Like she erased last night.
Fuck my paranoia. I’m taking this as agoodsign.
Haven wanted a fresh start—and so do I.
She’s in bed, curled on her side facing the wall, one hand tucked under the pillow, the other in a fist near her head. Her hair is a bronze spill across the white pillowcase, and?—
Jesus. She’s wearing one of my old football jerseys. I didn’t even realize they’d ended up in the duffel I packed, but thank God they did, becausefuck me, the sight makes my cock twitch.
I walk to the bed like a fucking zombie when I should head for the shower to wash off last night’s booze and sweat.
…And the inexplicable stains under my fingernails.
Since I’d made a point of drinking enough to black out last night, there’s a huge chunk of time missing. If anyone in Kruger’s frat had been awake this morning, I’d have interrogated them, but they were all dead to the world.
Fuck it.
I don’t need soap, or memories…I need Haven.
I creep closer, trying not to make the floorboards creak.
Her shoulders rise and fall so peacefully as she sleeps.
She stayed.
I was so sure—sitting in that Uber, head pounding as I pieced together how I got from the bar to Kruger’s frat house with zero memory in between—that I’d walk in to find her gone.
Maybea ‘fuck you’ scrawled on the bathroom mirror, if I was lucky.
But she’s here.
In our bed.
Looking hot as fuck in my shirt.
I close my eyes and justbreathe. The panic that’s been eating at me since I woke up has finally shut the fuck up.
Then I lift the covers and slide in behind her.
She’s so warm. So solid. So fuckingreal.
I don’t touch her. Just lie close enough to feel her heat and inhale the scent of her lotion and shampoo and let myself believe we’re okay. Whatever I said last night, whatever she’s thinking, we can work it out.
I draw her hair away from her shoulder, pausing when I feel how wet it is.
Guilt surges inside me.
How long did she stay up waiting for me to come back before she realized I was going to stay out all night?
I trail my knuckles down the curve of her shoulder and lean in, intent on pressing my mouth to her skin and waking her up so I can?—
Her necklace is gone.
My heart fucking stops.
I swipe away more of her damp hair, but her neck is definitely bare.
What the fuck? Did it fall off? Maybe the clasp broke. Maybe?—
