“I’m honestly not surprised.”
I glance to my hand, that Raegan isstillholding. My heart rate kicks up a notch. This is… surprising. If she pulls it back…
It’s wild, sitting here with her, talking about Demi. Touching like we hardly know each other. My nerves are restless, telling me I need to get up and move, but I can’t. If I sever the connection she created, I could risk never feeling her touch ever again and all I want to do is soak it up. Commit her skin to memory so I can replay the tape every day for the rest of my life.
Demi stirs above us and my thoughts flit back to what she told me tonight.
“She wants to go home,” I tell Raegan, breaking another long silence.
28
Raegan
“What do you mean she wants to go home?” I ask, my eyes widening in shock.
“Which part was confusing?” he snarks back. Asshole.
“I meanwhy…”
“Oh,” he says simply. “She thinks we still love each other and has graciously offered to step aside so we can have our happily ever after.”
“Jesus Christ,” I groan, palming my face with my hand. “Why the fuck would she think that?”
Hayes’ eyes lock on me, his mouth slightly parted, but he doesn’t answer. Not that I really needed one anyway. Sacrificing herself for someone else’s happiness sounds exactly like something Demi would do.
My stupid, selfless girl.
I glance down at our still joined hands, then back into his deep blue orbs as I separate our fingers. “She’s doing it because she’s in love with you,” I tell him.
“She’s not–” he counters, a little too quickly. “We’re just friends and she’s–”
“I swear to god if either of you try to use her lesbianism as a fucking excuse one more time, I swear I’ll–”
My face is hot and my heart is pounding out of my chest just thinking about their easy and convenient go-to excuse.
He raises a brow, waiting not so patiently for me to continue.
“Oh please, go on.” His arms cross slowly. God, he’s so fucking smug.
I sit up a little straighter. “I was going to say I’ll throw something at your heads to knock some sense into both of you.” I bite my lip and avert my eyes to keep him from seeing the smirk that’s trying like hell to form on my face, despite my best attempt to stop it. “But I won’t say that.”
“Of course you won’t.” He chuckles.
Thick silence fills the air between us until the faint sound of Demetria’s hushed snores eventually breaks through. When I turn my head to face him again, his gaze is locked on me.
“What?” I ask, butterflies taking up space in my stomach at his unwavering attention.
“You’re more beautiful than I remember,” he says softly. “And believe me, I remember exactly how beautiful you were.”
My head is telling me to stop all of this. His praise. His kindness. His pretty, romantic words. But my head is incapable of stopping the warmth from flooding every inch of my body. I’ve spent every day since he left, at war with myself… just like this. Hating him in my head but missing him in my heart.Thisisn’t helping. I also don’t think I want him to stop.
I consider him for a moment with his faded jeans and simple white t-shirt… bare feet and messy hair… just enough of a five-o-clock shadow to make me want to touch his face with my fingers…
“You’re not so bad yourself,” I admit, my chest tightening and breath picking up speed as I watch his pupils dilate.
“Raegan…”
“Hayes…”
