I get out of the pool and wring out my shorts before putting them back on. Then I do the same with my shirt I took off her and grab my phone. Walking into the house, I make my way to the kitchen for a bottle of water. I find Deke in the kitchen with a girl he brought over from the club. He hasn’t mentioned anything about the car wreck or Becky since that night before we left Collins. And for once, I can’t tell if he’s putting on a front like everything is okay, or if he has truly forgiven me and moved on. I hate it. I want to ask him, but Deke’s like me. He’ll come to me when he wants to discuss it. And it’s not like he’ll have to go far. He ended up moving in with us when Becky decided not to.
“Late night swim?” he asks, looking over my wet shorts with a chuckle. My wet shirt hangs from my right hand.
I nod. “Like every night.”
He slaps the ass of the redhead who stands next to him while they both snack on cookies that Austin and Lilly made yesterday.
“Have fun tonight?” I ask.
He nods. “There’s this club downtown. You need to go with me next weekend. It’s badass.”
I’m not really into clubs. I was never really even into parties after the death of our three friends. I would throw them at Liam’s house, but I mostly stayed locked up in the game room. But I say, “Sure.” I feel like I need to spend as much time as I can with him now. He needs me. Just like Becky needs Austin. They’re both hurting for different reasons.
“Bennett is coming down next weekend. He already said he would go.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I slap him on the shoulder and head back upstairs. I enter our bedroom to find it empty. “Austin?” I call out, closing the door behind me.
No response. My fear that something has happened to her rises. The covers are pulled back, but I don’t see my towel anywhere. My heart begins to pound. “Austin?”
I enter our master bath and see her through the stained-glass shower door. Letting out the breath I was holding, I run a hand through my wet hair, then strip out of my shorts and join her. She has her head back, the water falling down over her face before rolling down over her perfect fucking tits and flat stomach. Any sign that Kellan ever laid his hands on her has disappeared except for the scar from her surgery, but even that’s fading.
“Cole …”
Her voice pulls me out of my thoughts, and I wrap my arms around her, pushing her into the wall. She laughs, opening her beautiful eyes, and looks up at me. I cup her warm cheek, and she blinks. Waterdrops fall off her long, dark lashes and run down her face. She licks her wet lips.
“I hope you didn’t think I was done with you tonight.” My voice comes out rough, letting her know what’s on my mind. I hope she thinks it’s lust and not the memory of her death.
I lower my head into her neck, and my right hand grips her thigh and brings it up to wrap around my waist.
“No,” she breathes, her hands digging into my hair. She leans her head to the side, giving me better access to her neck. “I expected more from you.”
I pull back and look down at her. I expected you to fight for me. She didn’t disappoint. I didn’t save her. She saved herself. She did exactly what I told her to do that day I chased her out of her father’s house and up to the cemetery. When I challenged her to fight.
She gives me a playful smile. “After all, I’m still standing.”
I lift my left hand and wrap it around her neck, holding her to the wall. She arches up on her tiptoes. The warm water rains down from the showerhead, splashing the sides of our bodies. “You’ll be crawling when I’m done with you.”
There’s a glint in her green eyes when she whispers, “Promise?”
“Oh, I promise you, sweetheart.”
EPILOGUE TWO
BENNETT
I UNLOCK THE DOOR to the clubhouse and step inside. First thing I do is take my shirt off. It smells like her. Then I undo my pants and kick my shoes off followed by my jeans. They, too, smell like her.
It’s too much.
After we made love tonight, she dumped me. It’s better this way, she had cried. I didn’t want to look pathetic, but I begged her to reconsider. To give me a chance to fix whatever she thought was wrong. But I have no fucking clue what that could be.
It fell on deaf ears. She had made up her mind, and that was that. After all this time, the woman I fell in love with no longer wanted me. After all the lies and sneaking around, she just ended it like I was some fling. But I know the truth. I was more than that, and it scared her.