Another tear slips from my eye and falls, and again, Hunter wipes it away before exhaling slowly. “Please look at me, Theo.”
I don’t. I can’t. I’m gonna lose it if I have to see pity in his eyes.
As it is, I can pretend that I’m not standing in the hallway outside my apartment with tears rolling down my cheeks and a new emptiness inside me that didn’t exist half an hour ago.
“Sweetheart, you’ve been through a lot,” Hunter says anyway. “You lost your job, your sense of security. It’s a lot.”
“I should have handled it better.” Of course I should have. People do this every day. They work, they pay bills, and they manage relationships, cleaning, and their fuckinglives.
“Maybe,” Hunter says quietly, and somehow, having him confirm my thoughts is worse than when I’m thinking them. “Or,” he continues, “maybe this was just bigger than you could handle on your own. You’re not alone, Theo. I’m right here.”
My throat burns, and my eyes are still leaking, and I am so,sofucking tired of feeling this way. I turn to him and step into his warmth, pressing my face to his shoulder so I can hide. “So what’s your plan, then?”
Hunter sighs in what sounds like relief. “We go inside, pack as much as we can, and you come home with me.”
My breath stutters in my chest. “I can’t just move in with you. Your mom runs a damn business. I can’t take from customers and from her pay.”
“My mom is fine, Theo. It’s not like we have people beating down the doors to stay with us. Besides, I figured you’d just stay with me.” My stomach flips. “If you want to, of course. I’d never make you. But you kinda already have been since you gothere. Well… nothere, here.Tomehere.” He stops talking, then exhales a slow breath. “Sorry, I’m ramblin’.”
I press my face harder into his shoulder, breathing him in as I try to get my stupid fucking eyes to stop leaking. “You’re sure?”
“So fucking sure.”
He sounds it too. Sincere and confident and sure.
“I don’t want to be a burden.”
Strong fingers sink into my hair, and my knees go weak. “You’re killing me here. Please look at me.”
I huff. “Why are you always wanting me to look at you?”
“Because I want to see those pretty blue eyes of yours when I tell you that you’re not a burden.”
With a deep breath, I come out from my hiding place and meet his gaze.
I’m surprised when he squeezes his eyes closed before opening them again. “Jesus, there you are, sweetheart.” He wipes under my eyes, his thumb gentle, and then he just holds my face and stares at me for a second. “Are you okay with this plan?”
I nod slowly. “Yeah.”
He leans in, and I’m so sure he’s going to kiss me that I draw in a sharp breath in anticipation, but his lips land on my forehead instead of my mouth. My eyes flutter shut when he pulls back. “Alright, let’s get as much as we can loaded in the truck, okay? And when we figure out a plan, we’ll come back for the rest.”
Without opening my eyes, I whisper, “Okay.”
Hunter doesn’t drop his hands from my face, and I don’t really want him to. “I have another idea,” he says, and my eyes fly open.
“What is it?”
“We could talk to your landlord,” he starts, though he sounds tentative and unsure, almost, “and if they agree, I can loan you the money to get caught up.”
That would be easy. I could stay here. I wouldn’t need to stay with Hunter at all.
I don’t want to do that. “Is that what you want?” I ask carefully. It didn’t seem like it, given the way he just rallied for me to stay with him. But if it is, I guess I’m not really in a position to disagree.
“Do you want the truth?”
“Of course I do.”
He shakes his head. “No. That’s not what I want at all. I want to load your things up in my truck. I want to take you home with me. I don’t want you to be alone in this shitty apartment. It breaks my heart to think of you all alone here, Theo. You shouldn’t be alone. You should be with me.”
