“Bought it in the drugstore, like every normal human being.”
“Gigi, you’re only seventeen. What do you think people will say?”
“Hey, you’re banging your boss, and you’re worried about gossip? Come on.” Ignoring the heat flooding my face, she goes on, “I’m floored at your choice, Sis. Adam is seriously the hottest guy to ever walk the streets of this town.”
“Why, are you after Adam?” I ask, suddenly curious. When she sniffs disdainfully, I can’t explain the relief that fills me at her lack of interest in the guy, since I’m not interested in him myself. “Whatever happened to Quinn?”
“Pfff.” She lies on her stomach under the covers, turning the pages of the book. “Quinn is a whiny little boy who doesn’t know what he wants. Maybe I need a real man like Matt, too.”
She says that deadpan. Didn’t she say mere minutes ago that Matt is way too old for me?
Meanwhile, something is nagging at my memory. What was the other thing Ross said, about Adam having a different name?
Was that for real?
That’s… nonsense. Why am I thinking of this? Ross is an idiot, probably heard one thing and understood quite another.
But there’s something more… something Adam told me that’s flickering in my memory, right out of grasp. Something about his sister.
What? And why is it important?
“Hey, have you ever seen Adam when I’m not around?” I climb into my bed and stretch out, groaning softly as muscles clenched ever since the attack slowly begin to relax. “He told me he lives down the street, but does he?”
And why am I doubting him again? He said he does, didn’t he?
Gigi makes me feel even worse, because she looks up from her book, lifts a brow at me, and says, “Why, just because you’re into older guys now, that means all the young ones are scumbags?”
“No. of course not.” But I’m still chewing on those small things, and a shiver goes through me, a chill that feels familiar somehow.
I pull the covers up to my chin and stare up at the ceiling. God, I wish Matt were here. I’d feel safe in his arms. I wouldn’t worry about him and the kids if I were with him.
I wouldn’t miss him so much.
He only left half an hour ago. Less.
It feels like years.
Why am I so drawn to him? Why do I feel so comfortable with him when I barely know him, why does my heart hurt for him so much? Why does my body go taut and hot whenever he’s near?
Love, Gigi said.
Love is what this is. Love and lust rolled into one, and I have no chance of winning against such an opponent.
So maybe I should stop fighting and just surrender.
Surrendering to Matt would feel so good…
Chapter Thirty-Five
Matt
Dark dreams roll me under during the night. I wake up on Sunday morning with a howl caught in my throat, the covers tangled in my legs, drenched in cold sweat.
People dying, my family dying, the house sinking in quicksand.
Nothing new.
Nothing good.