As soon as the door closes behind him, I throw the lock, toe off my boots, and head into the bedroom.
Flanked by two nightstands, a king-size bed with a fluffy tan duvet sits on a large multicolored blue area rug up against the wall to my left.
In just a few strides, I’m across the room. I throw open the doors to the built-in closets and find they are no longer empty. All my clothes are hanging neatly inside—jeans, Henley’s, T-shirts, my boots are lined up on the floor. There’s even a couple of suits.
Swaying on my feet, I hear Jax’s truck start up and pull away from the curb.
Making my way back through the apartment, I turn off all the lights. Back in my bedroom, I strip and collapse onto my new bed.
My last coherent thought before darkness claims me is of Noia’s face and the hurt in her eyes when I told her I needed time and space.
FIFTY-TWO
noia
Morning comes way too fast,forcing me to admit yesterday wasn’t just a bad dream.
I reach for my phone on the nightstand and call Sasha, who answers on the third ring.
“Hey, babe. What’s up?” Jeez, her voice is annoyingly chipper in the morning.
“Ryder left,” I blurt, my voice cracking as tears threaten to spill over again.
“Whoa, back up. What happened?”
I fill her in on all of it: hide and seek, my stupid decision to control his actions, and how he showed up at the ass-crack of dawn after riding all night to tell me he needed space.
“He just... left?” Sasha sounds as stunned as I feel.
“Yeah.” I swallow hard. “I deleted everything I wrote, even though I was scared he would disappear, but he came back. His stuff was still in the closet after he left.”
“Have you checked again this morning? Like, are you sure his stuff is still there? Because the way his things have been appearing outta nowhere since he showed up makes me think things could disappear just as easily.”
My heart stops. “Hold on.”
Phone to my ear, I rush downstairs to Ryder’s room.
The closet is empty.
All his clothes, his boots, everything—gone.
“It’s all gone,” I whisper, sinking to my knees. “Everything. Like he was never here.”
“Okay, don’t panic.” Sasha’s voice is calm and steady. “You need to call him. Right now.”
“But what if he’s gone for good? What if deleting everything I wrote about him made him and everything about him disappear?”
“Noia, listen to me,” she says firmly. “Take a deep breath and call him. If he doesn’t answer, leave a message and give him some time to call you back. Trust he’s real and that he’s not just going to vanish into thin air.”
“Okay.” My voice sounds small. “I’ll call you back.”
Taking a deep breath, I hang up with Sasha and call Ryder. It rings three times before it goes to voicemail.
The sound of his voice sends a sharp pang through my chest and I wait for the beep.
“Hey, Rye.” My traitorous voice is shaking. “I just... I noticed all your things are gone, and I... Please call me back. Let me know you’re still... here.”
I hang up and sit on the floor of the empty closet, hugging my knees to my chest.
