Both on the right hand?
My heart beats a little faster, and I lick my suddenly dry lips. I so badly want to turn around, want to look up into those piercing blue eyes and fall into his arms, but… that would be stupid. Even my fuzzy brain knows that. But if I don’t look at him, if I ignore it, if I pretend it isn’t him… then it will be okay.
So I shake out of it, and I start to dance. I swear I feel his body loosen just a little as I do, his hips moving with mine, his hot body pressed against me. I rest my head back against his chest, holding onto his arm and pulling it tighter around me.
Tears sting my eyes, knowing this feeling of protectiveness has a time limit. This won’t last forever. Hell, maybe it isn’t even real because how is he here? How did he find me?
My eyes fall closed, and a smile spreads across my lips as the song changes. The beat is slower than the previous one, allowing us to sway along. We move together, rocking from side to side. His other arm comes up around me, hugging me tightly, and my smile grows as I look down at familiar tattoos. All of them are familiar, except one. It’s darker than the others, like maybe it’s fresh. New.
But then the tears come, blurring my vision and I can’t be sure of what I saw on his finger.
The emotions are too much to handle, too much to face, so I shove them away.
And just be.
For just a moment, I am safe. I am protected. I am loved.
I refuse to think of anything else. I refuse to allow this to be more.
Maybe I’ll be mad at myself tomorrow, and that’s fine. Right now, I need this.
And if for some crazy reason this isn’t my Jaxon, well, does it matter? What I feel is real. What I feel is something I can hold onto, something I can remember, when I’m paranoid in my own home.
Maybe he is watching me. Maybe he’s never let me out of his sight.
Or maybe I’m crazy.
There’s the faintest sound of someone shouting through the music, but I ignore that too. I’m too comfortable where I am, I don’t want it to end. I want this always. Forever. This feeling… I want to hold onto it and never let it go.
But then the shouting gets louder.
The music cuts off.
People start to scream.
They panic.
The arms around me are gone.
“Sailor! Sailor!”
I blink my eyes open as people shove by me, nearly knocking me to the ground. Everyone is in a frenzy, and I finally realize why.
Someone is shouting that the cops are here, and I see the flashing lights through the window.
“Sailor, we have to go!”
Amelia reaches me, taking my arm and pulling me after her. She goes with the crowd, flooding out of a side door that takesus through the yard and toward the woods. We run as fast as we can, breathing heavily, hundreds of people around us.
“Jaxon,” I whisper, looking over my shoulder as Amelia pulls on my arm, urging me to go faster.
The lights get brighter, the sirens get louder, and the house gets smaller.
Soon enough we’re in the cover of the trees, slowing to a quick walk, but still following others who have pulled out their phones to use as flashlights so they don’t walk into trees.
I keep looking over my shoulder, hoping he’ll be there, following me, but I don’t see him. The ache in my chest is there though, all too familiar.
I thought I was getting over him, but how easily this pain comes back?
