leo whispered, explaining the sound of the deafening engine, the speed down the runway and the initial take-off, Hunter sat mute, his back against the wall, smiling thoughtfully as his eyes remained fixed on me. I searched his hand, and he found it straightaway, holding it tight as Leo carried on.
The missing piece in my soul fit in place. Both my boys were here, in my room, and I was whole again.
Interrupting Leo midway was the slam of the porch door. I heard Mom’s footsteps coming down the narrow hallway. Immediately, I shoved both boys off the bed. I didn’t need to tell them where to go—they knew their places.
Leo slid into the open closet, hiding behind my clothes and Hunter slid under my bed, but tensed, whispering, “I can’t fit anymore.”
Heart in my throat, I bent over the bed and slammed a fist into his shoulder, urging him to try harder. He scowled at me, and the bed rose a few inches off the ground before falling back down with a hard thump as he disappeared under.
The door opened a second later, and a billow of smoke wafted into my room.
“What was that noise?” Mom asked, poking her head into my room.
“Another raccoon outside the window,” I answered swiftly.
Her glazed eyes roamed the room for a few moments before landing on me. “Why are you still up, baby girl?”
I shrugged, heart racing, as I croaked out, “Can’t sleep, Mom.”
“Uh-huh.” She looked around the room again, zoning in on the open window. Then she let out a sigh. “Better get these boys outta the room, honey. Kurt will kick their asses if he hears anymore hushed whispers coming out of here.”
Then she shut the door, and I felt like I was going to puke.
I ran a mortified hand through my hair as Hunter’s laughter broke out from under the bed. Leo stifled a laugh of his own as he stepped out of the closet, but I didn’t miss the way he’d run his nose along one of my dresses. It made my heart clench tight in my chest.
“We gotta get out of here,” I told him, sliding to the edge of my bed. “Kurt’s already kicked Hunter’s ass—”
