Jobs—bartending, retail, photography, hair school, that brief and truly cursed essential oils phase.Nothing ever stuck.
I’ve failed at just about everything I’ve ever touched.
So, yeah.I’m already painfully aware that this—us—might be temporary.
And I know when Sawyer gets tired of me, when he wakes up one morning and realizes he deserves someone steadier, stronger, less prone to self-destruction, I’ll have no choice but to let him go.
And it’s gonna hurt.
Hard.
Like losing air.Like losing the sun.
But it’s too late now to stop it.Too late to pretend he doesn’t matter.
Because how do you hold back an avalanche once it starts to fall?
Fact is—I’ve fallen for him.
Completely.
And for once in my life, I’m not running from it.
I want this.
I want him.
And I have every intention of being right here for however long he’ll let me stay.
I take a deep breath and glance toward the kitchen.
He’s standing by the counter, keys in hand, shoulders broad and strong, the lamplight catching the stubble along his jaw.
God, he’s beautiful.
“Hey, cowboy,” I call softly from the living room.
He turns immediately, eyes finding me like they always do.
His dark brows lift just a little, and the corner of his mouth tugs upward in that lazy half-smile that wrecks me every damn time.
“Yeah, Lil Bit?”he says, voice roughened by worry, fatigue and something else—something warmer, deeper.
I step toward him, my heart thudding in my chest.
There’s so much I want to say—thank you for letting me stay, for seeing me, for making me feel like more than a fuckup for once in my life—but the words knot in my throat.
So instead, I just look at him, memorizing the sight of this man I somehow stumbled into loving.
Because I know, deep down, that whatever happens next—this is the moment that’ll haunt me forever.
“I made you something.”
I hold up the quilt I’ve been working on all week.
It’s big enough to cover his massive bed, all stitched from the fabrics I’ve scavenged—muted plaids, worn denim, little squares of flannel and linen.
I even snuck in one of his old work shirts that had a tear he said wasn’t worth fixing.
