The noise. The demons. The past.
I don’t catch a break.
I busy myself to drown it all out.
I refuse to acknowledge it so it can’t touch me.
But not with her. With her, I allow it to surround me rather than hide from it. I don’t pretend the past doesn’t exist. I don’t let it suffocate me. Around Winter, I can breathe. I can be the foster kid with shitty parentsandthe hockey player with a top scoring average. I can share my secrets like their currency and not worry about them being used against me.
I’ve always allowed Emaly and my career to bury the things I don’t want to deal with. I let one version of myself out at a time.
Winter gets it all.
Every one.
I whisper four words back to her on the brink of my orgasm. “I need you too.”
And apparently, it’s her undoing too.
Because she breaks apart for a second time around me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Winter
Iwake upto an empty bed and a note on the nightstand that says there’s a surprise waiting for me in the kitchen. After yesterday, I’m not sure I want any more surprises. But I find myself going anyway, smelling something faintly like…bacon in the air.
Then I see a piece of paper taped to the microwave. Walking over, I tear it off and scan the words written in ink.
I’ll explain everything today.
Don’t look at your phone.
There’s breakfast in the microwave for you.
Everything will be okay.
~ T
He can’t promise that today will be okay, yet I find myself…trusting him. It’s an odd feeling, one I’m not sure I’ve ever felt before.
Because I refused to feel it.
I need you, I told him last night. And for the first time ever, I realized that I meant it. I need somebody other than Kourtney—a person who isn’t obligated to love me because of blood, but because theywantto.
Opening the microwave, I stare silently at the plate of food. Eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast all greet me as I pull it out and set it on the counter. None of these things were in my kitchen before he came over. Which means that Thomas had to havegone out and bought the ingredients, brought them back here, and cooked them.
The dishes are washed and in the drying rack.
The counters are clean.
Only the smell lingers.
I swallow.
Thomas cooked for me.
My heart feels warm all of a sudden.
