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Bring her close to kiss her cheeks.
“Don’t disappear on me,” I whisper.
She sobs, a sound of pure heartbreak.
I caress her cheek. “I love you.”
“M-me too.”
Despite the pain and grogginess, my heart explodes.
She sets my hand back on my chest. “Get some more sleep.”
“Be here when I wake up.”
“Are you asking or are you telling me?”
A smile creeps over my lips even as I fight to stay awake.
Ah. That’s my Speedy.
“It’s an order,” I say.
“Jerk.”
My eyes lose the fight to unconsciousness.
I drift back to sleep.
24
SHANEL
“He thinks last night was a dream.”
I jump off my freshly-made bed and clasp my hands together. “Linda…”
“A minute ago, he called all the housekeepers into his room and made them stand side by side like a damn police line-up. Now, he’s sitting at the window and staring outside like he’s lost all hope. He thinks he made you up.”
“Did you tell him I was here?” I ask nervously.
She slants me a look so dark it would make the garden outside shrivel.
I chew on my bottom lip. “I know I’m being brazen, but please keep it between us.”
“What the hell are you doing, Shanel?”
“I—”
“You say you don’t want him, but you were by his bedside all night. Now”— she points to my suitcase—“you’re running away?”
“I can’t stay here. I’m sorry.”
“For breaking his heart or for being a coward?”
I wince.
She shakes her head. “Maybe I read it wrong. Maybe Hawk picked a fool.”
