He dips his head, claiming my lips eagerly. When we part, I am breathless. He scoops me into his arms and carries me to the bedroom.
“What are you doing? I need to pack up my stuff.”
“Nope. If you’re going to make me spend my nights alone in bed, then I better make this night count.” He kicks the door shut.
I’m greedy for his touch, and who am I to deny him what he wants? I’ve spent almost three years sleeping next to this man. I know it’ll be an adjustment for both of us, but I need to remember this is for the best and it’s not for forever. I’ll be back in our bed before we know it.
I roll over and reach out in hopes of pulling Haylee closer to me only to find her gone already. She was serious, wasn’t she, about this. I can’t believe she just woke up and left. Why didn’t she wake me? I push up on my forearms, and something on her pillow catches my attention—a note.
Hey,
See what this is? A note! You should learn about those sometime, so when people wake up and you’re gone, they won’t freak out. :-P
Years later and we are still not past this one mistake I made? True, it almost cost me everything, so yeah, I guess we are still bringing it up. I cringe at the memory of that asshole Chad’s arm around her and start to crumple up the note. Oh, shit. I read on.
I left early before you could try to convince me more to stay. Just kidding. I met Cami to get her key and get her to show me a few things.
Here, I thought you could sleep with this shirt, maybe put it on your pillow and snuggle with it. Just don’t do anything weird with it. Anyway, I’m not far, and I promise you one day you will understand why this is for the best. Wow, I wrote a damn novel. Turn the page over so I can finish this up. How are you still sleeping while I write this anyway?
I turn the note over and laugh at her sad attempt at humor.
I love you.
XO,
Hails
I bring the T-shirt to my face, and fuck, it does smell like her. It totally wouldn’t be weird if I put that on her pillow and snuggled it, right? My dick aches for release, but that can wait—coffee first. I need to set up the other room for Dani, and I guess I should probably let Ky know what’s going on and see if it’s cool that she stays here. I stand and throw on a pair of gym shorts over my boxers and grab a shirt from the dresser.
When I enter the living room, Kyler is standing there with the most confused look on his face.
“Hey, you wanna explain to me why I just helped Hails pack her car up with her shit earlier while you were asleep? Did you guys have a fight or something? Were you a dick to her?”
I throw my hands up in innocence. Of course he would assume that, if something like that had happened, it would be my fault. Hell, who are we kidding, it totally would have been.
“We had a fight, but no, that’s not actually about that.” I tilt my head in confusion while I think. “Well, it’s kind of about that. Fuck. I need coffee first though.”
Kyler follows me into the kitchen.
“Everything okay? You’re kind of freaking me out here, Zach.”
I fill my mug with coffee and extend my hand to the stools at the island.
I sip my coffee and can feel his eyes burning a hole through me.
“My sister called.”
As if my nerves weren’t already shot today, basically anything that could go wrong today has.
Sleep through the alarm. Check.
Get caught up in a late meeting. Check.
Sit in traffic. Check.
I contemplated taking the entire day off to make sure I was home when Dani arrived, but I had a few meetings with clients that I couldn’t reschedule. Staying busy at work was a good idea though, that is until now.
My nerves were high all day as I anticipated my sister’s arrival home. It’s been three and a half years. What is she like now? Is she different? Will I even recognize her?