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When I reached his place, I kept driving, circling the block until he’d worn himself out and was nothing but a panting, exhausted mass of raw emotion. He fell back in the passenger seat, sweating and breathing hard. When he lifted his hands to look at them, they were shaking.
“Damn,” he rasped. “That was…” He frowned in thought before concluding with, “Weird.”
I only shrugged as I finally pulled into his driveway and paused at the gate to punch in the code. “Feel better, though, don’t you?”
He glanced over at me. I think he wanted to deny it, but the pain just wasn’t there the way it had been a few minutes earlier. He’d successfully survived this round.
Lifting his brows hopefully, he asked, “Are you still going to call the others?”
I shook my head and drove through the opened gate. “Nah. I’m going to check back with you tomorrow, though, and if you’ve spiraled again,thenI will.”
“I...actually think I’m good for a while,” Parker admitted, looking remarkably better than he had when I’d ushered him to my truck less than twenty minutes before. “Strangely enough, that did the trick.” He glanced at me in wonder. “Thank you.”
I nodded as I slowed to a stop next to his front walkway. “Want me to come in and stay awhile?”
Parker shook his head. “No, I’m good. I…” He sniffed as if in awe. “I’m honestly really good.” His gaze met mine again. “I reckon I’m going to hit the hay now. I have this feeling I’m going to sleep…well tonight.”
Insomnia had been one of his issues during the worst of his grief, so I reached out and clasped his shoulder, murmuring, “Good.”
He nodded back and reached for his door handle, only to pause and glance over with a wince. “I was really shitty to that girl, wasn’t I?”
It didn’t matter that I hadn’t heard what he’d said to her, I nodded, anyway. “Yes, sir, you were.”
He cursed quietly under his breath. “I should probably call and apologize.”
My nod morphed from up and down to sideways as I started to shake my head instead. “No. I would just leave her alone.”
He’d tried the apology approach before, only to accidentally lead another poor girl on, which had ended up hurting her more in the long run.
As if remembering that, he pointed at me and slurred, “Right. Good idea.” He opened his door and slid out into the night. “See you around, Arch. Thanks for talking me off the ledge.”
“Always,” I called after him.
He shut the door behind him, and I watched him mosey his way up the front walk to the grand entrance of his mansion.
The fucker had five bedrooms covering two floors and a total of six thousand square feet. I shook my head as he let himself inside the quiet, lonely house, wondering what he did with all that space.
I guess he’d recently moved a housekeeper and her family onto the premises, but they probably stayed out back in the pool house.
When lights came on inside, I finally put the truck into gear and pulled around through the circle drive, making sure the gate closed behind me.
From there, I knew I should’ve gone home, too.
But I didn’t.
I had no idea if it was okay to text someone after casual sex to make sure they’d gotten home okay or not. So I just drove to the brownstone, taking the street behind it so that I could make out her car sitting out back and nestled safely in its parking spot. Pausing at a stop sign across the street, I exhaled, glad she’d made it back safely.
Then, I stayed there a moment longer than I should have, gazing over the entire building.
Memories flashed through me of playing hide and seek in the attic with Thalia when our aunt had owned it, and then helping Thalia move in before her freshman year of college.
I swear, I’d lugged more boxes full of her damn clothes up those rickety metal stairs than anyone. And all Thalia had done was gripe at me to be careful—there might be breakables in them.
A shudder seized me as my memories of this place picked up speed, whirling through me faster.
I hadn’t told Oaklynn the truth.
I’d fully planned on spilling everything tonight before we’d even eaten, but the moment I’d seen her walking toward me in that skirt and those heels, with her rounded hips swaying and her smile saying,yeah, I know you want me, I’d completely forgotten about everything else.
