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“No,” I huffed. “What are you doing here?”
“Trying to get some sleep.” He stretched his arms over his head, and again, my body betrayed me. I wanted to crawl back into bed with him. I hadn’t forgotten the one and only time we were together, and neither had my body, but the fact he thought he could just climb into my bed without my permission pissed me off.
He stopped stretching and rolled to his side, propping himself up on his elbow. “We didn’t get in until after one. I’m fucking beat.”
I stared at him like he was crazy. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Don’t think so.” He shook his head. “Why?”
“I haven’t heard from you in three months. Actually, three months and six days.” I paused when that damn grin tugged at his lips again. “And you just show up like it’s no big deal and get in my bed.”
“Couldn’t stop myself.”
That wasn’t an answer. “That’s crap, and you know it.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You stopped yourself for three months.”
His grin dropped, and he blinked slowly. “I have a lot to explain, and I will if you just give me a chance.”
“No.” I shook my head. “No more chances. I’m not gonna be that girl.”
“What girl?”
“The girl who will take whatever scraps you throw her way. The girl who will just forgive all the shitty stuff you do. The girl who waits around because she loves you too much to let you go.” Flustered, I watched his eyes become intense and realized what I had said. “I didn’t mean that part.”
“Which part?” he asked, swinging his legs over the side of the bed until he was sitting.
“The last part.”
“That’s too bad.” He pushed to standing. “Because the last part is exactly how I feel.”
He lifted his finger and ran it along the smooth chain around my neck. I never took off the necklace he gave me, not even to sleep, but that said more about my feelings for him than I was ready for him to know. “You’re wearing it.” He raised his eyes to meet mine. “Does that mean you like it?”
I couldn’t lie to him, no matter how mad I was. I was torn between wanting to scream at him and wanting to throw my arms around him while I stared into his eyes, but the one thing I didn’t want to do was pretend that the most thoughtful gift I’d ever been given didn’t mean anything to me. “I love it.”
He ran his fingertip over the charms one more time before he squeezed my hip and started toward the door to the bedroom. “I’m gonna make coffee so we can talk.”
I stood frozen, listening to him in the bathroom and then walking down the stairs. Did he just say that he loved me? There was no way that was what he meant. No one in love could be gone as long as he was without a word.
Shaking it off, I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth before shoving open Wyatt’s bedroom door to see he was still sleeping.
Then I headed downstairs.
Chapter 30
Race
Pulling one cup from the Keurig, I put a new one under and started a second cup. I grabbed the creamer from the refrigerator, added some to Becs’s cup, and set it in front of one of the stools on the other side of the island. Her words were on repeat in my mind. I hadn’t expected her to admit so much before we even talked, but that was when I knew I needed to explain why the hell I made the decisions I’d made.
I heard her feet on the stairs and pulled my cup from the machine just as she rounded the corner. Without a word, she slid onto the stool and picked up the cup, blowing on the hot liquid. I watched her from my spot in front of the sink but knew I couldn’t get any closer. Not yet. More than anything, I’d wanted to wake her when I got home last night, but I knew she wouldn’t want that.
“I’m sorry for not calling you,” I said, and I was, but I wouldn’t change how I handled the past three months.
“Why didn’t you?” she asked.
“It wasn’t safe,” I admitted.
She sipped her coffee slowly. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
I watched her closely, wondering how much I wanted her to know, how much of myself I wanted to reveal, but then decided she deserved it all. If we were going to do this for real, then she needed it all.
