“I told him everything. He was amazingly supportive. He…” I trail off.
“He and you…” Ashley says encouragingly.
“We’re…us,” I say. “You know Hunt and me. We don’t make anything official. It starts out as blurry and deteriorates from there.”
“This sounds different than high school,” Peyton says. “First of all, you had sex this time.”
“How do you know?”
“I didn’t. But you just confirmed my hunch.” She laughs.
“Yay!” Ashley says. “That’s a big step, Win.”
“It is. Hunt’s just…he can be so sweet, but then it’s like he disappears inside his own brick walls, and I can’t reach him.”
“All the Storm brothers learned to protect themselves when their daddy died,” Ashley says with a shrug of her shoulders.
Yes, they did. And Hunt as well as any of them.
The game starts, and we stop talking about Hunter and watch him play instead.
He kicks ass once again with two goals and an assist.
When the game ends, I hug Peyton and Ashley goodnight and sit back down on the couch with Theo. And I open up my laptop.
I’ve been working on my musical all week. Ever since Hunter and I texted that first night he was gone and I confessed my dream of writing my own musical, I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. I adore musicals, but to write the score and book is a ton of work. Most musicals are adaptations, but I decided to try to write one based on the story that’s been running through my head. The score I’m going to need help with, but I have an idea for that.
The one thing I know for sure is that it suits me to be in charge of my own story. I write until I’m so tired I’m yawning, and the next thing I know, I’m curling up on the couch, too tired to even go to my bed to sleep.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Hunter
When we touch down in New Orleans, all I want is to see Winter.
I wave good night to the guys and head for my truck.
Tomorrow at three pm. Precinct Five police station.
Liam’s parting words run on a loop in my brain as I drive toward my home. And my salvation.
Winter.
I make it home in record time, throw the truck into park, and take the front steps two at a time.
I unlock the door and type in the security code. I walk into the living room, taking care to be quiet when I notice Winter asleep on the couch. Her laptop’s on the floor, and Theo’s curled up at her feet. They make a nice picture—a much better picture than the nightmare flashback from my past that’s been circling through my head all week.
I put down my bag.
I need Winter too badly right now to just walk on by and go to my bedroom, but I’m not going to try to wake her.
All right, maybe I am.
I sit down on the couch next to her and gently run my hand over her midnight-colored hair that’s tangled in a messy ponytail at the nape of her neck.
She’s always been a light sleeper, and she opens her eyes. Those blue eyes that could cut diamonds. And that always see right through me.
She blinks.
