I know it’s her before I even move. Know it in my marrow, in that hollow space where my heart used to be.
Of course she came here.
The thought rises unbidden, smug and certain. Because some part of me never doubted she’d follow me. Not really.
I set the glass down carefully, trying to steady my hands. Six months of waiting and now she’s standing on the other side of that door. Shit.
Another knock. More insistent.
“Bones, I know you’re in there. I can see your bike on the street.”
Her voice. Six months since I’ve heard it in person, and it does something to me. Makes my hands shake slightly as I cross to the door.
I don’t open it.
“Swan.” My voice comes out rough. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Well, I am here. So are you going to open the door or are we going to have this conversation through three inches of wood?”
“Depends.” I lean my forehead against the door, so close to her but still separated. “Are you here for good, or are you just passing through?”
Silence on the other side of the door.
“Emma?”
“I—” She stops. “I don’t know.”
The words feel like a punch to the gut, but I can’t say I’m surprised.
“Then I can’t let you in.”
“What?” Her voice rises. “Bones, that’s not?—”
“Not fair?” I finish for her. “Maybe not. But I’m not doing this again.”
“You don’t understand?—”
“I understand perfectly.” My hand presses flat against the door, wishing it was her face I was touching instead of cold wood. “Six months ago I let you walk away because you weren’t ready. I respected that. But I’m not losing my patch—losing the only family I’ve got—for a woman who might be gone again by morning.”
“Bones, please open the door.”
“Emma. With all due fucking respect, unless you can tell me you’re in, this door stays closed. You want me? Just say the word. I’m yours. You want this? I’ll fight Stone, the club, whoever I have to fight.” I swallow hard. “But not for a maybe.Not for ‘I don’t know.’ So either you’re all in, or you’re walking away.”
The silence stretches between us, thick and suffocating.
“That’s what I thought,” I breathe, and push off from the door. “Go home, Emma.”
“No.”
“Emma—”
“Let me in, Bones.”
“I already told you?—”
“I know what you told me. And I’m telling you to let me in.”
“So we can what? Have the same fight we had six months ago? So you can leave again when the darkness scares you?” I shake my head even though she can’t see it. “I’m done with that.”
