But Kennedy makes me stronger.
And like that, I think I understand it. Things are so much better with him because Iwantthem to be better with him. He makes me feelgoodjust by being him, and it makes me want to chase that feeling always. In everything.
Love doesn’t have to be one thing, but if it exists, the possibilities are endless.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SIX
KENNEDY
“You did this for me?” I stare at the wall that’s gone up in the hours since I left this morning.
“I had help … but yes.”
“Wow, Ziggy.” He’s changed his home to make me feel better about being here. He didn’t have to do that, and it’s making my throat weirdly tight that he did.
I’m the one who does things for other people. It’s not the other way around.
And while I definitely feel more at ease here, it doesn’t change that creepiness lurking in the back of my mind, knowing all that the wall is hiding.
A creepiness Ziggy will never know about.
He’s gone to all this trouble for me, so I’m going to work to be as comfortable here as he is. It’ll take time, but I’ll do it. The fact that I’m starting to think I might actually get that time with him is … almost too hard to believe. I don’t have to rush any part of our relationship. It’s almost impossible to believe.
“You like it?” His whispered words dare me to hear them.
But I’m grinning hard when I turn to where he’s standing, his fingertips trailing over the timber. I catch him in a hug, and my face finds that groove between his shoulder and his neck as I squeeze the hell out of him. The familiar burst of lemony soap clouds me, and I’m not sure whether I want to laugh or cry, so I hold it all in. The important part is that Ziggy makes me feel anything other than sheer desperation.
That’s there too, of course. But it’s not the only thing, and I think that’s progress?
It’s too hard to know so early, but when I pull back and Ziggy’s smiling at me in such an open way, I have hope that we’re on the right path with this thing.
I mean, I know thatIam, especially after last night, and as much as I want to say the L word, I won’t.
It’s hovering on my tongue whenever he’s close enough to hear it, and I’m scared I’ll end up screaming it at him to get it out. It’s not the word itself that I’m scared of though—I’ve said it to basically everyone I’ve ever slept with at this point—it’s that I want it to be right.
If I tell him I love him, I want him to be the last person ever to own that word from me.
The sound of a car approaching gives us the heads-up that we won’t be alone for much longer. We leave the wall and everything that exists behind it and walk out the front to wait. There are low, dark storm clouds gathering overhead, and I assume we’re in for another one of those afternoon storms that are so common here. It doesn’t take long before Wilde’s truck appears.
Hart puts down the passenger-side window. “Apparently, we’re being summoned.”
“What?”
He lifts his hands like he has no idea what’s going on.
Hudson leans across him. “Town meeting. It’s important.”
I glance at Ziggy, who nods, and Wilde steers the truck back around to leave. I’m expecting that we’ll walk wherever we’re going, but Ziggy ducks back inside for his keys, moving faster than his usual relaxed pace. When he’s back, he gives me a gentle shove toward his truck.
“Do you know what this is about?”
“Maybe.”
I trail after him. “Maybe?”
He pauses by his door, looking at me over the truck’s windshield. “I think there’s a stranger in the End.”
