“Many things,” he says easily. But he pushes his glasses up on his nose. “I’ll take an IOU. Something I can cash in.”
Any lightness disappears from my face. “Deal.”
His fingers drop from my face.
“Theo?” I say his name quietly, and his body stiffens. “Would you… would you take me home?”
He lifts his face at that. His green eyes are rimmed with red. “You want me to take you?”
“Yes.” I watch as his eyes slide down, landing on my hands. On the bandages, carefully wrapped by Max.
And then he looks away again. “Sure.”
Jake shifts. “I’ll—,”
Oscar and I both shake our heads at the same time. Jake glances between us, his brows dipped.
“Take my truck,” Max offers from the doorway. He winks when I turn around. “I changed the tire, so it’s roadworthy.”
I wince. “I forgot about that.”
“Will you come back?” Jake asks, but they all focus on me. Even Theo.
I don’t want to lie to them. Not when I’ve told so many already. “Maybe. If I can.”
Theo
She slips into the truck before me. When I get in, she’s already wound the window down. “You’re not cold?”
Kennedy shakes her head, not looking at me. She stares out of the window instead, and I take a moment. Just a moment, to look at her.
At the way her hair trails messily from its haphazard bun, tendrils of fire snaking down her back. At the golden skin that covers her face, gleams at me behind her ear. Sunshine skin, I always used to think. Like she consumed sunshine and cast it back out everywhere she went.
Her freckles cover her. A map of Kennedy.
She shifts, tugging down the arms of her sweater, and I pull my gaze away, lead setting in my stomach at the glimpse of white bandages against her skin.
I did that.
I might not have physically pushed her into that glass, but I may as well have.
I fuckingbarkedat her. Held my mate in place and tried to use the mating bond to force information from her.
It’s something my father would do.
I carefully back out of the drive and pull into the road, heading out toward her trailer. “Will Rick be worried that you didn’t come home?”
I glance at her again. She snorts. “What do you think?”
The lead only grows heavier. She doesn’t have anyone in her corner.
She had you, once.
It used to be so easy. I never felt lighter than when I was with her. But now the space between us is filled with secrets and pain that I don’t know how to fix, even if I wanted to.
She stiffens, and I see her fold forward out of the corner of my eye. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She mumbles it, but her voice is shaky. “I… have you got a tissue?”
