“Do you really believe that’s all it is?” Elle asks. There’s no judgment in her tone, just love and understanding.
“I’m not sure,” I whisper. “The relationship I had with him is now a one-sided love story between two children. He doesn’t remember who we were, and we don’t know each other as adultsyet. I’m building on that foundation while he’s just…meeting me, as I am now, with all my…baggage.”
Madi’s hand slips into mine, and Elle rests her head on my shoulder.
It’s exactly what I need.
As though Valen hears me thinking about him, his gaze finds mine in the waning sun. The man might be a mind reader because he nods as if he’s unearthing my secrets.
“I think you both have baggage, Clove,” Elle says next to me while her daughter fights sleep on her shoulder. “Maybe what you’re both waiting for is a suitcase with wheels to hold it all so you can finally move forward.”
“From what Braxton’s told me, the Harringtons are a good family, and they protect their people,” Madi says. She too is staring at the GQ cover spread of bachelors that’s currently playing out before our eyes. “And you’re definitely his people.”
Our eyes meet once again across the lawn. He raises his beer slightly, as though he’s asking if I’m okay.
I nod.
My heart does something stupid and hopeful when he begins to walk in my direction, but Pops intercepts him, and he shoots me an apologetic look over his shoulder while I bite back a laugh.
He smiles, then mouths something I can’t quite make out. But the way his eyes soften, the way they hold mine for a beat too long before returning to Pops…I feel whatever he said in my chest like a promise.
I’m better than okay.
Life isn’t perfect. We still don’t know who’s stalking me. Savvy’s still in the hospital. Shadows of the unknown still loom over everything.
But in this moment, with Wrecks barking at the brothers and Chief telling an increasingly ridiculous story about his days on the force and the smell of burgers on the grill?—
Right now, I’m not counting.
I’m simply living.
And that, more than anything else, makes a flicker of defiance flare in my chest because this, right here, is a life worth fighting for.
CHAPTER TEN
VALEN
One week after the Harrington invasion—as Roman has taken to calling it—and I’m finally settling into a new wave of chaos.
Sort of.
The familiarity of their relationships has always made me uncomfortable. The feelings don’t align with my mind, and it’s fucked me up ever since I woke up in that hospital room.
It’s why I moved out of the Harrington estate as soon as I was well enough to take care of myself on my own. And it’s why they’re still here now—Clover is someone who once mattered to me, which means she matters to them.
But their pushiness is probably also why I’m able to cope with Chief, who’s staring at me as if I’m the outsider here. In my tank.
“Are you going to tell me why you’re still here?” I ask, removing my shirt and tossing it toward the laundry bag in the corner before pulling on a clean one. “Or are we just going to keep pretending that you need to review the security footage at midnight?”
Chief doesn’t look away from the monitor. He’s been planted in my gaming chair… Command chair? Whatever it is, for threehours now, watching the feed from Clover’s cameras with the intensity of a man guarding the queen.
“Just makin’ sure everything’s secure,” he says. “I was training with Clover earlier, but she was too distracted to follow my directions.”
I don’t know how I feel about Clover taking self-defense lessons from her geriatric father figure.Liar. I hate that she’s taking self-defense lessons from her geriatric father figure.
“Want me to try and…help her?”
Chief scans me suspiciously. What does he think I’m going to do? Steal the woman’s secret chocolate stash, for fuck’s sake?
