The tension in the room tightens, just slightly. I swallow against the cottony lump forming in my throat.
I know Leo and Vivian don’t care. But Scarlett’s different—she’ll be harder to get on board, slower to warm back up to Jensen. She’s protective, and she witnessed a lot of it. And she’s not quick to forgive. Even though she said she’d support me, the other things she said still echo in my mind, twenty-four seven.
I flick my eyes between Scarlett, Leo, and Vivian. “Do any of you mind if he comes?”
“Not at all. He’s more than welcome,” Leo says.
“I’m excited to meet him,” Vivian adds at the same time.
I turn to Scarlett.
Her eyes drop for half a second with a flicker of disappointment flashing before she smooths it over with a neutral smile. It guts me. I know exactly what that look means.
She sighs. “Of course I don’t care. Not that it’s up to me. And you know I love Jensen. I just love you more.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, pulling her into another hug.
She squeezes me, then leans back. “You should go get him. Visit your dad, grab dinner. I’ve got a friend downtown I can kill a few hours with. I’ll just meet you back here after.”
I arch a brow. “You sure?”
“Yes. I’m here until Tuesday. We’ll have plenty of time.”
My lips curve into a grin. “You’re the best.”
Chapter Nineteen
JENSEN
It’s been almosttwenty-four hours since we kissed in the car. Since her lips met mine after she asked me to kiss her. Since I had to resist the temptation that is my wife.
Being an addict and being around the thing that used to fill the craving is hard. Detoxing, rehab, getting clean... it nearly breaks a person. The physical pain. The mental unraveling. It’s excruciating in so many ways.
But the thing with addiction now that I’m clean is—I rarely think about it. Yeah, I’ve wanted to drink a handful of times. I’ve wanted to take a painkiller—but I haven’t wanted Oxy. I haven’t wanted coke. Not since rehab.
But Alley? Jesus. She makes everything else feel easier. I might not be in physical pain without her, but the ache? It’s worse. Relentless. Never stops. Not getting another taste of those perfect fucking lips would haunt me for months. The hunger I feel for her would never end. My heart would never stop bleeding. Being without her could rip my fucking soul in two.
I can’t stop thinking about it all. The kiss. The way she looked at me afterward. The part where it looked like it killed her to stop as much as it did me. The way she had to catch her breathafter I pulled back, but then said she wasn’t ready—like she remembered she wasn’t supposed to want that.
“What else do you need before we go?”
Alley’s voice pulls me from my thoughts. She shuffles around the hospital bed, handing Craig his water with one hand, a pile of trash from his tray in the other. She tosses it in the garbage by the door, then turns back just as her dad’s sitting up to set the jug back on the tray.
“Here, let me get that,” she says.
“Jesus Christ,” he mumbles. “I’m perfectly capable of putting my water back.”
“I know you are.”
I watch her with quiet awe. The way she moves—efficient, patient, gentle. She doesn’t even flinch at his tone. Just keeps taking care of him. That’s who she is. Always putting others first, even when they don’t make it easy. It’s one of the many things I love about her.
She’s going to be an incredible mother one day. I just hope I’m the one who gets to see it.
A sting burns in the back of my throat. We were trying to get pregnant a few years ago, right after we got married. Before I went and fucked everything up. Before I became someone she couldn’t trust.
We started using condoms after that, not that we were having much sex. My libido was shot to shit, and I was gone all the time—physically and emotionally.
God, I was such a dick.
