I huffed. “You’re very anti-cereal.”
“I’m anti-you pretending cereal is dinner.”
“Fine.”
“And text Roman when you’re in.”
I looked at him.
His face didn’t change, but the instruction wasn’t about control. It was about the lie I had just told and the friend I was trying not to lose.
“Okay,” I said.
Tiny shoved his head against my thigh one last time. I scratched behind his ears, then stepped back before staying became another choice I had to answer for.
I walked to my car without looking over my shoulder until I reached the corner.
Declan was still there, one hand on Tiny’s leash, phone in the other, watching long enough to make sure I got there.
I wanted more.
More walks. More ordinary conversations. More of his voice when nobody was listening. More of the steady way he noticed the crack before I split open. More of the man outside the coach, outside the rules, outside the places where we had to pretend we were only what everyone already understood.
That was the dangerous part.
Not wanting him naked. Not anymore.
Wanting his time was worse.
Because sex could be hidden in locked rooms and deleted texts.
This, whatever this had become, was starting to leave footprints.
Chapter 22
Chapter 22
JACE
I sat in my parking spot for six minutes after I got home.
Maybe seven.
Time was slippery when I didn’t want to move.
The engine was off, but I hadn’t opened the door. Cold seeped in around the windows, turning the glass cloudy at the edges. My hands were still on the wheel even though there was nothing to steer. The apartment building in front of me looked normal. Lit windows. Someone’s TV flickering blue behind blinds. A neighbor carrying groceries through the lobby with a bag of oranges tucked under one arm.
Normal people doing normal things.
I had dog hair on my hoodie, guilt in my stomach, and Roman’s text still sitting on my screen.
Alone?
Yeah.
The lie had only been four letters.
It still felt like it took up the whole car.
